The ongoing drama of Vietnam not extending visas anymore

There is a lot of chatter in the expat community at the moment about people who live and work here in Vietnam getting their visas abruptly denied for no apparent reason. I have a few friends who are worked up into a panic because they spend their days looking at FB posts about how everyone is getting kicked out who is on anything other than a legitimate business visa.

This is a very real concern for sure, but I think that the people who spend their time looking at FB groups for their information are doing themselves a great disservice as far as their mental health is concerned because as I am sure almost anyone sensible knows, FB is filled with a ton of drama queens, liars, and trolls.

Yes, there are people who are getting a stamp in their passport that is called an "exit visa," referred to by some as an "XC" (no idea if that is the real term) which means they have 6 weeks to get their affairs in order and leave the country. If you were the type of person that overly relies on social media for your information you would think that the sky was falling and that there was a great purge of foreigners. At least for now, this doesn't seem to be the case.

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I don't know everyone here but in the 15 months I have lived here and this is mostly because of the bowling league I co-formed I know around 50 people. These people also know people that I do not know. Of all of these people, I know only 1 single person that this "get out" situation has happened to. Even friends of friends can not report any more than this.

So I want to look at this statistically as far as the current panic is concerned: I know around 50 people, and let's assume that of those 50 people they too know people that I do not know. I don't think it would be unreasonable to assume that our shared group of real-life friends is 200 or so (we are a very small portion of the population here) and out of all of those people we know a combined 1 person that is being kicked out? This is hardly something to panic about. We also don't know this guy very well. For all we know he could have been breaking the law with some sort of dodgy fake business visa and he just doesn't want to admit it.

I'm not going to say that things aren't going to get worse but we also have to look at this somewhat logically: What motivation could the government possibly have for kicking us all out? Literally everyone I know is stressing about this potential of getting their "walking papers" and this could be particularly bad for some people because as of now, there aren't very many flights even going out of Vietnam. Just out of curiosity I took a look at how I could get to other parts of the world and the options were very limited and some of them didn't exist at all.

For me, this situation, which I will have no choice but to face if and when it comes, could be even more difficult because I have a dog with me and as you may or may not be aware, transporting an animal can be a very tough process indeed.

Recently, I was looking at Qatar Airlines website to look at their pet policy and I found this

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I've done a lot of flights in my life, particularly after I became an international man of mystery but I can honestly say that I have never seen a falcon in the cabin on any flight I have ever been on. Why falcons? There must be some sort of Qatari culture that I am unfamiliar with.

I do find it funny that they draw the line at 6 total falcons in economy class. Now I am curious what happens when more than 6 falcons end up in an area this small at the same time. I would imagine it is pure mayhem and pandemonium.

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The point of all this is that rumors spread like wildfire, especially once you get a bunch of already-nervous people staring at FB all day and hoping to find real information there.

Just yesterday the government announced they were extending visa amnesty to everyone on a tourist visa until the end of June. They did this on the 5th of June so perhaps it isn't really a priority to them to get this information out there. By the way, they have updated this same webpage every month since May of 2020 and other than the date, the rest of the page is exactly the same.

For now, I would say to my fellow expats living in Vietnam to friggin' take it easy ok? If you do get your GTFO stamp you have a full 6 weeks available to you in order to make arrangements to get somewhere and it doesn't have to be your home country either. It's up to you and the destination. Furthermore, at least for Americans, you can get a letter from your embassy that entitles you to an additional month without penalty if you can convince the Consular representative that your are logistically or financially incapable of traveling. That brings this number up to 10 weeks.

Honestly, can you really not make arrangements to go somewhere in 10 weeks or do you just not want to? There is a difference.

For me, I would say that yes, I am concerned that this stamp will get passed down to me in the future and if and when it does, I will have no choice but to comply. For now though, all the FB-driven panic that is going on in our community seems a bit unnecessary and unwarranted.

_{I want to stay a bit longer, but if you decide I have to go... I guess I'll go}