WARNING re: Vietnam eVisa & Tết 2023

@goodolboy Hi, again!
Thank's for your input. Yes, it's been very beneficial for me to buy those Cambodian 12-month and 6-month "Ordinary Visa's". They greatly simplify the crossings, and also save on pages in the passport, as you say.

As for the Viet e-visa's: they were in use long before the Covid-lockdown, and as far as I know there aren't any restrictions on how many of them you can buy back-to-back (but I may be wrong).

The great reform which happened after Covid, was that the Viet Immigration disposed of the mandatory gap of 30 days that you had to stay away after each "Exemption Visa 14 days", as you probably know.
-@pucko1

thanks pucko for your feed back & experience, much appreciated. I am coming up for my 4th e visa so will just have to see how it goes & see if there are any positive changes in the pipeline. If not the 1 year Cambodian retirement visa combined with the Vietnam e visa & 14 days visa free is still workable for me with the odd flight to BKK or Singapore. Hey, life is good!!

@goodolboy Don't take his experience as an absolute reference. The 8\9 evisas' limit is quite real, your holiday will soon end. Just yesterday a buddy called me for the new year 's wishes from PP. He got the ultimatum , sold everything and left for cambodia. Whenever you cross the border you are at the hands of that immigration guy. On both sides both immigrations DO NOT want border runners, for various reasons (expecially since covid and the 30 days only's visa) . Espionage, a criminal activity, you risk to be a covid carrier while travelling on that bus to the border\ on that plane, that officer don't like your face: many random reasons may bring you to receive a denied entry. My personal suggestion if planning to start a multiple border run for (ideally) months is to do that by land. As soon as you reach the 8th\9th run start to plan your life as it will end soon and you will have to pack and leave for 1 year. If you come by plane from let's say BKK and your entry is denied for "too many evisas in a row" you're literally screwed. At worst if they deny your entry by land for 1 year you can grab a car and go to phnom penh without clothes or anything ( leaving for 1 year your life, apartment, properties, pets suddendly) but usually (remember: usually) you should get (as reported on this forum) an "ultimatum" so you can use that last month to sell everything : tv, pets, motorbyke, anything you don't plan to bring to cambodia paying absurd import taxes. p.s. don't. cambodian immigration is notorious for their absurd import taxes.Buy a new tv\ whatever, trust me you'll not save much as they tax everything as brand new with current store price (madness). The same suggestion i gave about cambodia if you don't have a cambodia's retirement visa works for vn: stay light, no big tv, no pets, nothing you are not ready to resell for less then half what you paid (assuming someone will even buy it). Trust me when i say: if you don't plan to get a job in vietnam or cambodia marry or start a business take this as a long (but limited) holiday. Ergo 1 bag, light and ready to move elsewhere. You'll thank me.

p.s. an important edit: the 15 days free visa can and will be counted towards the 9 visas, so if you planned a 15-30-15-30 border run you'll shorten your stay. You may understand now why so many moved away from vn to cambodia\elsewhere

The great reform which happened after Covid, was that the Viet Immigration disposed of the mandatory gap of 30 days that you had to stay away after each "Exemption Visa 14 days", as you probably know.
-@pucko1

Actually, that reform was formally passed into law in December, 2019, which means it was being drawn up earlier that year before anyone knew anything about Covid (again, please do not get into a discussion about covid in reply in this sticky thread).

The effective date of that change was July 1st, 2020 (even though the borders were temporarily closed by that time).

Also, the length of visa exemptions allowed under the law vary from country to country, with some being as long as 90 days.

@goodolboy Don't take his experience as an absolute reference. The 8\9 evisas' limit is quite real, your holiday will soon end. Just yesterday a buddy called me for the new year 's wishes from PP. He got the ultimatum , sold everything and left for cambodia.
-@Filot

Thank you for labeling your report as an anecdotal third-party experience.

As much as possible, we attempt to separate verifiable fact from rumors in the forum.

As you also implied (and has been mentioned often in the forum) just as in any country, immigration can refuse entry anytime for nothing more than suspicion

We often find that "the rest of the story" will reveal why one person ran into problems while others haven't.

Time will tell if the limit applies to everyone from every nation, and if a new official decree is issued it will almost certainly be immediately posted in the forum.

@goodolboy Don't take his experience as an absolute reference. The 8\9 evisas' limit is quite real, your holiday will soon end. Just yesterday a buddy called me for the new year 's wishes from PP. He got the ultimatum , sold everything and left for cambodia. Whenever you cross the border you are at the hands of that immigration guy. On both sides both immigrations DO NOT want border runners, for various reasons (expecially since covid and the 30 days only's visa) . Espionage, a criminal activity, you risk to be a covid carrier while travelling on that bus to the border\ on that plane, that officer don't like your face: many random reasons may bring you to receive a denied entry. My personal suggestion if planning to start a multiple border run for (ideally) months is to do that by land. As soon as you reach the 8th\9th run start to plan your life as it will end soon and you will have to pack and leave for 1 year. If you come by plane from let's say BKK and your entry is denied for "too many evisas in a row" you're literally screwed. At worst if they deny your entry by land for 1 year you can grab a car and go to phnom penh without clothes or anything ( leaving for 1 year your life, apartment, properties, pets suddendly) but usually (remember: usually) you should get (as reported on this forum) an "ultimatum" so you can use that last month to sell everything : tv, pets, motorbyke, anything you don't plan to bring to cambodia paying absurd import taxes. p.s. don't. cambodian immigration is notorious for their absurd import taxes.Buy a new tv\ whatever, trust me you'll not save much as they tax everything as brand new with current store price (madness). The same suggestion i gave about cambodia if you don't have a cambodia's retirement visa works for vn: stay light, no big tv, no pets, nothing you are not ready to resell for less then half what you paid (assuming someone will even buy it). Trust me when i say: if you don't plan to get a job in vietnam or cambodia marry or start a business take this as a long (but limited) holiday. Ergo 1 bag, light and ready to move elsewhere. You'll thank me.
p.s. an important edit: the 15 days free visa can and will be counted towards the 9 visas, so if you planned a 15-30-15-30 border run you'll shorten your stay. You may understand now why so many moved away from vn to cambodia\elsewhere
-@Filot

OFFS thinking positive I have had a good run so cant complain (nearly 15 years) so looks like its the Cambodian retirement visa for me then. Lucky all the stuff I really need can be crammed into a back pack, all my Vietnamese Banks are online access & other stuff like TV etc I am in the lucky financial position to be able to buy new where ever I go or better still rent furnished. The flat we rent in HCMC has all my furniture etc in it & I will just keep paying the rent on it ready to come back in a year or at a last resort toss out the tenants who rent the place we own in D12 & Ms My can move back there.

it's amazing to me and sad how many people were unprepared and even clueless about the impact Tết would have on the evisa application/approval process.

in the last couple of days three different people have posted on FB that they applied for their visa on the 19th of January and they wonder if it will be ready for them on Monday morning, because they've been waiting so long while it was "processing"

Just one comment regarding visa runs.  Filot is right, many entry/exit stamps or, worst, visas in passport definitely don't look good, in any place, not only Vn or Camb. My experience from Singapore is the same. My colleague who was there for job was denied entry by S'pore immigration after 4th run (land crossing) to Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The company assisted him, but not in the proper way and although he was blacklisted for 4 years he has never been cleared from black list. 

@ruzuba1500 Hi!

Yes, Thailand used to enforce a max limit of 6 visa-runs/ pr 12-month period, because the pressure was so heavy on all of it's landborders.

After that, you'd have to check out and go to a Thai Consulate, to make a proper visa.

However, you weren't "blacklisted" as such, but instead they'd "zero" your count, so you could start all over again.

That was several years ago, and I'm not updated on the current scheme.

it's amazing to me and sad how many people were unprepared and even clueless about the impact Tết would have on the evisa application/approval process.
in the last couple of days three different people have posted on FB that they applied for their visa on the 19th of January and they wonder if it will be ready for them on Monday morning, because they've been waiting so long while it was "processing"
-@OceanBeach92107

See?! See what happens when people don't become members of expat.com?!

All of their headaches could have been avoided, if only they had signed on to be a member here.

@pucko1  How much you paid these  Cambodia visas?

@pucko1 How much you paid these Cambodia visas?
-@narcrepellant2525

At Hatien, VN-Kampot, CAM crossing my buddy pays 1,000,000 VND. This is a bit more than what is published as the official cost (~$30 USD, I believe), but it covers the "coffee money fund" on the Cambodian side, and in return they permit him to exit Cambodia immediately to re-enter VN.

Precise and up-to-date details on Cambodia border crossing can be found here. (link)

Hope this helps

Moc Bai,no need for "coffee money" you wait it bit longer but it is reasonable fast, not different from processing time when you land at HCMC airport.

@goodolboy Don't take his experience as an absolute reference. The 8\9 evisas' limit is quite real, your holiday will soon end. Just yesterday a buddy called me for the new year 's wishes from PP. He got the ultimatum , sold everything and left for cambodia. Whenever you cross the border you are at the hands of that immigration guy. On both sides both immigrations DO NOT want border runners, for various reasons (expecially since covid and the 30 days only's visa) . Espionage, a criminal activity, you risk to be a covid carrier while travelling on that bus to the border\ on that plane, that officer don't like your face: many random reasons may bring you to receive a denied entry. My personal suggestion if planning to start a multiple border run for (ideally) months is to do that by land. As soon as you reach the 8th\9th run start to plan your life as it will end soon and you will have to pack and leave for 1 year. If you come by plane from let's say BKK and your entry is denied for "too many evisas in a row" you're literally screwed. At worst if they deny your entry by land for 1 year you can grab a car and go to phnom penh without clothes or anything ( leaving for 1 year your life, apartment, properties, pets suddendly) but usually (remember: usually) you should get (as reported on this forum) an "ultimatum" so you can use that last month to sell everything : tv, pets, motorbyke, anything you don't plan to bring to cambodia paying absurd import taxes. p.s. don't. cambodian immigration is notorious for their absurd import taxes.Buy a new tv\ whatever, trust me you'll not save much as they tax everything as brand new with current store price (madness). The same suggestion i gave about cambodia if you don't have a cambodia's retirement visa works for vn: stay light, no big tv, no pets, nothing you are not ready to resell for less then half what you paid (assuming someone will even buy it). Trust me when i say: if you don't plan to get a job in vietnam or cambodia marry or start a business take this as a long (but limited) holiday. Ergo 1 bag, light and ready to move elsewhere. You'll thank me.
p.s. an important edit: the 15 days free visa can and will be counted towards the 9 visas, so if you planned a 15-30-15-30 border run you'll shorten your stay. You may understand now why so many moved away from vn to cambodia\elsewhere
-@Filot

I dropped in past the office & my long standing friend & trusted visa agent on Tuesday afternoon 2pm to get e visa number 4. I would think her company must be one of the biggest based & with office in HCMC so Just as a matter of interest I asked her........hey friend, some people on a forum are saying that "they have friends" who have said there is a limit of 8 or 9 e visa's & then you must leave Vietnam for a year. She looked confused & said well my old friend goodolboy I have regular customers like you & who have had more 8 or 9 e visa & they never have a problem & continue to get e visa.

So I suppose there are them that dont have a problem & them that do & hey ho, another 4 or 5 to go for me & all will become Christal clear & you can be sure I will post my actual experience on subject!

Exactly, I know one guy here who has been on different visas already for 4 years and just completed another visa run. Nobody said to him that visa runs are over and he should buzz out of the country. If you apply for evisa and they approve it, that's it IMHO.

@goodolboy that was exactly my point. You gamble your life , house, properties and pets on 2 borders where the wrong t-shirt may make your life suddendly crumble. Since covid and the removal of any tourist visa above 30 days things changed. And border police since covid on both countries don't want border-runners anymore , the good old "borders here promote this life, don't worry" is an old myth. The foreigner registration in cambodia and all those breakdowns on fake cambodian business visas (and the huge fine once caught) are a good example. Plus the huge arrest and scandal on those fake visas during the lockdown at the vietnam immigration. As others reported, many "good old viet expats" are flocking to cambodia, guess why. My friend is a good example, no special story to dig: the border guy simply noticed the 16 visas in sequence (vietnam-cambodia) and questioned him on the reason of those trips and the constant immediate return on the same day (expecially considering you are formally not allowed to do it in-country doing the same-day trick using a vpn) and he answered "i'm a tourist exploring vietnam, such a beautiful big country" . His answer was simple: "i think you travelled long enough,sir. Next month you must leave for 12 months, have a nice day". Simple as that. It literally destroyed his life and lost thousands $ with his pet now in cambodia. (imagine the logistics in a cambodian guesthouse with his pet) I know you're set for any issue and you can fix it easily, my suggestion was more toward the thousands doing this risky, precarious life having a lot to lose on that bad day at the border. Hence why my suggestions to be as light and as ready to pack as possible. Yeah, the reports " my buddies do it from 4 years no issue". until it they don't.

Yes be light as possible, unfortunately everything comes to an end, so what? It's not end of the world :-)

@narcrepellant2525 haha i am. The system is not "broken" entirely. Some people did and will continue to have this 25 days - run life. How and why, better not ask

SO NOW IT'S 2025

As of today you have THREE DAYS left before immigration shuts down for TẾT.

IF you apply for your e-visa TODAY you MIGHT get it approved before the holiday shut down, but now the odds are starting to get against you.

If you don't get approved before the 25th you may not get approved until about the 8th or 9th of February.

The only other way around it is to contact a Visa agent and pay a higher price to have your application expedited.

Good luck!