@Jeremy *******

yes, I definitely should've just booked at a hotel from the start - it was just that on their website it says house registration "(if any)", which I wrongly understood to mean it's optional

the landlord gave me the utility bills and I will try not to bother him again - just hoping the embassy will accept them but I'm guessing they won't - any thoughts on Cambodia vs Laos? (they were both very easy and quick from my experience but that was going back more than 5 years)

@Hakim ***********

That's an interesting idea - not sure if it's an option.

@Jeremy *******

Again, after they told me they can't accept the document that they accepted the previous day, my first reaction was to ask for my passport back with the plan that I would just fly to Cambodia / Laos / Malaysia (I just came from Japan and it seemed difficult to do visas there, Canada is a bit far) but then the embassy staff talked me out of it by explaining that the house registration document is a few pages and the landlord must have just accidentally copied the wrong page. Hence, I left my passport with her and I'm now trapped in Hanoi until Monday at least.

that's interesting - I thought I read somewhere official that there was a limit of 3 times within 6 rolling months

@Jeremy *******

Great minds think alike - I tried that yesterday but they told me because I've shown my rent contract, that pathway is now the only option

@Andy *********

good advice - unfortunately, I've done 3 of those already this year and the embassy staff reckon I wouldn't get away with another one (by air nor land)

@Brandon ***********

this is proving to be very true for me

A similar thing happened to me at a shopping mall car park recently - I tried explaining to the cashier that it's my car but she still charged me - maybe a language barrier issue.

@Nigel ********

thanks