The facts, from the portal itself
| What the Immigration Department states | |
|---|---|
| Official sites | evisa.gov.vn and thithucdientu.gov.vn, nothing else |
| Maximum validity | 90 days |
| Entries | Single or multiple |
| Fee | 25 USD single, 50 USD multiple, non-refundable |
| Apply from | Outside Vietnam, up to a year ahead |
| Passport rule | Visa validity at least 30 days shorter than the passport |
| Entry points | 15 airports, 27 land gates, plus seaports |
Disclosure: VietSIM sells prepaid eSIMs for Vietnam. We have nothing to do with visas and take no fee from any visa service. Everything above is from the government portal, which is linked at the top.
The copycat problem
This is the part worth reading twice. The Immigration Department’s own FAQ warns travellers to use evisa.gov.vn or thithucdientu.gov.vn and says that unofficial pages may charge fees that Vietnamese regulations do not authorise.
Those pages are good at looking official. They buy search advertising, use flags and seals, and charge a “service fee” on top of the 25 dollars for filling in a form you could fill in yourself. Some are harmless middlemen. Some collect passport scans.
Type the address yourself. It is a government site, it is in English, and it takes a card.
What the form actually wants
- Your name exactly as the passport machine-readable line has it, in capitals, including the middle name.
- Every trip you have taken in the past year, if asked, with entry and exit dates.
- The first address you will stay at. You then re-declare at each new place through the hotel or host, which is Vietnamese law rather than a formality.
- Honest answers about any previous immigration problems. The portal says a dishonest application will be refused.
Before you travel
The Immigration Department recommends completing the pre-arrival form at prearrival.immigration.gov.vn before you fly, and Australia’s travel advice notes that the digital pre-arrival system covers arrivals at airports including Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Phu Quoc. It is a few minutes that can save a queue.
Check the visa on screen before you leave the house: the name, the dates, the entry type and the gate you plan to use. An e-visa with a typo in the surname is a problem at a counter in another country.
Once you land
Everything after the passport queue runs on a working phone: the ride into town, the address in Vietnamese, the hotel’s messages. Installing the eSIM before you fly means the arrival is just walking out, which is the point of roaming or a local eSIM and using two SIMs in Vietnam.
The routes in from both main airports are in Hanoi airport to the Old Quarter and Tan Son Nhat to District 1, and the plans are in the Vietnam eSIM store.
Visa rules change by decree and without much warning. The portal is linked at the top of this page, and it is the version that counts on the day you apply.