Changes to bank and mobile access for long-term expats in Vietnam

Something that is kind of frustrating about living in Vietnam is that things generally don't get told to you as far as government policy is concerned. You will find out about it once something that you signed up for doesn't work anymore and there will normally be no indication as to what the hell is going on.

Recently, some new measures aimed at long-term visa-holders were introduced and I found out about both of them at around the same time. While it may apply to other things the main things that what I am going to talk about are the things that I have experience with: Mobile service and Vietnamese banks.

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This has changed a lot since I first moved here in 2019 and I have no idea why that is. IT used to be that if you wanted a mobile phone number in Vietnam or if you wanted a bank account, you just went and got one of those things or both. In the past years they have changed the rules a lot and at one point you simply weren't allowed to have a bank account, and then you weren't, then you were again, then you could but only if you managed certain qualifiers.

Nowadays you can get a simcard as a tourist no problem but it is time limited. If you live here like I do this is not ideal because you constantly have to sit through the process of getting another one. As far as banks are concerned, you will be allowed to have a bank account and ATM cards provided you have a valid visa... The same is true of long-term contractual mobile phone services.

But there is a catch!

They may not even tell you about the catch either, just like they didn't for me. You'll just be trying to use your phone one day and it doesn't work or you go to tap your card to pay for something and the person at the counter just says "cannot" and then shows you some words on the machine that of course you do not understand.

Your ability to use both banking and a local phone number for your mobile phone is now tied to the date of your visa expiry. When that day comes, both of them will be cut off, even if you have acquired a new visa.

So this means that you will need to bring your passport to the bank main branch and the main office of the mobile phone provider once every time your visa runs out. This is a royal pain to anyone that is on the 30 day visas and for these people I would say just don't bother with a local bank account unless you really need one for some reason, and to just use the simcards that are provided at the airport for tourists.

For people like me though, that need the same number for 2FA or something along those lines you will have no choice but to take a taxi ride to the various offices and show your papers.

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Unless the bank or mobile headquarters is really busy for some reason, this normally only takes a few minutes and a signature.

As of now there is no other way of accomplishing this and if you are an expat, it might be a better idea to just get an E-sim from your home country rather than try to deal with the rules and regulations here. Of course there is the fact that mobile and data costs extremely little here, so you need to weigh how much you think your time is worth.