Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are comparing protocols associated with entering Thailand with protocols associated with entering Vietnam. And understand, the bulk of the information in this video is going to be anecdotal regarding Vietnam. We do not process Vietnamese Immigration cases. We primarily deal with Thai and American Immigration but a contact of ours was recently discussing, a contact of the firm was recently discussing their process of dealing with the Vietnamese Immigration system. In the past few weeks, especially in the media, Vietnam is being touted along with Cambodia, as being like very easy to get into, "they are just re-opening; it is no problem to go there" and I have been kind of wondering if that is really the case but I haven't really followed up on it in detail and then this information kind of fell on me. 

This person was telling us about them going through the process of getting their Vietnamese Visa. They went over, they got their visa and they were told "oh you don't need a PCR test; you don't need to deal with testing until you arrive in Vietnam." Well then they come back and say "well the Visa is issued but we are not going to give it to you until you get us one of these tests, certifying one of these tests." Meanwhile, there seems to be at least again the media seem to kind of hold out the notion that "oh, like Thailand Pass. It is very onerous to come into Thailand. None of these other countries seem to be doing it." Well apparently Vietnam has its own app. that is associated with entry to Vietnam, so there is that. Then meanwhile on top of all of this there seem to be certification issues that are rather vague associated with certification of vaccination status. So again, very up in the air and I must say our contact has displayed a great deal of exasperation and frustration associated with dealing with this primarily because the media gets out there and sort of makes it sound like "oh it is a nothing deal, you just go!" Well it is a process. 

One of the reasons I actually rather like Thailand is they are pretty open and up front about the requirements. They are not trying to hide it. It is "look you got to have this documentation, Thailand Pass. You have got to go through these protocols in order to enter Thailand." Now I don't agree necessarily that we need to be doing this but I do like the fact that Thailand is very upfront about it. There is no vagueness; you are aware that you have got to deal with all of these issues. Now I am not saying they aren't problems in processing and people don't have their issues when they are coming into Thailand. Believe me, I have read the correspondence we get and people have all sorts of legal difficulties navigating their entry to the Kingdom. That being stated, a lot of other countries here regionally have been kind of touted as places where "oh it is just easy to get in." I have even brought it up before myself but Thailand is not necessarily completely restrictive and all these other countries are not as open as they seem. 

Now that being said, I definitely think it is time that every place in the region gets back to where we were quarter one of 2020 and we all get on with our lives but for now that is not happening so I thought this video was worth doing for those who are looking at possibly traveling to Vietnam. There are issues. Traveling to Vietnam in many ways sounds like it is as difficult or let's say as cumbersome as it currently is to travel into Thailand.