Vietnam plans to waive entry visas for Vietnamese

Vietnam plans to waive entry visas for Vietnamese

2007/4/12

By Tran Van Minh HANOI, Vietnam, AP


Vietnam is working on a plan to waive entry visas for ethnic Vietnamese holding foreign passports, an official said Wednesday.
Top officials have said publicly that overseas Vietnamese, known as Viet kieu, will soon be allowed to return to their native country without going through the visa application process.
"We hope a decision will be announced in a month or two," said an official at the Foreign Ministry's Commission for Overseas Vietnamese who did not give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Under the proposed plan, overseas Vietnamese with foreign passports can stay in Vietnam up to three months without a visa, he said, adding authorities will have the right to deny entry to anyone the government considers a threat to national security.
There are an estimated 3.2 million Viet kieu worldwide, with more than 1.5 million living in the United States.
Last year, some 500,000 overseas Vietnamese returned to their native country, many visiting during the popular Lunar New Year festivities, known as Tet. Some US$4.8 billion (euro3.5 billion) was remitted to relatives living in the country, according to the state media.
Citizens from most countries in Southeast Asia along with Japan, South Korea and Scandinavia are allowed to stay in Vietnam for varying periods of up to 30 days without a visa.