This is just a rumor at this point and not really much of a news story since these sorts of rumors happen all the time. However, this time the rumor extends beyond a social media post and was actually addressed in real news articles. This isn't America, the news is very closely regulated here so if it appears in the news in print or digital form, it has to have government-approved information in it. Therefore, I think that while it is still too early to get excited, there is some validity to this perhaps actually happening.
I perhaps complain about it a bit too much but that is only because it is something that is always hovering over the heads of those of us that call this place home. We are constantly afraid of being disallowed re-entry for various reasons or at the bare minimum being hassled into not trying to come back anymore. If some visa like this were to happen, I think it would make a lot of people very happy.
Now before you get too excited you need to understand that the Vietnamese notion of "wealthy" might not be what you are thinking. At the moment they have a strange list of proposed countries that at least for now only include Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Britain, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Belarus. I know very little about Belarus but I was surprised to see them on the list.
I was a bit distraught that this list didn't include the United States but politics are complicated I guess. Not that long ago the United States was one of only 2 countries in the world that had an agreement for 1-year tourist visas but for reasons that were not explained to us that simply disappeared in the midst of Covid. Apparently the agreement is still on "the books" but Vietnam has chosen to not abide by it. I would imagine that this is because of some sort of squabbling between politicians and because of the fact that my own country are probably one of the biggest assholes in the world when it comes to awarding visas to anyone from South East Asia that isn't from Singapore. I personally know people that have been married for years and their SE Asian partner is continually denied entry into the USA at all, let alone for a long period of time. So I suppose I should count my blessings as far as that is concerned and be happy that the shoe isn't on the other foot.
The Prime Minister also instructed whoever the hell is in charge of altering immigration law to consider 12-36 months to "wealthy" tourists from North America, Europe, as well as other countries. Again, don't get excited about this because if they go the route that other countries have gone as far as this is concerned they will require a mountain of documentation that proves that you have a bunch of money. How one can prove something like this when they are a digital nomad like I am that works for a wide variety of companies will be difficult if not impossible to provide documentation for. Plus there is also the very vague term of "wealthy." What does that mean? I am sure they will play around with the term for a while until they get frustrated and then perhaps just scrap the plan entirely. Of course this is just the pessimist in me talking.
What a great many of us don't understand about any of this is that prior to Covid, Vietnam had a relatively booming tourism industry because they let people stay here for basically as long as they wanted to without any real hassle. Now, they have spent a bunch of money and keep fiddling with immigration laws and even though the world is now traveling a lot again, Vietnam has only returned to just over 60% of what their pre-Covid tourism levels were. This is very bad news for the owners of businesses in the part of the country that I live in, because basically everything in this part of Da Nang is entirely dependent on tourism.
So if the 6 and 12 month visas do actually happen, there will be a lot of us that rejoice when that day comes. As it stands now it is just a recommendation by the Prime Minister and nothing more. I would presume the PM has a lot of pull so let's hope that he seriously pushes on this issue. I know it would make a lot of people's lives, who are merely trying to live here and spend money here, a lot easier.