Vietnam Visa: How to Get 30 Day and 90 Day Vietnam E-Visa Easily and Cheaply

Most visitors require a Vietnam tourist visa to enter the country. You can easily apply for the Vietnam e-Visa online following instructions in this guide.

Vietnam is an incredible country to visit with its beautiful scenery, deep history, incredible culture, delicious food and friendly people. It is no wonder Vietnam receives millions of visitors every year (18m to be exact pre-covid).

In fact Vietnam has been named as the best Southeast Asian country to visit by solo travelers! Having been to Vietnam (and other Southeast Asian countries) before, I certainly agree that Vietnam is my favorite Southeast Asian country to visit.

Check out my 10 Day Vietnam itinerary for first time visitors.

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In order to visit Vietnam, most visitors will need a tourist visa. Since tourism has been booming in Vietnam, it is increasingly easy to apply for a Vietnam visa for most visitors.

When I visited Vietnam years ago, I had to go to the consulate in Hong Kong in person to get my Vietnam visa as it was confusing to get visa on arrival (I certainly did not want to risk not being able to get into the country).

Now most visitors can simply apply for a Vietnam e-Visa online in 5 minutes, making this visa application process simple and easy. In this blog I will show you step by step how to apply for a Vietnam e-Visa on the official government website.

Who Needs a Vietnam Tourist Visa?

Most international visitors need a tourist visa to visit Vietnam.

If you are a citizen of United States, Canada, China, UAE, India, Portugal (and many other countries), you need to apply for a Vietnam Visa in order to visit.

Instead of saying who needs a Vietnam Visa, it is easier to say who doesn’t need a Vietnam visa to visit. In general citizens from Southeast Asian countries and Nordic countries do not need a visa to visit Vietnam for a short period of time.

If your country is not on this list below, you need a visa to visit Vietnam unless you qualify for a Vietnam visa exemption certificate (an entirely different process):

Countries allow to stay in Vietnam for 14 days without a Visa:

• Brunei
• Myanmar

Countries allowed to stay in Vietnam for 15 days without a Visa:

• Denmark
• Finland
• Japan
• South Korea
• UK
• France
• Spain
• Germany
• Russia
• Sweden
• Belarus
• Norway

Countries allowed to stay in Vietnam for 21 days without a Visa:

• Philippines

Countries allowed to stay in Vietnam for 30 days without a Visa:

• Singapore
• Thailand
• Malaysia
• Indonesia
• Cambodia
• Laos
• kyrgyzstan
• Those who want to travel to Phu Quoc Island can stay for 30 days without visa

Countries allowed to stay in Vietnam for 90 days without a Visa:

• Chile

If you want to apply for a Vietnam visa at the Embassy (either in-person or apply by mail), you need to have obtained a visa approval by a competent authority of Vietnam. This is not covered by this blog.

The easiest way to get a Vietnam tourist visa is to apply for a e-Visa.

Note that Vietnamese e-Visa for tourism is only valid for a maximum of 30 days, single entry.

Who Can Apply for a Vietnam e-Visa?

If you are not a citizen from a Vietnam visa exempt country from the list above, or if you are but need to stay in Vietnam longer than what’s allowed visa free, you will need to apply for a Vietnam Visa.

If you are from the visa exemption country. You can leave the country right after the exemption period ends and come back immediately for another exemption.

Most countries are allowed to apply for Vietnam e-Visa, such as most European countries, East Asian Countries, Mexico, US, Canada, most South American countries (except Bolivia), etc.

For a complete list of countries that allow Vietnam e-Visa issuing, see this official list.

What Document is Required for Vietnam e-Visa?

In order to enter Vietnam (weather with a e-Visa or visa from the embassy), you will need your passport to be valid for at least 6 months following your date of arrival in Vietnam.

In addition, your passport needs to have at least 2 blank pages.

But in terms of what document you need to apply for the Vietnam e-Visa, it is very simple!

• Valid passport (valid for at least 6 months after you enter Vietnam)
• Photo of your passport biometric page
• Photo of you (passport style photo, can be taken on your phone against a white wall and no glasses)
• ATM card or credit Card for payment

Once you receive your e-Visa in the Email, you will need to print 2 copies of it, bring your passport and boarding pass with you when you enter Vietnam.

How Much Does Vietnam e-Visa Cost?

There are many Vietnam visa services/ agencies that may cost different prices, some costs up to USD 100!

But if you apply on the official Vietnamese government website, it only cost USD 25 per application for 30 Day visa and USD 50 for a 90 day visa.

You can pay with ATM card or credit card online when you submit the application.

Note that the USD 25 (or USD 50) fee is not refundable even if your e-Visa gets rejected.

How Long Does it Take to Get Vietnam e-Visa approved?

According to the official website, it takes about 3 business days for you to receive your e-Visa via email.

However if there are Vietnamese holidays or if they have questions regarding the information you submitted, it may take longer to get your e-Visa processed.

I highly recommend you apply for your Vietnam e-Visa a bit earlier (like 2 weeks before) just to make sure you receive it before you need to enter the country.

I received my visa approval letter in about a week.

Detailed Step-by-Step Guide on How to Apply for Vietnam e-Visa

In this section I will go through the step by step instruction on how to apply for your Vietnam tourist e-Visa. It is super simple and it should take no more than 10 minutes.

Vietnam e-Visa website

The official Vietnam e-Visa website is https://evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/. This is the government website and the website is in English. This is not from any travel agency or visa services. This is for 30 day visa only.

For the 90 day e-Visa, you will need to use this new website.

The example and screenshots below are for the 30 day Visa application only.

If you are a US citizen looking to apply for Vietnam Visa, you can use the website above. You can also take a look at the Embassy of Vietnam (in the USA) website to get more information on Visa to Vietnam. But ultimately, the first website is where you will apply for your e-Visa.

There are different types of services provided on the official Vietnam E-Visa application website.

If you are just visiting Vietnam for tourism, you can ignore everything else and just click on “e-Visa” on the left side of the page.

On the E-Visa page, you will see different options:

• For Foreigners
• For Vietnamese guanrateeing Organizations
• For International Airlines

Assuming you are not Vietnamese, you will click “For Foreigners“. However before you click on it, be sure to read through the information and instructions on this page.

Important information to note is that the Vietnamese E-Visa is only valid for 30 days, single entry. This means you cannot leave Vietnam and come back in with this visa.

This page also shows you the list of countries that can apply for Vietnamese E-Visa and the list of ports that foreigners can enter and exit Vietnam by E-visa.

You can enter Vietnam via Landport and Seaport (and of course Airports) with your E-Visa.

After clicking on “For Foreigners”, you will be directed to the following page with instructions on how to apply for the e-Visa.

Essentially there are 3 steps to apply for the Vietnam e-visa:

• Upload photo and fill out information
• Pay E-Visa Fee
• Check Results and print out E-Visa

At the end of this page, check the box next to “Confirmation of reading carefully instructions and having completed application” and check on Next.

Step 1: Upload Photos and Fill Out Information

After you clicked on “next” on the previous page, you will now be directed to the actual Vietnam E-visa application form.

The page looks like the one below.

In order to apply for the Vietnam E-Visa on this page, you will need the following:

• A passport style portrait photo of you
• A photo of your passport biometric page

You can use your phone to take the Visa photo, as long as the background is white and you are not wearing glasses.

Note that the Portrait photo is super “narrow”, so you may want to crop your photo to be quite “skinny” before you upload it, or the compression may make your photo look really weird.

The information required on the E-Visa application is pretty straight forward. The only interesting question is your Religion. I put “NA” but feel free to put your religion on the form.

For the Passport Type, just use the default option which is Ordinary passport (not official passport).

For the purpose of entry you can just use the default option “tourism“, but there are other options you can pick from the drop down menu.

If you have any children under the age of 14 traveling with you that are “included in your passport” aka they do not have their own passport, you can put their name, birthday and photo on the application form as well.

You will need to pick the date the visa is valid from and your port of entry and exit.

When you are done with this page, check the box next to “I assure that I have truthfully declared all relevant details”, enter the Captcha code and click on “Review Application Form” button at the bottom.

If there is anything missing you will see an error message.

If everything is fine, you will see a pop up window with your registration code, email, and other information.

You will also receive an email with your registration code and the information you just submitted.

Step 2: Confirm Info

The next page (step 2) will again show the information you had just submitted, including your registration code, when the visa is valid from (and to), as well as the port of entry and exit.

If the information is all correct, click on the button “Payment”.

You need to absolutely make sure the information you put on your visa matches 100% with your travel document. If anything doesn’t match, you won’t be able to board the flight to Vietnam.

Step 3: Make Payment

This next page will again have all your application information.

Check the box next to “I agree” and click “Pay e-visa fee“.

You will then be directed to the payment page. You can pay for your Vietnam E-visa with ATM card or by international credit card (Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Amex).

Before you put the payment information, a confirmation page will pop up.

This confirmation pop up basically tells you that your e-Visa result will not be provided via Email and you will need to check the result online yourself and download and print the visa page.

It also warns you that the visa application fee is not refundable and payment status takes up to 2 hours to show up and other disclaimers and information.

You can click on “I agree” to proceed to the actual payment page.

Once payment goes through, you will get an email to confirm your payment. You will also see the following.

How to check the result of your Vietnam E-Visa application

You can check the result of your Vietnam E-Visa application online at this website.

This is when you need your registration code so be sure to not lose it.

If your visa is still being reviewed, you will see the status as being “processed“.

If your visa has been approved, you will see the status as “Granted Visa“.

You will also receive an email titled “E-Visa Vietnam: Announcement Result“, but the email itself won’t tell you that you got the visa.

You will need to download your Vietnam E-Visa from the portal (you will see “Click Here ↓ Print Visa” button).

Be sure to print two copies of the visa and bring with you when you land in Vietnam. I also highly recommend saving this on your phone as well in case you lose the paper copy.

My Experience Entering Vietnam with E-Visa

I recently travelled to Vietnam and here is my experience entering via Da Nang Airport.

I brought two copies of printed E-Visa approval letter with me.

Prior to boarding my international flight from New York City, the airline staff checked my passport and visa approval letter line by line and entered all the information in the computer. That took a good 10-15 minutes. Once information was entered, I was allowed to go through security and board.

Upon landing in Vietnam, we went straight to line up in the immigration line.

When it was my turn, the immigration officer took one copy of the visa approval letter and my passport, confirmed information in the computer line by line and I was allowed to go through after about 5 minutes.

The immigration officer put a stamp on my passport with entry date and visa expiration date and gave the paper visa back to me.

For the rest of my trip I didn’t really need the visa approval letter anymore. When I was leaving Vietnam, the officer only looked at my passport (and the stamp) and did not ask me for the visa approval letter again.

Best Booking Resources for Vietnam

If you found this article useful, please consider using the links below to book your hotels and tours. We earn a small fee from referring you at no cost to you. With your support we can continue to provide useful information for travelers like you to plan that perfect trip to Vietnam.

Best hotel booking sites for Vietnam: this or this
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Vietnam Travel Blogs

If you are planning your first trip to Vietnam, check out my Vietnam articles.

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