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My view on arrival/immigration to HCMC (landed January 11th at 2330)
So like many others I was curious and worried about the often cited nightmare that is SGN airport immigration. I had read tons of posts here and Reddit and videos on YouTube and still could not decide if I should pay for a Fast Track service.
I ultimately decided that I would not pay a company for it but had a plan on what I would attempt on arrival depending on how the situation looked. Before I left I used AI and asked how many international flights were arriving within a 2 hour window of my flight and at that point it was 17 which I considered to be a lot. Still I waited and did not book a service. After getting off the plane and taking the bus a short distance to the entrance for immigration we went up the stairs and immediately saw at least a dozen name plates for people who had chosen to pay for fasttrack. My wife and I walked past them and saw what seemed to be an endless line that looked like it was going to be at least an hour to 2 hour wait and ultimately decided that I needed to attempt my plan. I put two 200k Dong notes in each of our passports along with our EVISA and walked up to the first security guard I saw held it out in front of me and all I said was fasttrack. He glanced down at the passport and immediately pointed toward a line with 5 people in it. We joined the queue. Within a couple minutes we were summoned to the counter (my wife went first). He took her passport took a quick look and when he removed the 400k Dong a huge smile crossed his face. A quick stamp and she was threw in less than 30 seconds at the counter. I followed and the process repeated itself exactly the same confirmed the visa took the 400k huge smile even said something to another worker sitting nearby and I was threw in less then 30 seconds. From the time we stepped off the plane including the short bus ride we were out of the airport in under 10 minutes.
Now obviously I’m not the only person to have thought of doing this nor am I the first to actually do it. Originally I planned on putting a 500k note but I didn’t have any so I put two 200k notes. That works out to roughly $20 Canadian each. Fast track services average $35 USD (especially on short notice) which is almost $100 Canadian for two people. Here we were through for less than half that. The thing is judging by his reaction I could have put far less and probably had the exact same result but I was worried if I didn’t put enough I might have just been ignored and relegated to the normal endless lineup.
Now I understand the people offering the fast track service want to make money but why should I pay someone for something I can do myself but I have no issues with them offering a personalised service I just didn’t need it. I have no idea what cut of the charge they give to the immigration officers so I took a chance and made an offer I was happy with considering after 26hrs of travel I was done and wanted to get out asap.
I understand that many people will hate the fact that I did this and I shouldn’t be paying for a broken system. I get it I do. You are free to wait in line and stay strong to your beliefs but to me this was a solution to a problem I didn’t not want to deal with and had the means to accomplish it so you shouldn’t hold it against me either.
I can’t and will not tell people what to do. All I am doing is providing information on a single example of a personal experience and people can think and do what they want with that information. To me there was too much back and forth about pay for the service, don’t pay for it yada yada yada. This is my personal recent experience that I decided to share.
But regardless of how you handle the situation most important thing is enjoy this amazing country. I am only on day one and loving every minute of it.
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I refuse to put any bribe money to those customs guys. Have not have any issues on my last couple trips. There very strong anti corruption policy with the current prime minister. BTW I am Vietnamese.
Yeah it’s a real shame that the system encourages bribery and corruption when more staff could sort the problem.
Well done. Hopefully with the money they buy all their immigration work mates a couple of cups of coffee each. It can only help
Thanks for sharing! This helps the government to fix the problem.
You’ll look really stupid if someone reported this post to immigration. Good luck with that…
Once you get to the airport just chill. Chat to the folk next to you. Have a laugh. Meet new people. You may make a new friend. Enjoy the experience. It may take some time but so what! No need to stress about these things. If everyone goes through fast track it ain’t fast track any more. Vietnam is an amazing country. Start your trip with a smile and good heart and you’ll have an amazing time. ❤️ 🇻🇳
I didn’t even know there was a problem till I seen this post, I landed in HCMC on a domestic flight so maybe that is the difference ? But good for you for finding a solution that worked 👍
I wanted to do that too! But I chickened out. I knew money can solve a lot of problems in Vietnam but I was just a scaredy cat 😂 Thanks for the tip and assurance! 😍
I think it is ill advised for you tell how you paid a bribe to enter the country. I waited 2 hrs in line with everyone else
I didn’t do the fast track. It was not a problem. A lot of people we went through there in about 40 minutes.