Stricter immigration control in Vietnam for foreigners

The deputies made a call at the National Assembly’s discussion session on the morning of November 29. 

According to Deputy Huyen, the law also needs to clearly define the conditions and period of visa, as well as enforce the rules of temporary residence. Huyen added that the law should stipulate specific responsibilities of agencies in providing guarantees for foreigners’ immigration in Vietnam and particularly the rights and duties of foreigners who emigrate into Vietnam. 

Deputy Nguyen Anh Son, from Nam Dinh Province, said the number of people who come to Vietnam has been increasing by 10 - 30% per year. However, lax cooperation between Vietnamese representatives of diplomatic agencies abroad and domestic immigration agencies has led to the situation in which many foreigners come to Vietnam to do things which are different from the purposes mentioned on their immigration papers.

A number of foreigners, they said, break Vietnamese law and create social evils. In other cases, there have been missionaries who do their preaching illegally, deploying material and information that is against the state.

Son added that allowing foreigners to change the purpose of their visa offers a chance for some enterprises to extend temporary residence to foreigners or grant them residence papers. This has also resulted in the operation of unlicensed firms specialising in making long-term visas for foreigners.

The current laws only deal with the temporary residence of foreigners staying in hotels, guesthouses or hired homes, which has posed a problem for local authorities.

Deputy Nguyen Minh Kha, from Can Tho City, said it is necessary to seek the opinions of agencies and ministries on the draft Law on Immigration, Migration and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam. According to him, a regulation which would ask localities to inform on foreigners’ residences to immigration management agencies should be added into the law.