Guide

Vietnam Entry Requirements: E-Visa or Visa-Free Stay

2026-10-20 · TourFax editorial team

Vietnam Entry Requirements: E-Visa or Visa-Free Stay

Photo: Paradise cruise halong (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Vietnam's entry rules changed twice in two years, and most tour listings still say only that visas are the traveller's responsibility. The short version, as of October 2026: citizens of 25 mostly European and East Asian countries enter visa-free for up to 45 days, every other nationality applies online for an e-visa valid for up to 90 days, and no package operator does either for you. This note sets out both lists, what the e-visa portal asks for, how to avoid the copycat sites, and the two details that stop people at the gate. Figures are from vietnam.travel, the Vietnam Immigration Department's e-visa pages and the UK government entry page, checked October 10, 2026.

Two visa-free lists cover 25 countries for 45 days

The first list dates from August 15, 2023, when Vietnam extended its unilateral exemption from 15 to 45 days. Per vietnam.travel, it covers Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Belarus.

The second list took effect on August 15, 2025 under Resolution 229/NQ-CP and runs to August 14, 2028. It adds Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland, each for up to 45 days from the date of entry, for tourism, regardless of passport type.

A separate set of ASEAN and other states, including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Chile and Panama, is exempt under bilateral arrangements; vietnam.travel lists them without a stay length, so check your own government's advice for the number of days.

The 45 days is counted from arrival and stamped as an exit date. The UK government page tells travellers to check that the stamp shows 45 days from the arrival date; a wrong stamp is far easier to fix at the airport than at departure.

Everyone else applies for the 90-day e-visa

Citizens of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and most of the rest of the world are not on either list as of October 2026. For them the route is the e-visa, which the Immigration Department states is available to citizens of all countries and territories.

The portal describes the e-visa as valid for a maximum of 90 days, single or multiple entry. That is a stay allowance, not a document validity: a 90-day multiple-entry e-visa lets a traveller leave for Cambodia or Laos mid-trip and come back, which matters on the Indochina circuits sold by Intrepid and G Adventures.

The official fee was not readable on the portal when this note was written; the government's e-visa site returned a certificate error on October 10, 2026. Secondary guides consistently quote US$25 for single entry and US$50 for multiple entry. Treat those as indicative and read the amount on the payment page before paying.

The portal does state that the fee is paid through the Immigration Department's electronic gateway and is not refunded if the application is refused.

The e-visa ties you to the ports you selected

The application asks for an intended entry port and exit port, and the UK government page is blunt: you must use the entry and exit points you selected when applying. A traveller who applied for Hanoi airport and lands in Da Nang on a rerouted flight has a problem.

For a package this is easy to get right: copy the arrival airport from the operator's joining instructions and the departure airport from the flight. For an open-jaw trip that lands in Hanoi and leaves from Ho Chi Minh City, enter both exactly. The north-to-south package guide shows the standard shape.

  • Passport validity: at least six months after the arrival date, per the UK page, with at least two blank pages. Enter and exit on the same passport.
  • Photo and passport scan: uploaded as part of the online form; the portal checks the passport number against the arrival stamp.
  • Processing time: not stated on the pages we could read. Apply at least two weeks before departure and do not book non-refundable domestic flights until the approval email arrives.
  • Print it: airlines check the e-visa at check-in, and a paper copy avoids relying on airport data.

The only official portals end in .gov.vn

The Immigration Department moved its e-visa service on November 11, 2024, and the two official addresses are now evisa.gov.vn and thithucdientu.gov.vn. Every other site selling a Vietnam e-visa is an agent charging a service fee on top of the government fee, and some are simply fraudulent.

The giveaway is the price. Agent sites list totals of US$60 to US$120 and more for the same document. A search for Vietnam e-visa returns paid adverts for these sites above the official result; the tourist scams guide covers the same pattern for airport taxis and tickets.

Visa on arrival still exists only as a pre-arranged approval letter collected at the airport, a system that predates the e-visa and is now mostly sold by agents. For a tourist on a package it has no advantage over the e-visa and costs more.

No package includes the visa, and few will warn you

Operators and marketplaces treat visas as the traveller's responsibility, and the line that says so sits in the terms rather than the itinerary. A booking confirmation is not a visa approval, and an operator will not refund a trip missed because an e-visa was refused or applied for late.

What a good operator does provide is a pre-departure document with the arrival airport, the hotel address for the first night, which the e-visa form asks for, and the leader's phone number. If the operator's documents do not arrive until a week before departure, ask earlier; the deposit and balance timeline shows when the final paperwork normally lands.

Day-tour marketplaces such as Klook and GetYourGuide list Ha Long cruises and Hoi An day trips that assume you are already in the country legally. Nothing on those listings checks your visa status.

Fees inside the country are separate from the visa

Two destination-level charges confuse travellers who expect the visa to be the only government fee. On Ha Long Bay the provincial sightseeing fee is charged per person per route, set by the Quang Ninh People's Council; a 2025 resolution renamed the day routes without changing the 2017 fee levels, and the combined day route was reported at 600,000 VND per person.

The overnight-cruise fee is a different line, and we could not find a current official figure for it on October 10, 2026. Our Ha Long Bay checklist explains that cruise operators sometimes fold it in and sometimes list it as an extra; ask for it as a separate line in the quote.

In Hoi An the old-town entrance ticket is a combined ticket checked at booths on the main streets. Our Hoi An checklist notes it is sometimes included in a package and sometimes not. Neither fee has anything to do with the visa; both are paid in dong.

Ha Long Bay package checklist

Bottom line

Check your passport against the two 45-day lists first. If you are on one, you need nothing but a passport valid six months beyond arrival. If you are not, apply on evisa.gov.vn or thithucdientu.gov.vn, choose the exact entry and exit ports, and allow at least two weeks.

Ignore any site that is not .gov.vn, and read the fee on the payment page rather than trusting any guide, this one included. Then confirm the operator's joining instructions match what you entered. The health preparation checklist covers the other six-week-out task.

Frequently asked questions

Do US citizens need a visa for Vietnam in 2026?

Yes. The United States is not on either 45-day exemption list as of October 2026, so US passport holders apply for an e-visa, valid for up to 90 days with single or multiple entry, on the government portal. Apply at least two weeks before departure and name the exact entry and exit airports.

Can I extend a 45-day visa-free stay in Vietnam?

Not simply. The UK government page says stays beyond the 45 days need another visa type from a Vietnamese embassy, and that an e-visa obtained while in the country only starts after you leave and re-enter. A tour longer than 45 days should be booked with an e-visa from the start.

Is the Vietnam e-visa single or multiple entry?

Both are offered. The Immigration Department describes the e-visa as valid for a maximum of 90 days, single or multiple entry. Choose multiple entry for any itinerary that crosses into Cambodia or Laos and returns, which most two-week Indochina packages do.

Sources checked

  • Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, visa requirements page and the August 15, 2025 exemption notice, vietnam.travel, checked October 10, 2026 (both 45-day lists, Resolution 229/NQ-CP dates).
  • Vietnam Immigration Department e-visa information page, evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn, checked October 10, 2026 (90-day maximum, single or multiple entry, non-refundable fee, portal move of November 11, 2024).
  • UK government foreign travel advice for Vietnam, entry requirements, checked October 10, 2026 (45-day stamp, selected ports rule, six-month passport validity, two blank pages).
  • Not readable on October 10, 2026: evisa.gov.vn and thithucdientu.gov.vn (certificate error), so the official e-visa fee and processing time are not quoted here; the Ha Long Bay overnight fee was also not available from an official page. Check the official sites before travelling.

Sources