I don't know why anyone would get involved in something that skirts the law here with all the historical information we have regarding people who have gotten busted in the past but here we are, A friend of mine was recently flagged and forced to face the music as far as his investment visas is concerned.
The friend wasn't necessarily trying to break the law, but he was looking for the cheapest way of possibly complying with it.
The rules vary from place to place as to how much you have to invest in order to obtain an investment visa, but in Da Nang (where I live) it is one of the most expensive places in the country to do so. The last I checked it was necessary to invest $30,000 USD to qualify for investor status which entitle the investor to "never-ending" 1-year visas year by year.
For the expat community this is really attractive because the alternative is to do visa runs every 45-90 days and that gets old really quick. Depending on how much flights are, the investment visa can actually be cheaper than doing visa runs too. The problem is coming up with the initial investment money.
My friend decided to go a cheaper way through an accounting firm in Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City because it was going to require $10,000 instead of $30,000.
He genuinely did set up a company and sells some meals and has a kitchen operation in his apartment. All of this is totally legit. Where he made a mistake, or his accountant did, was that he paid no taxes for the first 6 months of operation because he was operating at a loss. His reasons behind this are also genuine, because when you are starting out a prep meal company, or any company for the most part, you are unlikely to see profits right away.
But by not paying ANY tax, he ended up on a list that you don't want to be on, especially as a foreigner.
As you might expect, the Vietnamese government is far more suspicious of foreign owned companies than they are their own people, and my friend found out that he had been flagged for questioning when he went to the airport to go on an international flight and was denied EXIT from the country. He was told he cannot leave until he sorts out the issue with I guess it is called the Tax Department.
Now, even though his excuses and genuine claims of not making any taxable income are going to be examined and then the question is going to come up about why it is that he registered his company in Saigon instead of Da Nang. If he had registered it in Da Nang he might have had an out but the address he provided about his "primary residence" being in Saigon is completely false and I think the government is aware of this.
I think he may be able to get out of this but in the end he is probably going to have to pay a hefty fine, pony up the additional $20,000 to re-register his company where he actually lives, and probably some money under the table to officials to sign documents exonerating him.
Look, I can understand the desire to save money but the Vietnamese government is not foolish and prone to having the wool pulled over their eyes. They also take it very personally when a foreigner tries to circumvent their system and will normally treat this much harsher than they would if the person was Vietnamese. I think this notion is likely global.
You have to keep in mind when living here as an expat that you essentially have diminished rights, especially when you consider that although it is a "nice one", Vietnamese is still a Communist country.
It remains to be seen what is going to happen to this guy. I hope he doesn't get deported, but that is always an option. A rare one, but still an option.
Vietnam is quite a generous country when it comes to issuing of visas, and things like this are only going to make them be more stringent. Just play by the rules! There aren't very many of them!
