Vietnam stopped being a side note for international companies some time ago, and where the companies go, postings follow. Anyone who stays runs through the same chain of documents: work permit first, then the residence card, with legalisations and a health certificate wedged in between.

Each link in that chain is issued by a different body, and each one wants evidence produced by the previous one. The point where it most often jams is the least impressive-looking one. Đăng ký tạm trú, temporary residence registration, has to be filed by your landlord with the công an phường, the police of your ward. Plenty of landlords do not do this unprompted. If the registration is missing, every subsequent application stalls, and you will usually find out only once you are already standing at the counter.

On pronunciation: Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet, which makes it look approachable at a glance. It is a tonal language with six tones, and the marks above and below the letters are precisely what encode those tones. The transliterations below are there to help you recognise a word, not to produce it. Two traps worth flagging: th is an aspirated "t", not the "th" of "thin", and d without the bar is a "z" in the north and a "y" in the south. For the tones you need your ears, not a bracket.

The office and getting through the door

Cục Quản lý xuất nhập cảnh (kook kwahn lee swat nyap kang): the immigration department, literally the administration of exit and entry.

Công an phường (kong ahn fuh-ung): the ward police. The smallest unit of administration in the country and, for you, the most consequential.

Sở Lao động (shur lao dawng): the labour department, responsible for work permits.

Hồ sơ (hoh shur): the file, the case, the whole stack of paper. This is the central word of Vietnamese administration. Everything is a hồ sơ, and an incomplete hồ sơ is the default state of the world that your morning exists to correct.

Cán bộ (kahn boh): the official handling your case.

Your documents

Hộ chiếu (hoh chyew): the passport.

Thị thực (tee tuhk): the visa. In speech everybody says visa anyway.

Thẻ tạm trú (teh tahm troo): the residence card, literally "temporary stay card". The object of the whole exercise.

Giấy phép lao động (zay fep lao dawng): the work permit.

Lý lịch tư pháp (lee leech tuh fahp): the criminal record certificate. It has to come from your home country, and it has to be legalised and translated.

Giấy khám sức khỏe (zay khahm suhk kweh): the health certificate. This one is issued in Vietnam, not back home.

Hợp đồng lao động (hup dong lao dong): the employment contract.

Bản sao y (bahn sao ee): the certified copy.

Công chứng (kong chuhng): notarial certification.

Hợp pháp hóa lãnh sự (hup fahp hwah lahng suh): consular legalisation. The step everyone underestimates when planning the timeline.

The procedures

Đăng ký tạm trú (dahng kee tahm troo): temporary residence registration. See above, and chase it.

Gia hạn (za hahn): the extension.

Nộp hồ sơ (nop hoh shur): submitting the file.

Bảo lãnh (bao lahng): sponsorship, standing surety for someone. Your employer normally takes this on.

Lệ phí (leh fee): the fee. Worth learning purely so that you recognise the moment it is being asked for.

Chữ ký (chuh kee): the signature.

Dấu (zow): the stamp. In Vietnam the red company chop frequently counts for more than any signature on the page.

Xuất cảnh (swat kang): exit from the country. Nhập cảnh (nyap kang): entry.

The words you hopefully won't need

Thiếu giấy tờ (tyew zay tuh): missing papers.

Bổ sung (boh soong): the supplementary submission.

Quá hạn (kwah hahn): exceeded, expired. Also the word for an overstay.

Phạt (faht): the fine.

Bị từ chối (bee tuh choy): rejected.

Quay lại sau (kwai lai sow): "come back later".

Why this beats a translation app

Vietnamese is badly served by learning material relative to the number of people who speak it, and what exists is aimed almost entirely at travellers: markets, taxis, the noodle stall. None of that helps at a counter. The vocabulary this article covers is modest in size, comes back word for word at every renewal, and is worth learning directly rather than guessing at through a phone held over a form.

There is also a practical limit to the phone. It can translate a document you are holding. It cannot translate a sentence that was said once and is already over, and it cannot help you when you did not catch enough of the word to type it. Recognising thirty terms by ear turns a bewildering morning in Ho Chi Minh City into an errand you can follow, which is a far more modest goal than fluency and a far more useful one.

That is precisely what Vokabulo is built for. You capture the words your own life puts in front of you and learn them in the context where you will meet them again. Vietnamese taught straight from English, with over 100 languages available in every combination.

Get Vokabulo, start free.