I remember the headache I went through, with many others, back in 2009-2010 when I had to get my university diploma authenticated for the work permit. Back in mid-2010, it was an expensive and time consuming process. Before, the Vietnamese Embassy wanted all documents that were notarized in your state to be authenticated by the State Department. No more. See below:
LEGALIZATION OF US DOCUMENTS
Any document issued/certified/or norarized by US authorities or notaries public should be legalized by Vietnamese competent authorities, before bringing into Vietnam for use.
Documents requested to be legalized can be submitted in person or by mail to the Consulate.
1. Documents include:
– 01 Letter of request for legalization
– Documents need to be legalized: The document(s) should be authenticated by a relevant State- Level Secretary of State or by the Office of Authentication of the Ministry of Foreign Affaires*.
* Note:
The documents, which have not been authenticated by a relevant State-Level Secretary of State or by the Office of Authentication of the Ministry of Foreign Affaires, will be considered as ineligible and returned, even if they have been issued/certified/or notarized by a county clerk, court clerk, notary public or other U.S. authorities.
Source: http://www.vietnamconsulate-sf.org/en/consular-services/legal-of-us-document/
This will help save a lot of money in the authentication process. I really like how the Vietnamese Embassy/Consulate cut off the State Department in the process. I figure I will save about $70 US (including FedEx shipping fees) with the new rules. It should also only take 2-3 weeks to get your documents legalized and sent to Vietnam for processing.
Another reason to like the “new” Vietnam. Yes guys, my attitude about Vietnam and the people is more positive these days. That is the way it should be. (^_^)
Nice to know. I had all my stuff legalized at the state level before departing for Vietnam. Then had it legalized at the Consulate’s office in HCMC. However, I have not even applied for my work permit yet – it seems to be a headache of a process. Are you aware of any simple way to get the work permit? How about dual citizenship?
Well, for one, you will need to FedEx your documents back to the Vietnam Consulate in the US. They will need to stamp it. The US Consulate cannot legalize documents for Vietnam. They only provide an affidavit. DoLISA will not accept those documents until it has a stamp from the VN Embassy/Consulate in the US.
Do you have a job here? Your employer should help you. I will go with another company as I did before.
Not sure about citizenship.