This may be of help to others. I stumbled across the fact that I can now enter Vietnam visa free as I hold a UK passport (issued as my father was born in the UK)
"As of 1 July 2015, visitors travelling to Vietnam with passports issued by France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom do not require a visa. This visa waiver is set to expire after one year." Detailed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_policy_of_Vietnam as well as elsewhere on the internet.
Vietnam Extends Visa Waiver
Peck on 04/07/2015 - 00:53
Comments
Usually tit for tat, AU visas are also expensive. But VN visas are waived for SEA nationals.
AU visas are outrageously expensive. Government are looking for all kind of ways to rips people money's off.
Their excuse is "to get inline with other countries in visa fees…"
Student Visa Canada CAN$150
Student Visa USA US$160
Student Visa AU AU$550
Did you know that in some European countries the government refunds the visa fee if the application has been unsuccessful?
And what does Australia do? Even if immigration staff has made a mistake, admitted to it, the people in the refunds department deny the claim and only upon legal threat or a promise to involve media or the embassy they relent (speaking from experience from acting for some clients).
And if they deny a visa application, no money is returned.
Sorry but I think those Australians complaining about other country's visa fees should clean up their own act first, meaning the rip-off in their own country by their own government.Or we could list the relevant Visitors Visa which is free, else $130ish (which given the wages, rent etc in Australia, is a far fairer price then $100 in Vietnam. It wouldn't be surprising if Australia does more checking as well not just instant-a stamp and off you go)… but feel free to grab any special visa to try and make a point.
Naturally Visa's are going to be more expensive in a country where everything is more expensive.
Student visa's likely have a lot of paperwork going off http://www.studying-in-australia.org/proof-of-financial-reso…
RE: Renewing being expensive. Now that seems weird. Wouldn't background checks etc already be done, therefore it's little work and less expensive?
I was just about to write-off Vietnam as a 'drop-in' destination because of the expense and hassle of getting a visa. Thailand is so easy. Being a Socialist regime I think that Vietnam charging for visas was short-sighted opportunism and nothing to do with control of borders. What was getting up my nose was the fact that Asean country visitors do not need visas, whereas people from Australia (who are incidentally less likely inclined to breach entry conditions and have more money to spend in the country) do need visas.
Goes hand in hand I guess, 3rd world country and a government with no economic sense. In this day and age you can't keep putting up barriers against tourists & businesses if you want long-term prosperity.
"Ease of doing business" list on the most part may as well be the list of richest countries to poorest: http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings
Frustrating they keep stifling the country, to the point I wouldn't be surprised if it was more about keeping the population poor so they can be controlled easier. Surely no-one could be that incompetent they haven't joined the dots yet about improving it (which 101 involves more money coming into your country than leaving it. You can't get rich internally).
SO, does Australia waive all visas or visa fees for European students and visitors if they want to extend their stay - after all they are also less likely to breach visa conditions and remain in the country illegally?
Do you know how much it costs in Australia to extend one's tourist visa onshore: $250 for the visa and an extra $500 because of the fact that one already had a visa before. The last charge is relatively new - makes no sense whatsoever but exists only to make more money for the government.
One day soon the Australia hype will be over and then good night tourism from Europe and the US."after all they are also less likely to breach visa conditions and remain in the country illegally?"
WRONG !!So you think that people from say Belgium, England, the Netherlands, Germany etc. are more likely to stay in Australia illegally than the people coming from poor countries poorer than Australia and having no social security system such as say China, Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam, Thailand etc.
Well, you are entitled to your opinion but immigration figures prove you wrong (see the latest reports - google them).
For student visa you have to pay extra $700 for each applicant also because you had a visa before. So if you are a family of 4 people, you have to pay $2800 plus each visa fee for each member of the family. Their excuse is to "deter students staying in Australia".
Thank you for confirming.
So the message from the Australian government is: Come here, give us your money for overpriced courses of relatively low quality, and then get the f… out of here.
Nice.
I'd like to know what countries do when you need to book a visa far in advance (e.g. China, Burma, North Korea etc). If Interpol can't help them (or won't - e.g. North Korea), what are they looking for and where are they looking for information (even if you lied about your parent's country of origin)? OzBargain? It would have been hard to find an everyday-man's poltiical stance in the pre-internet era.
Thanks for the tip. Shame I can't use it but I'll pass it on.
Also just found out that for the past year you could visit Phú Quốc without a visa for 30 days.
It takes a few months to work their way through the system collecting the official stamps from various government department officials.
Honestly not sure why countries like this even bother with charging so much for a Visa in the first place, do they want tourists or not? $100 in the scheme of an Australian holiday is a huge difference to $100 on a Vietnam etc holiday. Thailand for example is almost going out of their way to stamp out tourists staying over a month. No co-incidence Singapore, Malaysia, Dubai etc have rapidly growing visitor numbers and visa-free entry for a lot of countries… Heck Singapore is even giving out airport coupons and free city tours. If counties were a business you'd be embarrassed at how poor the offering is compared to the competition (and ultimately they are 'businesses' - tourists throw $ around and are good for the economy)