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We have visited Vietnam many times; in fact, one of our team members is about to head to Vietnam in a few weeks. As an American, we need to get a visa to enter Vietnam. There are three methods:
- Visit your local Vietnamese Consulate. There are four: Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco and Houston. In terms of expense, this falls in the ‘medium’ range — anywhere from $80 – $135.
- Hire a visa service here in the United States to do it for you. This is generally the most expensive option, where you pay the fees from Option #1 in addition to their service charge.
- Email a vendor in Vietnam for Visa-on-Arrival. This is by far the cheapest option, which will cost you $25 for the visa + $20 or so for the vendor.
The downside of option 1 and 2 is that you will be without your passport for a few days. Option 3, while the least expensive, always makes us a bit hesitant – you will receive an email with the approval letter and passport numbers of everyone who applied through that vendor in that time period. We have always gone with Option 3 as the turnaround time is pretty quick, despite the lack of data privacy.
But all this is now obsolete! As of February 1st, 2017, Vietnam has introduced an online e-Visa system for citizens of 40 countries. Lucky for Americans, we are one of them. You apply online and in 3 days, you’ll know whether or not you are approved.
The benefits are:
- You keep your passport in your possession during the process
- You are not dealing with another vendor like the old Visa-on-Arrival process
- A flat $25 fee for a single entry, 30-day visa. This is the cheapest option now. The old Visa-on-Arrival was $25 for the visa plus the vendor fee which is usually another $20.
To apply, go to the Vietnam Web Portal on Immigration e-Visa Page. The page is available in English and Vietnamese.
Conclusion:
We are excited about this beneficial change. Not only is this cheaper than all the other options out there, but we deal directly with the Vietnamese Government versus some third party vendor to get this done. We hope you get to take advantage of this new system!
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Does the e-Visa work only for air entries or is it good for crossing overland too?
Caroline –
According to this article (http://e.vnexpress.net/news/travel-life/vietnam-launches-e-visas-for-visitors-from-40-countries-3533738.html), it should work at land crossings. But its so new, probably best to stick to air in the near term.
I went to Vietnam in January. At the time it cost between $80 and $225 to get a visa in your passport (this took a total of 1.5 weeks). Price depended on which consulate you sent it to. We went this option because Vietnam raised the actual visa fee to $135. So it was $25 for the visa on arrival and $135 once you arrived. Before going with this method, make sure the visa fee is either waived or decreased again.
Vietnam was awesome though. It’s definitely worth the effort!
@Morgan – they rolled back the $135 only option. there was a lot of resistance from the tourist industry in vietnam due to the potential drop in business.
So, I just got a little confused – is it $25 only or $25 plus another fee for the actual visa? Re-reading above it appeared that everything was included for $25. Please confirm. Thanks!
@Neil – our understanding it is that everything is $25.
Argh, I just paid a vendor for a Vietnam VOA yesterday! This is great to know for future trips, though — thanks.
Do you know if such a Visa would act like a loose leaf visa and there won’t be any stamps in ones passport?
@Gerald – no idea. we personally dont know anyone who have used this system yet.
Has anyone had any issue with this online application? Everything seemed to be working well until I tried to enter my date for entry into Vietnam. I’m traveling in June 2017 and am trying to select June 15, 2017 but I’m receiving an error message, as follows: Date > intented date of entry is not allowed
Does anyone know why this might be happening?
The instruction is clear: Date > intented date of entry is not allowed, which means you have entered a date in the “Grant Evisa valid from” field that is greater than the ” intented date of entry” which is a few line above in the form. You need to make sure the “Grant Evisa valid from” date is earlier or matches the “intented date of entry”.
i just applied and it worked fine for me
I already know that some information on my eVisa does not match the information on my travel document, and that my eVisa is therefore invalid. Can I request a refund?
I applied a week ago and have not heard anything back – it said you would hear back in 3 business days. I’m begining to worry – can we get refunds? Is this site legit?
Additionally – when you email them it says “mail box full”… this clearly is not a legit vendor
@arin – per their website: Step 3: Enter registration code, registration email and date of birth to check result in E-visa search menu. If being approved for E-visa please print E-visa to enter/exit Vietnam.
this means, you need to go to the search bar to see if you been approved. they won’t email you anything. now, if you didnt write down your registration code, that probably will be a problem. as for being legit – this is run by the Vietnamese Gov’t.
I just applied online, hope I get it without issue. I will go to VN next week, just left the default entry date even though I’m going a few days later. I will check online Monday to see if it is approved. I’ll be in HK beforehand, if not Ill have to stop by the embassy there.
The registration number comes up a few times, pretty much on every screen after you enter your info, including a pop-up, on the CC payment screen, and I did receive an e-mail confirmation payment was received. Btw, there is a 96 cents US payment fee for using credit card.
Got my visa approved day after I applied. I checked the website and it was all there, including a PDF printout, which I’m not sure if I need, but I’ll bring anyway.
Application status: Granted visa
Visa number: 00000XXXX
Allowed to enter Viet Nam from 13/03/2017 To 12/04/2017
I’ll write about applying for VN on my site, hktravelblog in the coming week or two with screenshots if you want a walkthrough.
So you need to have booked the ticket before you apply for the visa? Wtf
No, you don’t need to book it. But you need to know your dates of course.
Made it through the immigration in Vietnam without a problem! Yay. Was super easy and happy about the experience.
I wrote a blog post about it, hopefully it will help everyone.
https://hktravelblog.com/southeast-asia/getting-vietnam-e-visa-application-arrival-process/
Does anyone know what is going on with the e-visa portal page? It does not load at all for me and I have been trying to access it for several days now. All I get is, “This site can’t be reached.” “The DNS address could not be found.” It’s very frustrating. Is everyone experiencing the same issue?
@Ying – it loaded fine for us just right now. try a different computer with a different internet connection maybe? could be your internet provider is blocking it
Thank you for the fast reply! I will try it on other computers. I’m determined to make it work for me! Lol
I’ve filled out and submitted my application yesterday morning and immediately received an email confirmation minutes later.
Today, I checked my email and was surprised to find an email letting me know that my application has been approved. I never thought the process could be this fast!
I am also getting the error of “this website cannot be reached”. any luck with it or is the website down?
it’s flapping up and down at the moment
Quick question! I used this new process and successfully received my visa! However, I noticed after the fact that i incorrectly entered the wrong port of exit – i didn’t realize i would be taking a connecting flight from Cam Ranh airport to Ho Chi Min and then onto Singapore, i thought i was just going Cam Ranh to Singapore. Does this matter or should I try and contact them? Thanks in advance for you advice!!!
@CA – you should contact them. havent read / seen anyone who experience your situation with this new visa process.
I booked a roundtrip flight to Vietnam for about 3 weeks. Would this e visa still work if I wanted to travel to Thailand for a week within those 3 weeks? Or does that not comply to “single entry”
@Kim – you need to get a regular visa via a service or their consulate since you will be multiple entries
Was just in Vietnam and used this new e-visa process and it worked perfectly for me. The website looks like it was built in 1999, but it’s legit. Good for 1 month single entry. No approval letter required and no additional fees at Visa on Arrival. I was approved in 1 day and printed my e-visa which I used to show my airline at check-in and VN Visa on Arrival. No email will be sent if you’re approved/not approved, you must check back with the website. When you land in VN you still have to go to the Visa on Arrival counter. They wrote a few things on my printed e-visa which I then brought with me to the immigration counter. Instead of a visa sticker you get a stamp which I prefer as the visa sticker takes up a full page of your passport. For some reason they stamped my endorsements page on my passport and not the visas page. They probably didn’t realize they did that, but it doesn’t matter. When you exit VN, they just give you another exit stamp. I don’t think the port of exit matters as I never showed immigration at exit my printed e-visa. Wish this process was available when I used to live in Singapore! Could have saved me hundreds.
Hi, I’m in Chiang Mai and I’m going to Vietnam on Wednesday. Today is Saturday. I didn’t realize US citizens needed a visa beforehand. If I do the evisa, how long does processing normally take? From reading here, it seems 1 day turnaround. Wondering if I need to use visa service which promise 2 business day turnaround. Advice from people who’ve gotten e-visas please! TIA
Hi,
Does anyone know if it matters where you exit Vietnam. We are entering at Ho Chi Minh Airport and exiting through a land border crossing into Cambodia at Vinh Xuong. We applied and received our EVisa and travel in July.
Thanks.
Dear all,
Can someone tell me how can I pay for this visa? I was trying with Visa Electron , payment failed. Tried with MasterCard credit card, failed again. I contacted the support team and they didn’t help me much..
“Your problem is not to haven’t registered 3D security. The payment is failed because the acceptable bank refused. You receive the message from our site about have not register 3DS security, we are checking again. Please you try again another card .You can change email , PC…. Because the bank assesses to base on these identifiers. Thanks you”
My card has 3D security code but the site didn’t require it. Please let me know what is the problem and how did you successfully pay?
Thanks.