A government decree adopted Thursday mandates that foreigners must leave the country after a maximum of three months unless they have work permits.

The decree is part of a crackdown prompted by news stories last year about large numbers of unskilled Chinese and African workers staying illegally in Vietnam. Foreign residents from Europe, Australia, the United States and Asian countries face new visa restrictions as well.

The new decree sets fines of 15 million to 20 million dong (790 to 1,050 dollars) for foreigners working without permits and 20 million to 30 million dong for companies who hire foreigners without permits. Foreigners without permits are eligible for visas of no longer than three months, after which they are to be expelled.

At Hanoi's visa-processing office last week, a Chinese construction worker who asked not to be identified said he had been fined 15 million dong for working in Vietnam illegally. He had come to the visa office to obtain documents to return to China but said he could not afford the fine.

Other communities of foreign workers certain to shrink include Australians, Americans and Britons who staff Vietnam's private English-as-a-second-language schools and the many Africans who play for the country's soccer teams.

Work permit rules have rarely been enforced in the past, and both businesses and bureaucrats seemed uncertain about how to apply them.

"The amount of paperwork and the process to get a work permit is daunting," said Cathy Koller, an American who has taught English in Hanoi for much of the past year.

Koller said she had paid hundreds of dollars to obtain and translate copies of her diplomas and criminal background checks but her English-as-a-second-language school had been unable to obtain a work permit for her. She said other teachers have been waiting for six months or more.

Pham Vuong Cuoc Nam Anh, a Vietnamese American who runs such a school, said many of his staff could only obtain one-month visas to remain in Vietnam.

Under Vietnamese law, businesses can obtain permits for foreign workers with managerial or technical skills or higher education. But even foreigners who demonstrate such skills have been unable to obtain visas in recent months.

"It's no longer possible for me to live here," said Jay Wysocki, a development consultant who has worked and lived in Vietnam on and off since 1995.

Wysocki said he had previously come to Vietnam on work visas provided by consulting jobs but had often stayed on visas sponsored by unrelated businesses, picking up other work later.

Officials at Vietnam's Ministry of Labour and Ministry of Public Security declined to comment on the reasons for the new decree.

Some have speculated that the new rules are security measures tied to next year's Communist Party Congress.

But they might simply be driven by public anger at the presence of undocumented Chinese workers and to sensational newspaper stories over the past year of crimes committed by Africans.

The Ministry of Public Security reported last year that there were 50,000 Chinese working illegally in Vietnam. The government has released no estimates of how many other foreigners are in the country illegally.

Deutsche Presse Agentur - May 11, 2010