6

There are multiple websites online allowing one to apply for an 'e-Visa' for Vietnam. Are they following the law or is it some sort of a scam?

There is a Vietnamese embassy in my city but it's much easier to do everything online.

Improve this question
1

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
3

For what it's worth (and for anyone who ends up here from a search engine) e-visas with Vietnam are actually a thing now (as in, government issued, not visa on arrivals).

As other posters have said, there are a lot of sites that are still trying to act like government sites but in the end these sites just issue pre-approval for visa on arrival.

It seems as though gov.vn is the Vietnamese government's TLD: not govt.vn. You can apply for actual e-visas at https://evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/web/guest/trang-chu-ttdt .

I found this link not through a search engine, but instead by following links provided by the Canadian government (whose gc.ca domain I trusted!). Presumably if you don't trust a random poster online I would suggest looking at your own government sites and look for information for travelling to Vietnam to confirm the above.

Final price is just $25USD (plus I think a few dollars processing fee). Plus when approved, you get a PDF that you can scan straight at customs / immigration: you will not have to do any 'visa on arrival' stuff!

Improve this answer
2
  • I googled "vietnam evisa" and the 4th link was the correct one. The main problem is that the Vietnamese registers domains in Vietnamese, so xuatnhapcanh (xuat exit nhap enter canh official building/institution) doesn't look very legit - but indeed that's the real one. Thanks for posting this.
    – user67108
    Jul 28, 2018 at 5:54
  • Just to clarify, there are NO additional fees to be paid on arrival if you have a valid e-visa, correct?
    – Spehro Pefhany
    Jul 11, 2019 at 11:42
6

Despite that fact that many websites claim to offer them, there is no such thing as an e-visa for Vietnam.

However in addition to normal consulate-issues visas, there is a "Visa On Arrival" available, however this works differently to visa on arrival for most other countries.

In order to obtain a VOA for Vietnam for need to first obtain an official invitation letter, and this service is available via countless websites - some of them legitimate, some of them less so.

TripAdvisor has a very good article on Vietnam Visa on Arrivals and I would strongly suggest reading it before you decided if a visa on arrival is right for you, and before picking a company to arrange the invitation letter.

Be very careful when picking a company to use for this service - many companies go to great lengths to try and mislead you during the process. For example, www.vietnamvisa.govt.vn appears to be a legitimate Vietnam Government website - except it's not. The government domain is "gov.vn" - this website has nothing to do with the government and is trying to use a similar domain to mislead you.

Improve this answer
1

This confused me greatly as well, because like @Doc mentioned in his answer, there are many websites trying to look more official than they are. But I think in general that is just a sales tactic, as the whole process really isn’t that complicated. Like he also said, it’s not actually an e-visa but for all intents and purposes it can be seen that way and the immigration procedure is fully accustomed to this. I successfully used one of these services as well just about a month ago.

Improve this answer
6
  • Doc's answer was correct in 2016. It is now incorrect. The Vietnamese government does have an evisa. Narcissus' answer is the correct one as of July 2018.
    – user67108
    Jul 28, 2018 at 5:50
  • It was still correct last February when I was in Vietnam. I don’t know about this new site. Still doesn’t look very official but who knows.
    – Sebastiaan van den Broek
    Jul 28, 2018 at 5:54
  • Vietnam evisa has been around for more than a year.
    – user67108
    Jul 28, 2018 at 5:55
  • I got my own evisa around May 2017... This site is not "new", it's at least 1.5 years old. And it is the official one. Just as crappy as South East Asian civil servants can make it...
    – user67108
    Jul 28, 2018 at 6:07
  • Fair enough, good to know for a next visit.
    – Sebastiaan van den Broek
    Jul 28, 2018 at 6:08

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .