Do you know what that stamp means?  It means we are now legal to enter the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.

I'm going to tell you (almost) the whole story.  It's a good one. And a long one. 

It goes like this: 

More than a year ago, as we were thinking of which country to take our family to in SE Asia or the Middle East, we suddenly put Vietnam back on the table.  Clinched the deal when my dad said "If you guys go live in Vietnam, mom and I will come with you."  The idea of having 3 generations of Chases living abroad together is too delicious to pass up, so I looked at Dave's ESL Cafe job-board to see what opportunities might be available in Da Nang (the city my mom and dad most preferred, and by all reports a great place to live if you can come by a teaching job).

There was a single posting for a Fisher's Superkids English Learning Center that was looking for an expat teacher and offering to help with Work Permit and Visa.  I wrote to the owner, Hai, but since I wasn't actually applying at that time (it was still 16 months away from our go-time), my email went unanswered.  Undaunted, I then spent several hours surfing the college websites for colleges/universities up and down the coast around Da Nang.  I collected all the email addresses I could find and sent out 24 emails introducing myself briefly and asking to be put into contact with the Foreign Languages Department or any foreign teachers associated with the campus.

No response.

A little daunted, I started searching Facebook for any people or groups with Da Nang as part of their search terms.  Success!!  There is a closed FB group for expats living in Da Nang, and they let me join even though I wasn't actually there yet.  So grateful.  I've been lurking on that group for a year, and learning lots about the community we're moving into.

However, the FB group was not optimistic about English teachers finding a job that would provide a Visa and Work Permit.  The overwhelming sentiment in the group is that everyone needs three years of English-Teaching experience (got it!) and a TEFL certificate.  Don't got it.  My bachelor's degree is in English Education, but a Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificate I don't have, and I was just hoping my experience would carry the day.  The other overwhelming sentiment among the Facebook expats is that most of the language centers are pretty much fly-by-night situations that don't offer a Work Permit.  Without a Work Permit, you are just a 3-month TOURIST, and you'll need to pay thousands of dollars in Tourist Visas (for a family of 5) and leave the country on a visa run every three months.

Re-enter Hai, the owner of Fisher's Superkids from a couple paragraphs back.  HE was offering work permits...

But I'm not going to make the mistake of writing directly to him again!  Instead, I stalked him on Facebook, figuring to create my own ad-hoc "Linked In" network of Da Nang folks and meet Hai via an introduction from a mutual friend.  In December, I was FB chatting with a friend and said "Do you know Hai?  Can I get an introduction?"  But nothing came of that for some reason, and I didn't push for it.  Sometimes when the doors of life are closed, we push them open.  Sometimes a different wisdom comes into play, and we wait in the corridor.  This was one of the latter.

In late February, an expat from Da Nang was home in the USA, so I gave him a call to ask some questions that I hadn't wanted to ask on the internet.  I figure everything I write in email, Facebook, etc. is subject to scrutiny by the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam, and I wanted to ask some things off the record, as it were.

In the call, I asked him if he knew Hai and if he'd introduce me.  He did, and then did.  Hai wrote back and said that he was sorry but he was terribly busy and couldn't Skype for another 3 weeks.  That put us past the midway point of March.  Then when our appointment was coming up, Hai wrote and delayed another several days.  Patience is a fruit the Holy Spirit is growing in me, and I wait.

We talk on Wednesday.  It's a good talk, and we like each other.  But his program isn't right for me (little kids age 4-8) and I'm not right for it, and the call is tapering off.  Then he pauses, struck by an idea.

"Hang on, Tim.  You said you have other income, and so salary isn't a prime consideration, right?  And that you have a master's degree?"  I agreed that both of these points are true.  "Well, would you be at all interested in teaching at the university here?"  Um, yes!  Yes, very much so...  "Because last Friday the university got in contact with me, wanting to subcontract out one or more of my expat teachers.  I wrote up a proposal for them and sent it over for their review on Monday.  But then yesterday they got back to me and said that the money I need to pay my teachers' salaries is too high, but that I should keep my ears open ... Would you like me to introduce you?"

Would I?  Um, yes!

So instead of cold-calling at the university (as I had tried to do 12 months before), I received a warm recommendation and an introduction.  Super awesome.  Handed to me on a platter.  And had I talked to Hai any earlier ...

For the past months, then, since late March, we've known that it's Da Nang and we've known that I'd have a job teaching at the university.  Getting the appropriate paperwork has been a challenge--the Vietnamese government wants certifications and authentications that I never even knew existed.  Got all the paperwork in at the start of July, though, and we've been waiting for the Visa.  

And waiting.

And no visa.

And I'm not impatient, and I sure know not to go pushing on doors in Asian culture.

And no visa, and now it's just a couple of weeks before our flight is leaving, and I start looking into other options, such as a tourist visa, etc.  Waiting.  Casually checking in with the university ....

And it's 3 days till our plane leaves the ground, and they reassure me that the Department of Immigration has our paperwork.  [Does that reassure you, that a government department has your paperwork?  I find that it's not as reassuring as one might have thought...]

And our plane leaves on the 6th and it's the 5th and there's no visa.  Steady on, patience is building.  Stiff upper lip, lads!

And then, this morning at 1:34am (I was sleeping, but emails tell the time), the visa came.  That's one nice thing about working with a country that's 14 hours ahead of your time zone:  they can be working while you're sleeping, and they can be doing something on the day after you really need it, and you can still get it on time!

Now we're sitting in the airport at 1:34am the NEXT morning, about to board our flight.  We are setting ourselves up for adventure, but we're glad that the adventure of securing our work visas is now over!