Hanoi Airport in Vietnam. (Image : Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 1 (Korea Bizwire) – Korean-Vietnamese couples living in Korea will be able to visit Vietnam for a long period of time without a visa.
On September 30, the Korean ambassador in Vietnam announced that the Vietnamese government had decided to allow the spouses and children of Vietnamese nationals living abroad to enter the country without a visa starting November 15.
By applying for a visa exemption at the Vietnamese embassy, the family of a Vietnamese citizen can stay as long as six months on each visit. The exemption period is as long as five years.
Currently, the Vietnamese government issues a single-entry visa for as long as 30 days or 90 days to the families of Vietnamese citizens who are living abroad after international marriage. However, those who have not given up their Vietnamese citizenship do not need a visa to enter Vietnam.
A total of 58,000 Vietnamese citizens have married Koreans and moved to Korea. Most of them are Vietnamese women.
In the meantime, Korea is giving Korean-Vietnamese families living in Vietnam a single-entry visa of 30 to 90 days for their first visit. The length of the visa gets longer after each visit, in the order of a year, three years and five years.
By M.H.Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
