Vietnamese Leaders Advocate for Easier Visa Process for Macao.
Macao’s Vietnamese community leaders are calling for a more efficient visa process to facilitate travel and employment opportunities for their compatriots in the region, TDM reports. Currently, around 8,000 non-resident workers from Vietnam live in Macao, making them the second-largest group of foreign non-resident workers. Nearly half of these individuals work as domestic helpers.
At a recent event celebrating Vietnam’s National Day, Duong Tung Duc, president of the Overseas Vietnamese Association in Macao, highlighted that the local Vietnamese community has shrunk to just over half its size compared to 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Duong pointed out that the visa application process for Vietnamese citizens takes approximately two months, which poses a significant barrier for those wishing to return to Macao for work, study, or tourism. The newly appointed consul general for Hong Kong and Macao, Le Duc Hanh, expressed her commitment to shortening this process. She believes that a streamlined visa procedure would benefit both the Vietnamese community and Macao, particularly its tourism industry.
The first Vietnamese migrants arrived in Macao in 1975 as refugees fleeing the Vietnam War. A second wave of Vietnamese migrants came after Macao’s 1999 handover and were mostly economic migrants.
The Vietnamese community in Macao celebrated Vietnam’s 79th National Day on Sunday at the Grand Plaza, with over 400 attendees. This year also marks the 74th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Vietnam.
