Vietnam Government agrees to extend the e-visa validity to 3 months

The Vietnam Government agrees to extend the validity of tourist e-visas from 30 to 90 days and allow visitors multiple entries beginning on August 15.

1. Extend the tourist e-visa validity to 3 months

In the morning of June 24, with 470 out of 475 members voting in favor, Vietnam government approved the needed amendments to the Law on Entry, Exit, Transit, and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam to extend the validity of tourist e-visas from 30 days to 90 days, valid for multiple entries to 80 countries lised below. They also agreed to increase the duration of visa-free stays at the border gate for people entering the country under the visa exemption category from 15 days to 45 days.

This new visa policy has increased the duration of e-visas to 90 days, valid once or multiple times to meet the needs of international tourists, facilitating foreigners who want to enter Vietnam to for extended travel, study, survey markets, seek and promote investment. Especially, there is a need to travel to many countries in the Indochina region and return to Vietnam to assess and compare the possibilities of expanding business in Vietnam.

List of countries with e-visa eligibility (2023)

E visa Vietnam is available for citizens of the following countries who wish to stay in the country for no more than 30 days currently.  

Andorra	Greece	Palau
Argentina	Hungary	Panama
Armenia	Iceland	Papua New Guinea
Australia	India	Peru
Austria	Ireland	Philippines
Azerbaijan	Italy	Poland
Belarus	Japan	Portugal
Belgium	Kazakhstan	Qatar
Bosnia and Herzegovina	South Korea	Romania
Brazil	Latvia	Russia
Bruney	Liechtenstein	Samoa
Bulgaria	Lithuania	San Marino
Canada	Luxembourg	Serbia
Chile	North Macedonia	Slovakia
China	Malta	Slovenia
Colombia	Marshall Islands	Solomon Islands
Croatia	Mexico	Spain
Cuba	Micronesia	Sweden
Cyprus	Moldova	Switzerland
Czech Republic	Monaco	Timor Leste
Denmark	Mongolia	United Arab Emirates
Estonia	Montenegro	United Kingdom
Fiji	Myanmar	United States of America
Finland	Nauru	Uruguay
France	Netherlands	Vanuatu
Georgia	New Zealand	Venezuela
Germany	Norway

 

Note:

Those who are not included in this list should wait for further updates for a tourist visa to Vietnam.
Those who wish to stay in Vietnam for more than 30 days should do a visa run, as neither e-visa extension nor visa on arrival is available at the moment.

2. Increase the unilateral visa exemption period to 45 days

With the increase in the temporary stay at the border gate for immigrants unilaterally exempt from visas, some suggest clarifying the basis of the 45-day regulation, indicating a rise to 60 or 90 days to be most convenient for tourists entering Vietnam.

2.1 Visa exemption in brief

Number of visa-free countries (2023)	25 countries (regular passports)
Longest visa exemption period	5 years (For Overseas Vietnamese)
Shortest visa exemption period	14 days (Brunei, Myanmar)
European visa-free countries (2023)	15 days (Citizens of 11 European countries: United Kingdom, Germany,  France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Belarus, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland).
The 30-day gap between 2 consecutive entry policy	This rule was removed in July 2020
APEC card holders	Exempt from visa for 60 days
Phu Quoc island visa exemption	30 days
Documents required	Valid passports (6 months)  Proof of onward travel

2.2 List of countries with visa exemption

In regard to Resolution No. 32/NQ-CP issued on 15 March 2022, there are a total of 25 countries that are exempted from the Vietnam visa. Foreigners just need an ordinary passport which is valid for 6 months minimum and includes 2 blank pages for the stamp. Besides, Vietnam supports many other foreigners with diplomatic passports to enter Vietnam without a visa.

Ordinary passports

Citizens with an ordinary passport from one of the 25 following countries will be waived visa to Vietnam:

No.	Country	Duration of stay	Purpose of entry
1	Chile	90 days	Purpose of generating income is not allowed
2	Panama	90 days	Purpose of generating income is not allowed
3	Cambodia	30 days	N/A
4	Indonesia	30 days	N/A
5	Kyrgyzstan	30 days	N/A
6	Laos	30 days	N/A
7	Malaysia	30 days	Tourism, conference, seminars, visiting relatives, business negotiation
8	Singapore	30 days	Purpose of generating income is not allowed
9	Thailand	30 days	N/A
10	Philippines	21 days	N/A
11	Brunei	14 days	N/A
12	Myanmar	14 days	N/A
13	Belarus	15 days	N/A
14	Denmark	15 days	N/A
15	Finland	15 days	N/A
13	France	15 days	N/A
17	Germany	15 days	N/A
18	Italy	15 days	N/A
19	Japan	15 days	N/A
20	Norway	15 days	N/A
21	Russia	15 days	N/A
22	South Korea	15 days	N/A
23	Spain	15 days	N/A
24	Sweden	15 days	N/A
25	United Kingdom (Not applicable to BNO)	15 days	N/A

2.3 Diplomatic passports

With a diplomatic passport, foreigners can enter Vietnam without a visa and stay for 15 to 90 days.

Reference: The list below is obtained from the official website: https://lanhsuvietnam.gov.vn/

No.	Country	Duration of stay
1	Afghanistan	30 days
2	Albania	30 days
3	Algeria	90 days
4	Angola	30 days
5	Argentina	90 days
6	Armenia	90 days
7	Azerbaijan	30 days
8	Bangladesh	90 days
9	Belarus	30 days
10	Bolivia	90 days
11	Botswana	90 days
12	Brazil	90 days
13	Brunei	14 days
14	Bulgaria	90 days within 180 days period from the date of entry
15	Cambodia	30 days
16	Cameroon	90 days
17	Chile	90 days
18	China	30 days
19	Colombia	90 days
20	Costa Rica	90 days
21	Croatia	30 days
22	Cuba	30 days
23	Cyprus	90 days
24	Czech	90 days
25	Denmark	15 days
26	Dominican (Republic)	90 days
27	Ecuador	90 days
28	Egypt	90 days
29	El Salvador	90 days
30	Estonia	90 days within 180 days period from the date of entry
31	Finland	15 days
32	France	03 months within 6 months period from the date of entry
33	Germany	15 days
34	Greece	90 days within 180 days period from the date of entry
35	Hungary	90 days
36	India	90 days
37	Indonesia	14 days
38	Iran	30 days
39	Iraq	90 days
40	Israel	90 days
41	Italy (Republic)	90 days within 6 months period
42	Ivory Coast	90 days
43	Japan	90 days
44	Kazakhstan	30 days
45	North Korea	30 days
46	South Korea	90 days
47	Kyrgyzstan	30 days
48	Kuwait	90 days within 06 months period from the date of entry
49	Laos	30 days
50	Liberia	90 days
51	Macedonia	03 months within 06 months period from the date of entry
52	Malaysia	30 days
53	Malta	90 days
54	Mexico	90 days
55	Moldova	90 days
56	Mongolia	90 days
57	Montenegro	90 days
58	Morocco	90 days
59	Mozambique	90 days
60	Myanmar	30 days
61	Nepal	90 days
62	Nicaragua	30 days
63	Nigeria	90 days
64	Norway	15 days
65	Pakistan	90 days
66	Panama	90 days
67	Paraguay	90 days
68	Peru	90 days
69	Poland	90 days within 180 days period from the date of entry
70	Philippines	30 days
71	Romania	30 days
72	Russia	90 days
73	Serbia	90 days
74	Seychelles	90 days
75	Singapore	90 days
76	Slovakia	90 days
77	Slovenia	3 months within 6 months period from the date of entry
78	South Africa	90 days
79	Spain	90 days within 180 days from the date of entry
80	Sri Lanka	90 days
81	Sudan	90 days within 180 days period from the date of entry
82	Sweden	15 days
83	Switzerland	90 days
84	Tanzania	90 days
85	Thailand	30 days
86	Tunisia	90 days
87	Turkey	90 days
88	Ukraine	90 days
89	United Arab Emirates	90 days
90	United Kingdom	15 days
91	Uruguay	90 days
92	Uzbekistan	60 days
93	Venezuela	90 days

2.3 Other visa exemptions

Apart from 25 countries whose citizens are eligible for the visa exemption as listed above, there are some other visa-free categories you can refer to.

5 year visa exemption for Overseas Vietnamese

According to Clause 5, Article 12 in the Law of entry, exit, transit, and residence of foreigners, Vietnam Government grants a 5-year visa exemption to the following objects:

• Overseas Vietnamese having a valid passport or international travel documents issued by competent foreign agencies and foreigners who are their spouses and children.
• Foreigners who are spouses and children of Vietnamese citizens.

A 5-year visa waiver allows foreigners/overseas Vietnamese to enter and exit Vietnam at any time during 5 years but the maximum stay for each entry is not exceeding 180 days. If you do not want to exit and en-enter Vietnam, you must extend your visa to continue to stay. The extension time is up to 180 days (6 months).

Requirements

To get a 5-year visa waiver, you have to submit all required documents at the Vietnam Embassy or Consulate in your residing country if you are staying outside Vietnam or at Vietnam Immigration Office if you are currently staying in Vietnam territory.

2.4 Phu Quoc Visa exemption

For the development of Phu Quoc Island (Kien Giang Province), Vietnam issued Decision 80/2013/QĐ-TTg on 27/12/2013 that foreigners can enter, exit, and stay on Phu Quoc Island without a Vietnam visa for no longer than 30 days. The decision is applied to both foreigners entering Vietnam directly on Phu Quoc Island and those transiting at a Vietnam border gate (airport or seaport) and moving to Phu Quoc Island thereafter.

Requirements

In order to enter Vietnam with a Phu Quoc visa exemption, foreigners have to follow some requirements below:

• Owning a passport with 6-month validity upon arrival date.
• Flying from your residing country to Phu Quoc via Phu Quoc International Airport. No matter if direct/indirect/transit flights, your final destination must be Phu Quoc.
• A valid exit date (air ticket, cruise departure date, etc.) showing your duration of stay on Phu Quoc island is no longer than 30 days.
• Only airport or seaport is available for this visa type.

Threeland team believe that, increasing the unilateral visa exemption period to 45 days is the average in the region, thereby enhancing Vietnam's regional competitiveness in attracting tourists and creating more favorable conditions for international tourists, allowing them to take the initiative in their time and schedule to visit and stay in Vietnam for an extended time or combined trip with other nearby countries: Vietnam, Laos and back to Vietnam for their home flight.

Contact Threeland team for more updates on Vietnam travel packages, latest news of destinations, activites, visa policy and procedure in Indochina at [email protected]