An expatriate horror story related to obtaining a license plate for their newly purchased motorbike in Vietnam and how to properly register a scooter in Saigon.
Originally Written by Renzo Linares (Owner of The Extra Mile) in August 2023, updated and re-published in July 2024.
[Updated content] In the last 2 years, laws have been changing frequently and drastically in Vietnam. Several of these laws meant to formalize the country, were applied in an abrupt and disorganized manner that caused lots of paperwork troubles for a lot of the population, locals and foreigners included. Things have stabilized in a way, but we are not out of the woods yet. The following is a case we received in 2023 that pretty much summarizes some of the most common issues when foreigners try to buy brand-new vehicles. Read the end if you want some advice to avoid these kind of issues.
On April 19th 2023, Elisia posted in the largest expat Facebook group of Ho Chi Minh City, complaining about a lack of service from Vinfast while seeking support and solutions. The issue started as far as in December 2021 when Elisia with her husband Kevin purchased a Vinfast Klara S at the dealership. As is very commonly heard, the registration process was a disaster due to misinformation and unprofessional work from Vinfast’s staff. Of course, there is an added factor which are the multiple legal changes with no foreign language information whatsoever creating so many more confusions and complications for foreigners. But Vinfast is not off the hook, they provide by far the worst service of all dealerships I have worked with in my life.
Take a look at their original post from April 19th 2023:
The post garnered quite some attention with most people denoting how these issues can be expected with Vinfast. While most comments were not offering a clear solution, we then replied with our solution:
Shortly after we received several public recommendations and Elisia reached out to us by email within minutes of our reply. We then vowed to solve the issue thanks to our experience in these cases.
The challenge:
The couple waited for Vinfast to register the bike for 7 months. Elisia ended up requesting the necessary documents to register herself with the support of an agent. 16 months after the bike remained still unregistered and un-plated. All agents were quoting 10M VND total fee to sort out the late registration.
Fact: The road tax and licence plate for the Vinfast Klara S v1 (before the 2022 model) cost 3,995,000 VND. Our service fee to register a brand-new bike for foreigners is 3,800,000 VND. Late registrations would normally incur a fine, additionally the VAT invoice had to be re-issued on a different name (us) to save Elisia and her husband from the paperwork obligations. This raised the question: “Is Vinfast going to charge the VAT again to re-issue it?”
Why was it necessary to re-issue an invoice? Vinfast had issued it on Elisia’s husband name without explaining the different requirements to register as a foreigner, which is practically a nightmare in Vietnam. We then decided to register a Vietnamese plate controlled by us. (Take a look at our brand-new registrations service to understand the disadvantages to register as a foreigner here.)
The solution:
_ We immediately got in touch with the dealership in question to confirm the status of the process and request the necessary information to accelerate it.
_ We discussed with Vinfast explaining the complaint and the result of their staff’s error. Vinfast agreed to re-issue new documents to register on another name. It took 2 months (May and June) of intense insistence to finally get actions from Vinfast (they focus on the north, so they frequently let southern cases linger, this was confirmed to us by text by a Vinfast manager.) After more insistence, it was in July that we could finally obtain all necessary documents to register as if the bike was just sold. Effectively skipping the late registration fine and not having to pay extra VAT. We obtained the best result possible.
_ On the second week of August we finally received the licence plate of the bike and we could deliver the Vinfast Klara S to this couple that was waiting for so long!
The aftermath:
Shortly after receiving their bike, Elisia went back on Facebook to update the post in July 2023, with the result and great praise to us:
By now The Extra Mile has navigated the motorbike paperwork market so well that we can pretty much sort all issues regarding registrations and other paperwork. Our experience is especially strong with Vinfast since we own several of their bikes and we went through multiple issues with them. As difficult as it may seem, we will know who to reach out to and how to obtain results.
How to avoid these nightmares?
[Updated content] Dealerships in Vietnam frequently misinform and make errors when providing any service to foreigners. Contrary to popular belief, it is not only a matter of the language barrier, the issue comes with weak or inexistent training on how to deal with foreigners and a complete lack of understanding of the registration process for foreigners. This is common for scooter dealerships, hence Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, SYM, Piaggio-Vespa, etc. Big bike shops will normally know the process well and have English speakers, for example BMW, Harley, Triumph, etc. So, we are mainly talking about scooter sales here.
Key Advice 1:
[Updated content] If you go to the dealership, do not just ask a local friend to come and translate. If you get a friend to help, make sure that friend knows the process well already. In any case, DO NOT TRUST the dealership’s salespeople, they may just say “yes” to everything without understanding your question. Make sure to take with you someone who knows this process well, or just make things easy for yourself and hire us.
Key Advice 2:
[Updated content] Avoid registering as a foreigner at all costs. As recommended by most people in Vietnam including police officers, register on a Vietnamese name or in a company name if you can. This will make it easier for you on the paperwork and also make it a lot easier to re-sell the bike after. Just make sure to select someone that will for sure be in touch with you years after. May things can go wrong otherwise, more of this in a following article here.
Key Advice 3:
[Updated content] Be cautious if you register on your Vietnamese wife or husband. If the vehicle is registered under your wife/husband to obtain a Vietnamese licence plate, as the married partner you will still be required to sign the sales contract with the requirements to foreigners. The marital status matters to re-sell vehicles in Vietnam, make sure you comply with all the requirements if you want to register on your Vietnamese wedded partner.
We are glad this case was sorted out for Elisia with the support of The Extra Mile. We see many different cases, each with a different issue that keep coming to us. No worries, we have got this, you can trust us.
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