Organising the work permits has certainly been no easy feat. First we had to get our original degrees sent over from South Africa, as Vietnam is one of the few countries who does not belong to the Hague convention and does not accept appostilled documents. We then had to go and try to find our consulate so that they could send all of our documents up to the embassy in Hanoi (to get a stamp to say that they are true copies of our original documents). We drove up and down the street searching for the consulate as all other consulates and embassy's have big signs and flags outside. We found number 19, it was a bar so we obviously didn't stop there. We kept driving up and down the street making countless phone calls to the consulate, until we spotted a tiny, tattered and faded, A4-sized South African flag flapping in the breeze. There were also a few pictures of Nelson Mandela's face stuck to the wall - we had found it. On the gate, was piece of paper saying that the consulate had moved to number 19 - Animus Bar. We were on a one-way street, and were fed up with this mission, so we drove the wrong way - but on the pavement, back to number 19. There we saw a small sign saying "The South African Consulate". The South African Consulate in HCMC is in a bar!! A classy wine bar - but still! You walk in, go the back and walk through a door that says 'Cigar Lounge'. So anyway, we sent our certificates up to Hanoi and two weeks later we had to fight the traffic and go back to the consulate to receive all of our documents. To our joy, the Embassy had ripped Mel's original degree! But not to worry, they sticky-taped it back together again.
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| The consulate is behind that door! |
So after we had a stamp saying that our documents are true copies, we had to get them notarised by the Vietnamese officials. After finding the building (luckily without too much hassle), we had to try and figure out what we were meant to do next. We were first sent to the wrong line, then we had to fill in some forms that we didn't understand (even though they were in English!). Finally someone who could speak English helped us. We sent the forms in and had to go back a few days later to collect them. (*A side note - The consulate managed to give us somebody else's police background check with all of our documents, so we had to mission back to them to return it.)
After that, we had to get all of our documents translated into Vietnamese. So again, we traipsed into town and found where we were meant to go and waited around until someone who spoke English could help us. We had to make some more photocopies of the photocopies which we already had, and we sent those documents off to be translated. We were told to go back a few days later to collect them.
You also need a medical health check and you can only do it at two hospitals in HCMC both of which, of course, are no where near where we live. So we phoned ahead and the hospital said that we could go in with no appointment - so off we went. We managed to find the first hospital on the list. We fought our way into the parking and then into the building. We were greeted by a nurse who didn't really know what we wanted so she went off with our piece of paper saying 'health check' to find someone who could help us. She came back and said that we couldn't do our health check there. We told her that we had phoned and they said that we could do. So off she went again while we sat waiting with half of Ho Chi Minh's sick, lame and lazy - and then she came back with someone else who told us we were at the wrong hospital. Well, it was the right hospital (the big signs all over stating the name of the hospital was a dead give-away), but for some reason they decided that we couldn't get it done there. So on we went to the next hospital. We were directed to the floor we needed to go to and found that we were finally in the right place, however, they are extremely busy and we needed to make an appointment. We made an appointment for early the next morning and went back home only to have to return the next morning.
We went back to the hospital the next morning and were the first ones in. We weren't allowed to eat anything before we went which was rather challenging for Mel. With the medicals done, we were told that we'd have to go back in a few days to collect our certificates. By now we were starving so we decided to spoil ourselves with a nice big English breakfast. They were huuuuge and great!
So now we have all of the documentation we need (we think and hope!) so we just have to get our company to submit everything and then hopefully we will both have work permits! We did all of the above stages while suffering from tummy bugs and in extreme heat so the fact that we've made it through alive is some miracle! (And hence the lack of blog posts!)
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| Very blurry photos taken which zooming past the Cathedral. People love to have their wedding photos taken here and it is extremely common to see a couple of brides outside on any given day. |
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| A new favourite! It's 29,000 (about R15) Dong for a drink and donut. We definitely felt like we deserved a treat after all of our running around. |
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| A happy face donut and a cafe su da (iced coffee) for Ross and a custard-filled donut and tea for Mel. |
Some good news, is that we both have new jobs starting in August! We will both be working at the school where Craig works, V-Star. It is a dual language school so students have some classes in Vietnamese and some in English. We will both be English teachers, Mel teaching Grade 1 and Ross teaching Grade 4 and 5. We are so excited as it is a Monday to Friday job (so regular hours) and a regular salary. We can start to get into a routine, which will be wonderful! The school is only about 10 minutes from our flat, so we won't have to spend too much time on the road which is always a win!
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| Our new school |
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