Photo: Getty Images

With the surging contribution of digital nomads’ income (people who do not work in a fixed place) and K-culture revenue to the GDP (Gross Domestic Production) of South Korea, this country has launched Digital Nomad visa in January and is planning to roll out the Hallyu visa for K-pop enthusiastics. 

Starting from January 1, 2024, remote workers no longer have to apply for Korean tourist visas or stay for up to 90 days without a visa, but they will be granted Digital Nomad visa (also known as remote work visa or long-term permanent resident visa) with up to 2 years validity.

What are the requirements for this type of visa?

• Applicants are not allowed to seek employment within South Korea;

• Applicants must be at least 18 years old, possess a minimum of one year of work experience in their current field;

• Proof of finance of an annual income surpassing 84.96 million won (~$66,000);

• Applicants must have a private health insurance with a coverage of at least 100 million won.

Digital Nomad visa is hoped “to make remote work and vacation of foreigners in Korea smoother”, said the South Korea Justice Ministry. Foreigners are once approved with this visa, can also bring along their spouse and children who are below the age of 18. 

However, this visa policy is still on a trial period, and is contingent upon the success to be made permanent.

Zerobaseone (ZB1) is a boy group formed out of 98 trainees in a survival program "Boys Planet" (Source: Collected)

Hallyu visa, or K-culture visa, is a part of South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's "Tourism Promotion Master Plan" - a five-year project to boost their cultural growth and tourism revenue, and undoubtedly the country’s economy in general.

This specific visa is aimed at young foreign individuals who are interested in Korean music, films, dramas, etc and want to pursue professional training at local performing arts academies in South Korea. The visa is valid for one year and renewable for another year. 

With an effort to attract more inbound tourism, in the Visit Korea Year 2023–2024 campaign, the nation has announced its intention to grant electronic visa waiver for more nationalities, raise the thresholds for immediate tax refunds on duty-free acquisitions, and enhance transportation reservation services and payment options.

Photo: Thanh Nien

When Vietnam first introduced the concept of Citizen Identity Cards that integrated all basic personal information of Vietnamese citizens including passports, many people wondered whether this card (with chips and without chips) can replace passports entirely for entry/exit purposes.

First, we need to look at their definitions.

What is Citizen Identity Card?

According to Clause 1, Article 3 Law on Citizen Identification:

“Citizen identification means basic information about the origin and identity of a citizen in accordance with this Law”

Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 18 of the Law on Citizen Identification 2014, a citizen identity card has the following information:

• On the front side of a card, there are the national emblem of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; the words “Cong hoa xa hoi chu nghia Viet Nam, Doc lap - Tu do - Hanh phuc” (The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Independence - Freedom - Happiness); the words “Can cuoc cong dan” (Citizen identification); photo, citizen identity card number, family name, middle name and first name, birthdate, gender, nationality, native place, place of permanent residence; and expiry date.
• On the back side of a card, there is an encoded place for information storage; fingerprints, characteristics for identification of the card holder; date of card issuance; family name, middle name, first name, title and signature of the card issuer, and a seal bearing the national emblem of the card-issuing agency.

What is Passport?

Passport is a government-owned document that the Ministry of Public Security issued to Vietnamese residents for entry and exit, for the purpose of nationality and identity verification. 

To put it simply, if you want to leave the country, one of the important and required documents is the Passport - it is extremely important for immigration purposes in Vietnam and other countries. In the world, Passport also replaces Identity Cards to perform some transactions in some specific cases. 

So, can Citizen Identity Cards replace passports?

Also stately clearly at Article 20 Law on Citizen Identification,

Article 20. Use validity of citizen’s identity cards

“1. Citizen identity card is a personal paper of a Vietnamese citizen which proves citizen identification of the card holder for conducting transactions in the Vietnamese territory.

2. Citizen identity cards shall be used instead of passports in case Vietnam and a foreign country have signed a treaty or international agreement permitting citizens of the signatories to use citizen identity cards instead of passports in each other’s territory.”

Citizen identification cards can only be used instead of passports in cases where Vietnam and a foreign country sign treaties or international agreements that allow citizens of the signing countries to use them. Thus, the Citizen Identification Card is not a substitute for a passport when traveling to all countries around the world.

However, in the Discussion on the draft Vietnamese Citizen Identification Law on June 22, 2023, Delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy, Deputy Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Judicial Committee expressed some problems may arise in store upon replacing passports by Citizen identification cards. 

Delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy, Deputy Chairwoman of the National Assembly's Judicial Committee (Photo by Gia Han)

“ICAO guidance is valid for all countries and carriers. But Articles 16 and 19 of the draft regulations on identification data and identification cards have absolutely no information about passports, so they cannot be used as a substitute for a passport. It is necessary to research accordingly in case you want to use an ID card instead of a passport," said Delegate Thuy.

Vietnamese people are advised to bring along passports when entering or exiting any countries and territories, even though they are in the list of countries accepting Citizen Identification cards.

Photo: There are 10 Autogate that have been installed and tested at the international terminal, Tan Son Nhat airport. Of these, 5 machines serve exiting procedures and 5 machines serve immigration procedures. (Lao Dong)

Autogate is an automatic entry/exit gate control system implemented at five international airports in Vietnam, namely Da Nang, Noi Bai, Cam Ranh, Tan Son Nhat, and Phu Quoc International Airport. Instead of queuing in line for ground staff to check manually, Vietnamese citizens and foreigners now can easily go through Autogate with advanced technologies including facial recognition, passport scanning, and extraction of information from electronic chips to autonomously ascertain the identity and details of passengers during entry or exit from the country. 

The Autogate application is hoped to help expedite immigration procedures, decrease the number of employees working at airport security desks, and improve security measures all at the same time.

The only limit in this initial phase (about 2 years) is that Autogate only allows Vietnamese nationals with valid passports (Diplomatic passport, Official passport, or ABTC card) and foreigners with valid residence cards or temporary residence cards issued by authorized Vietnam government agencies.

Instructions on using Autogate system in Vietnam's international airports (Data source: The Tan Son Nhat International Airport Border Gate Police)

After 6 months, most of the concerns and problems related to Autogate arising from… passports. Vietnameses came back to their home country from overseas often forgot to check whether their passports are chip based or not. If not, they have to register to use this system beforehand. 

“Normally, if a passenger registers at a convenient time such as morning shift, afternoon shift, or night shifts that are not too late, the leader on duty will immediately approve the request. In the case of passengers registering manually at the airport, too late at night, if the unit leaders are not awake at the right time, there will be no one to review”, said one staff working in Tan Son Nhat International Airport. 

Other problems such as scanning glitch, wrong data, inconsistent information, etc of the Autogate system have also caused confusion among Vietnameses and foreigners. The authority in Tan Son Nhat International Airport explained that the Autogate system requires a long time to perfect its data collection function, as well as the user's proper passport information. Namely, there are many cases where passengers have incompatible passport features, passports that are too old, or images that do not match their current face due to editing or aesthetic surgery, etc. 

Overall, Autogate may not have been meeting the expectations of Vietnamese nationals at the moment, especially foreigners who wish to enter Vietnam with ease; it is still in the first phase and there’s a chance to improve in the near future.

Photo courtesy of VOI

In honor of The 30th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the Kingdom of Oman, the two countries decided to sign a mutual visa waiver agreement for diplomatic, special, and official passport holders in Hanoi - the capital of Vietnam on April 28, 2022. 

Specifically, citizens of Vietnam and Oman who possess diplomatic, special, and official passports with a validity of at least six months will receive visa-free privileges, allowing entry, stay, transit, and exit for up to 90 days from the date of entry. This initiative aims to enhance economic and tourism collaboration between the two nations.

In Vietnam, Official Passports are issued to government officials abroad because of the state civil service. Diplomatic Passports are issued to government diplomatic officials traveling abroad on business. 

These kinds of passports are valid for 05 years from the date of issuance and are entitled to all countries. This passport holder has priority over the special port entry and priority visa-free entry under the provisions of the destination countries.

Diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Oman were established on June 9, 1992, leading to the formation of the Oman-Vietnam Joint Venture Investment Company (VOI) in 2008. 

This visa waiver policy of both countries has expressed clearly their goodwill and directions: opening the door for future meetings between officials of the two nations, as well as promoting each other’s tourism to respective visitors and travelers.