Transfer of VN visa to new passport

That happened to me. I got a new passport 2 years ago, then at SGN airport went through immigration. The officer was annoyed, and walked me to another area. I had to sit in chairs for 10 minutes. Didn't know what was going to happen. Then a second officer, who wasn't so grumpy, fixed my passport and I could go.

Afterwards I learned that I should have transferred the visa stamp at the immigration office, not sure which one, and heard it cost $5.

You might be ok just playing ignorant at the airport, and hope you don't get an officer having a real bad day, I suppose there is a risk of missing your flight.

Being that I have a business Visa without sponsorship (self employed tutor), was basically told by immigration today that my Visa cannot be transferred to the new passport.

Yet I have been instructed by my Visa rep to visit airport immigration and see what they can do. To my knowledge, border offices will not transfer the visa.

Will report back with the airport results and see if it is a viable option under these circumstances. Thanks Gobot.

johnross23 wrote:

When you get a new passport from your embassy in Vietnam, is it necessary to go to the immigration department to have the current visa transferred to the new passport?

Or, can you just take both your old and new passport to the airport/border and get the exit stamp and some notation in your new one?

When I lived in Laos, they did it that way. Anyone know how it works in VN (HCMC)?

How did you get on? have stamp transferred across beforehand or rock-up to airport on the day?

How did you get on? have stamp transferred across beforehand or rock-up to airport on the day?

Actually, I was asking for a friend of mine who got himself into a weird situation, where he had left China after quitting his job, flew to Bangkok, where he applied for a new passport from his embassy. Then, he decided to travel to Vietnam, so he told the embassy to send his new passport to HCMC when it was ready. Meanwhile, he got a job offer in Myanmar, so he had to be there the following week. However, the passport hadn't arrived yet, so he had to come back to VN and pick it up. He wanted to arrive in HCMC, pick up the passport and return to the airport all in the same day, which is why he was wondering. He has been told that he was supposed to go to immigration first, but felt he wouldn't have time.

I'll get the details from him this weekend and post the outcome. Anyway, I know he got the new passport and managed to leave, but not sure exactly what happened to his visa, transferred or canceled.

I tried to get the transfer on my new passport at the different offices in Hanoi and HCM. Finally after a check with Vietnam airlines,  decided just to go at the airport and it was very simple. I was guided  to the crew ( vip,..} exit and got an exit stamp on my new passport. 30 seconds and no fee. You need just  to show your old passport with the Visa and the last entry stamp.

Sobie, thank you very much for your comment. Did they transfer the visa from your old passport to the new one? Did you go to the Saigon airport? That is exactly what I had planned on doing Monday. Will mention the crew V.I.P. exit. What a relief!

Just the little exit stamp on my new passport at the airport of Saigon.

I do not understand why they would not just transfer your visa at airport immigration along with an "entry" stamp. An exit stamp means you are not technically in Vietnam. Please clarify.

Kenny Gerchow wrote:

I do not understand why they would not just transfer your visa at airport immigration along with an "entry" stamp. An exit stamp means you are not technically in Vietnam. Please clarify.

I believe it depends on the type of visa you hold. For example, if you have a tourist visa about to expire (or a single entry), then there is no point transferring the visa to the new passport. You will just get a exit stamp on the new passport.

I had experience of that scenario. Read post here:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 96#3999036

I Reckon Sobie also has/had similar tourist visa, so no transfer of visa from old passport to new took place. Your case is different (business visa). Considering visa rules change all the time best bet is to ask other visa agents (in addition to your usual agent). PM me if you'd like contact details of a couple of agents.

You are correct to be concerned about new passport just having an exit stamp. I had issues when coming back to vietnam because of this.

Thanks for the feedback. Friends, I just went to Tan Son airport after work and spoke to a very friendly immigration/police officer there. Let's be clear...you cannot go anywhere near the visa on arrival area of immigration at the airport unless you are arriving internationally.

Basically if you have a business visa or higher per say, you can book a plane ticket leaving Saigon. After you check into the ticket counter, they will direct you to immigration, where your visa can be transferred from the old passport to the new one for $5.

The officer also informed me that the visa is still active despite the passport being cancelled. What does this mean? You can freely leave Vietnam from Moc Bai or any of the border checkpoints with both passports and your stamped letter. Transferring your visa there, however, is not advisable.

So this validates the flying out option, adds some possibility to the Moc Bai option and goes against everything the uber-rude immigration officer on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai told me as well as most of the information received thus far on the net. I already bought my ticket to Cambodia and will report back afterwards.

You were 100% on point my friend. Validated everything yesterday at the airport. Thank you very much.

I believe it depends on the type of visa you hold. For example, if you have a tourist visa about to expire (or a single entry), then there is no point transferring the visa to the new passport. You will just get a exit stamp on the new passport.

With regard to my friend's situation, which occurred about 5 months ago, this is what happened to him in the end. By the time he returned to Vietnam to pick up his new passport, whatever VN visa he had was on the verge of expiring, so he just forgot about it and got stamped out as normal.

So unfortunately, I can't add any further info regarding this matter.

Cheers and all good as I think we have established a "semi" reliable process here. For tourist visas, expect to renew and be careful. Anything above that, either be employed with the proper documentation or have that visa letter handy for international departures or arrivals. Exercise even more caution if you are privately employed. The Saigon airport immigration department works with customers, unlike others located in the city. We will see what happens when I fly out.

Hey all,

My (USA) passport ran out of pages and I am picking up my new one this week at the US Consulate in HCM. 

I am currently on a Tourist visa that expires Jan 2nd, and I have a flight to Bangkok on...Jan 2nd.

The visa is in my old passport, obviously.

I asked a few agents who said I need to get an "exit visa", but I am skeptical because it sounds like they just want to make some cash out of the deal.

It sounds like, from this thread, if I just show up at Tan Son Nhat (SGN) airport on the day of my flight, with the old passport+visa, and the new passport, I will be good to go?

Is this correct?  Does anyone have -actual confirmation- that this is a legit way to proceed?

kellyreid wrote:

Hey all,

My (USA) passport ran out of pages and I am picking up my new one this week at the US Consulate in HCM. 

I am currently on a Tourist visa that expires Jan 2nd, and I have a flight to Bangkok on...Jan 2nd.

The visa is in my old passport, obviously.

I asked a few agents who said I need to get an "exit visa", but I am skeptical because it sounds like they just want to make some cash out of the deal.

It sounds like, from this thread, if I just show up at Tan Son Nhat (SGN) airport on the day of my flight, with the old passport+visa, and the new passport, I will be good to go?

Is this correct?  Does anyone have -actual confirmation- that this is a legit way to proceed?

Please be aware that the (now probable) U.S. Government shutdown might impact your ability to do passport business at the consulate:

From the New York Times:

"Aspiring globe-trotters with old passports may be out of luck.

"Funding for the State Department is also set to expire on Friday, which could throw a wrench in the plans of international travelers who suddenly realize their passport has expired or who are looking to get a new one.

"Visa and passport services will continue “as long as there are sufficient fees to support operations,” a department spokesman said, but passport agencies located in government buildings affected by a lapse in appropriations may become “unavailable to the public.”

Does not appear to be an issue. Foreign embassies and consulates will remain open.

Mostly just want to avoid missing a flight due to a prickly check in agent or border guard

Hi Kelly. I would just get to the airport as early as possible, as the ticket counters open anywhere from 2-2 1/2 hours prior to departure. You will show your boarding pass and both passports to the immigration officer afterward. Chances are you will be escorted to the immigration followed by another long wait. If they do transfer the visa, give them a $5-10 tip for their troubles. Get there early mate but as usual when abroad, no promises.

Technically you should get it transferred, probably at the Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai immigration office. People have reported various issues at the airport exit immigration if you don't. When it happened to me two years ago, two guys growled at me, I had to go wait in hard chairs for 10 minutes, then they gave me my passport with the stamps, no charge, and I was free to go.

.
I had much the same experience

To (airport) immigration, I was just another glitch in their system

So now?  I dot all the i's & cross the T's waaay ahead of time

Boy, do they hate disruption!!!     
.

Reporting back here to confirm:

At check-in I showed the airline my new passport and when they looked for my entry stamp, I showed them the stamp in the old passport and the corresponding Visa.  There was no friction.

At Immigration, I showed the officer my new passport and the visa + entry stamp in my old passport.  He called over another officer who took my passports and walked me to some benches off to the side of immigration, instructing me to wait a few minutes. 

Everyone was polite and courteous, no attitude whatsoever.

After validating my documents, the officer brought me around the corner into a small administrative room and informed me that they needed to put a new visa into my new passport so i was legally allowed to exit the country (even though the visa expired -on the same day-).  I was asked for $5 USD, but I only had VND so I offered the guy 150k (which is about $6.50). 

The new visa stamp wasted an entire page of my passport, unfortunately, but whatever.

I was then sent back thru passport control in the Diplomat lane after requesting that I not need to queue again.

Overall, the process added less than 30 minutes to my airport procedure and went entirely smoothly, no friction whatsoever.   There is no need to transfer the visa before the airport if you are leaving the country in the near future. 

Anyway, the short answer is : If you get a new passport and you have a visa stamp, you will pay $5 USD and about half an hour at the airport with no further trouble.

Hope this helps someone in the future!

kellyreid wrote:

Reporting back here to confirm:

At check-in I showed the airline my new passport and when they looked for my entry stamp, I showed them the stamp in the old passport and the corresponding Visa.  There was no friction.

At Immigration, I showed the officer my new passport and the visa + entry stamp in my old passport.  He called over another officer who took my passports and walked me to some benches off to the side of immigration, instructing me to wait a few minutes. 

Everyone was polite and courteous, no attitude whatsoever.

After validating my documents, the officer brought me around the corner into a small administrative room and informed me that they needed to put a new visa into my new passport so i was legally allowed to exit the country (even though the visa expired -on the same day-).  I was asked for $5 USD, but I only had VND so I offered the guy 150k (which is about $6.50). 

The new visa stamp wasted an entire page of my passport, unfortunately, but whatever.

I was then sent back thru passport control in the Diplomat lane after requesting that I not need to queue again.

Overall, the process added less than 30 minutes to my airport procedure and went entirely smoothly, no friction whatsoever.   There is no need to transfer the visa before the airport if you are leaving the country in the near future. 

Anyway, the short answer is : If you get a new passport and you have a visa stamp, you will pay $5 USD and about half an hour at the airport with no further trouble.

Hope this helps someone in the future!

If only it worked that way 100% of the time it would be great

Thanks for sharing. Can you please inform what kind of visa you have? That would be helpful in case it was a tourist visa. Cheers.

i had a 1 year multi entry tourist visa

Thank you for confirming. To retort, airport immigration will only do the Visa transfer for one year, multi-entry business visas or greater. If anyone else has had their tourist visa transferred in a similar fashion, please share. I strongly suggest getting to the ticket counter right when they open as the process took well over forty minutes for my business visa. You don't want to risk missing your flight.

Yes, I can only confirm for the multi-entry 1 year.   Cannot say about anything else

I agree, get to the airport 3 hours early and allocate an extra hour so you have buffer time.

Thank you for confirming. To retort, airport immigration will only do the Visa transfer for one year, multi-entry business visas (DN) or greater. If anyone else has had their tourist visa transferred in a similar fashion, please share. Based on the link I provided below, my Visa agency, and per the Saigon immigration office, you cannot extend your tourist visa more than three months.

I strongly suggest getting to the ticket counter right when they open as the process took well over forty minutes for my DN visa. You don't want to risk missing your flight.

https://www.myvietnamvisa.com/vietnam-visa-types.html

Kenny Gerchow wrote:

... To retort, airport immigration will only do the Visa transfer for one year, multi-entry business visas (DN) or greater.

Nopes, the only 'rule' about rules in Vietnam is that rules are never absolute and fixed. They are subject to local interpretation, desire to enforce them, confusion, and incentives. I moved the stamp on my 90 day tourist visa at the airport a couple years ago, documented in this post.

Sorry, double post.

Kenny Gerchow wrote:

Thank you for confirming. To retort, airport immigration will only do the Visa transfer for one year, multi-entry business visas (DN) or greater. If anyone else has had their tourist visa transferred in a similar fashion, please share. Based on the link I provided below, my Visa agency, and per the Saigon immigration office, you cannot extend your tourist visa more than three months.

I strongly suggest getting to the ticket counter right when they open as the process took well over forty minutes for my DN visa. You don't want to risk missing your flight.

https://www.myvietnamvisa.com/vietnam-visa-types.html

Hello, sir. I am still a little confused about this. Currently, I have a VN business visa. However, I am currently in Cambodia right now and have to renew my passport. Will I be allowed back into Vietnam since my business visa hasn't expired? I'm flying into HCMC. Thank you!

I am assuming that you plan to get your new passport through the US Embassy in Phnom Penh and that the procedures are the same as in HCMC.  When you get the new passport, you will receive back the old one with a small hole punched in the corner.  To reenter Vietnam, you will need to show both passports.  The old one is to show the visa.

I am assuming that you plan to get your new passport through the US Embassy in Phnom Penh and that the procedures are the same as in HCMC.  When you get the new passport, you will receive back the old one with a small hole punched in the corner.  To reenter Vietnam, you will need to show both passports.  The old passport is to show the visa.  I don't think there is any need to move the visa to the new book.  The visa has the same validity whether it is loose or affixed to the new book.  In fact foreign VN consulates offer visas in both forms.  The visa in the old book is equivalent to a loose visa.  Take care that when you leave Vietnam in the future you carry both passports again as the exit officials will scour your stamps for evidence to fine you.