How to apply for the Portuguese visa in Vietnam?

Applying for a Portuguese visa in Vietnam is rather painful. In this entry, I would like to share my experiences getting my student visa for studying in Portugal in 2006-2007. The first reason bringing difficulties in applying for a Portugueses visa in Vietnam is that there is no Portuguese embassy in Vietnam. It is not a big deal if you just want to go to Portugal for less than 3 months. In that case, you can go to the German embassy and apply for a Schengen travelling visa. But for student visa for 1 year, it is obligatory to apply for the Portuguese visa in Thailand. In general it takes about 1 month to get the visa. My experience is to prepare your documents carefully along with contacting the Portuguese embassy in Bangkok to make sure that your only sending will be enough. My package sent to the Portuguese embassy in Bangkok includes:

• Visa application (ask the embassy for the application form)
• Letter to the embassy (this letter is not required, but it's safer having this letter and describing your situation in it)
• Passport (sounds dangerous, doesn't it? But we have to send anyway. If you want to be safe, let's travel to Bangkok, stay there for 1 week and hope that your visa application will finish in that period)
• Photocopy of data of applicant
• 1 color picture (size 3.5 x 4.5 cm)
• Criminal Record authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in my opinion, this is the most time consuming document. Some of my friends could get their criminal record in a short period, but for me it took almost 1 month to get my criminal record. It might depend on the city you are from which is HaiPhong in my case)
• Medical Record authenticated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (don't go to some international clinics such as SOS for this document. Because you need the authentication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this medical record must be issused by a Vietnamese organization. For me, I went to Saint-Paul hospital, benh vien Xanh Pon (in Vietnamese), and got it in 1 day)
• Letter(s) of admision (depends on what scholarship you get, there will be different kind of letters. In my case, I got 3: letter from UNL certifying qualification (stamped and signed), letter of admision from TUD, and scholarship confirmation from TUD)
• Letter of the employer certifying authorization for leaving (if you are student just finishing your study and get a scholarship to go study abroad then this letter is not necessary)
• Airplane reservation (easy, just go to any booking office and ask them for an airplane reservation. You don't need to buy a ticket right the way)
• Certificate of birth
• Academic transcript
• University degree
• Money for the application fee and for sending back the visa to you. You should ask the embassy for the amount of money. It's safer transfering the money or asking someone you know in Thailand to bring the money to the embassy.

All the documents must be translated into English and notarized at any notary public's office. Then for the Criminal Record and the Medical Record, you need to go the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at No 40 TranPhu street - Hanoi to get them authenticated. To be safe, send your document using the most pretigious express transportation service such as DHL or TNT. It will be a bit expensive but it's worth because all the documents here are very important. I hope that this entry will help you to facillitate your visa procedure. Contact me if you have any question. Cheers.