Top notices for Vietnam visa

Thank you for these informations!

Aurélie

Dont ustand why Vietnam increased their Visa charges drastically.. The service is still poor..

I thought about getting my visa on arrival at Tan Son Nhat with a pre-approved and stamped letter, but last time I did this I was hit with a $50 service charge in the airport. I was told by a travel agent in Seattle that the fee has gone up to over $100. Is this true?

Perhaps I would be better off just paying the premium here and having the travel agent take care of it. They have my photo in their computer and they just send a request to Mexico City. They do charge a significant amount for the service, but it ends up being one less thing to hassle in that mob scene on arrival.

Actually mate it used to way easier to get a visa about 4 or 5 years ago.

back then you could get a 6 month multiple entry visa for 45 dollars and extend it as many times as you wanted no questions asked.

Last vietnam visa i got was 3 months multiple entry and i paid about 140 bucks for it.

i think the fact vietnamese people get so much grief when they want to go to other countries might play a part in why visas are getting more difficult/costly last few years. I can understand that it must grate on peoples feelings that we can come here willy nilly and with no real purpose, but they get the third degree when they want to go to our countries.

I was also told that around 5 years ago, because it was so easy to stay long term in vietnam, and because back then prices for food and rent were less than half what they are now....a large african contingent built up in the tourist area and from time to time they did things that the VN government wasnt impressed with. A year later, and with new visa rules in place, the africans mostly left.

That is not me being racist....I am just repeating what i was told by numerous Vietnamese locals and the woman who processes my visa.

I'm confused about the whole visa process...if I want to get a visa on arrival I still need to do something before I leave?

Can I get a 90 day tourist visa (I'm a U.S. citizen)? I read somewhere that Americans can only get a 30 day tourist visa and then must renew...is this information outdated?

I already booked my flight for just under 90 days. Should I not have done that (at the time I thought I could get a 90 day tourist visa on arrival)?

What is the cheapest way to get a 90 day tourist visa quickly?

Thanks!

You can get a three-month multiple entry visa for a bit more and that might be your best bet. Especially if you're planning on going to any other countries. I'm from the US and $90 for single visa only covers one month. You could also purchase a three-month single entry visa.

I don't think I will go to another country but if the cost is only a little higher I might get multiple entry just in case...

So what is the cheapest way to get it?

I don't know what is the cheapest way but surely the most convenient way is  to have your travel agent in America buy it for you. If you bought your ticket online you're out of luck

I have had my parents visit several times and have used the site myvietnamvisa.com everytime and have only had good experience with them. You can get your entry letter the same day.

Nam_ wrote:

I don't think I will go to another country but if the cost is only a little higher I might get multiple entry just in case...

So what is the cheapest way to get it?

Cheap or not, it depends on the way you think. It's not about the cost but about the time you must spend for this. If you have time for Embassy, go directly to get visa in person. Or the most convenient way is to obtain visa through travel agent.

Totaly understand about double amount on arrival. From $25 us. to $50 us.I'm from the Gold Coast, Australia, I change $100 aus at Bribane $50 us $50 dong.Normanly I give the $25 to my driver who is one of the nicest blokes you would ever bump into.Oh well!

One week ago 14th.3rd from Australia used to be $25us now $50.Who's going to argue?

VungTauDon wrote:

I have had my parents visit several times and have used the site myvietnamvisa.com everytime and have only had good experience with them. You can get your entry letter the same day.

My daughter and I will visit HCMC for one week during Christmas holidays. We applied visa through official Vietnamese governement site (?) (vietnamvisa.gov.vn). Provided passport information, paid fee with credit card ($ 42 USD for 2), and received a reply in two days (with stamped letter). All I have to do is to pick up the visa at the airport by showing the letter.

kristagiang wrote:

VungTauDon wrote:

I have had my parents visit several times and have used the site myvietnamvisa.com everytime and have only had good experience with them. You can get your entry letter the same day.

My daughter and I will visit HCMC for one week during Christmas holidays. We applied visa through official Vietnamese governement site (?) (vietnamvisa.gov.vn). Provided passport information, paid fee with credit card ($ 42 USD for 2), and received a reply in two days (with stamped letter). All I have to do is to pick up the visa at the airport by showing the letter.

Vietnamvisa.gov.vn is not an official site. This is a travel agent

And you still have to pay a fee when you arrive

I am currently staying in Nha Trang Vietnam on a 30 day single entry visa. I have decided to stay here long term in Nha Trang. I'm told the local officials here will give me 2 visa extensions. It is my understanding I will then need to leave the country and get another VN visa. Does anyone know the best, cheapest, fastest way to get a multiple entry visa. I heard there was someone in HCMC that operated a boat that would take you to the Cambodia border, egt the desired visa, or some sort of visa. They then turn around and bring you back the same day. Anyone ever heard of this. Any help would be appreciated. My extensions will expire around June 14. I am a U.S. citizen.

Bus not boat. You can contact almost any travel agency and inquire about making a visa run to Cambodia

VungTauDon wrote:

I have had my parents visit several times and have used the site myvietnamvisa.com everytime and have only had good experience with them. You can get your entry letter the same day.

I went to that site but it said it takes 5-7 days to process a 90 day single entry visa on arrival (if you try to select the expedite option for a 90 day visa a warning pops up which says what I wrote above) and my trip was less than 5 days away.

I ended up going to a site called vietnamvisaDOTcom instead.

They said they could expedite the approval letter for 90 day visa on arrival and deliver it to me within 1 business day. I paid the fee which I believe was $44 usd.

They emailed me what appeared to be an approval from the VN govt for visas on arrival for 2 different people. One for me and one for some guy from Belgium (his length of stay was listed as 30 days and mine 90).

After I paid the fee at the visa counter and was walking away I saw that my visa said it was only good for 30 days.

So I went back to the counter and talked to the girl showing her my passport/visa and the letter and she took them and it seemed she felt they had made an error which would be corrected (I'm pretty sure I even saw one of the guys in the back carefully peeling the visa off of the page).

It took a long time for them to call me back up but when they did a guy said: "I need original letter, this not original letter, this not what I have in my system, you give me original one" and I explained to him that I paid for pre-approval letter online and that's what they sent me to print out.

So then he had some other guy who spoke English better come out and talk to me and he said there is no 90 day tourist visa just 30 days which I know is not true. He wrote down a name and number for a person he said could help me renew and I'm not sure if he was just trying to get money out of me or what but I'm pretty annoyed because I ended up spending $44 for the approval letter and $45 for the visa (or whatever they charge there at the airport) for just 30 days.

So now I have to figure out if I can still get a 90 day tourist
visa when this one expires a little over 3 weeks from now (without having to leave the country) and how much it will cost.

I'm so annoyed I have half a mind to dispute the paypal payment to that website which said I would be able to get a 90 day visa on arrival with their letter but I'm afraid they'll screw up my visa or get me in trouble somehow.

So anyways what should I do now? My landlord says she can arrange another visa for me and that she had done so for the girl who lived here previously (who I can ask to verify) and I'm waiting for her to get back to me about the cost. My main concern is getting it done right this time but also as cheaply as possible.

I'm looking at the possibility of staying here long term and ideally would like to come and go as I please (I'm from the U.S., I'm not sure if that matters).

Would getting a small business type of visa (something I wanted to look into anyway) be a viable option (what is the criteria?)?

Also I attend a college in the U.S. and am taking online classes there but this has nothing to do with Vietnam (my school does offer study abroad but in Hanoi only and it's expensive).

Nonetheless could I use that somehow to get a student visa or would taking a Vietnamese language class here qualify me for a student visa?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Nam What classification of visa did you get issued? A tourist visa C1 is usually valid for 30days. A business visa usually B3 is valid up to 90days.

Well I applied for tourist and listed tourism as my intended travel reasons (actually I think it said "vacation" on the website at which I applied for the pre-approval letter).

I was just stating that a small business (or perhaps student)visa is a possibility I would like to look into.

But now that I look at my visa on my passport it says B3 but is only good for 30 days...

*confused*

I'm surprised about myvietnamvisa site as I just used them last July. They said it would be 2-3 days but I got it the same day.
I plan on using them again next month when my son visits.

Oh sure I mean if you've had good experiences in the past don't let me discourage you, that counts for more than what some random person on the net says. I'm just saying the website says 5-7 working days when you try to select the expedite option on a 90 day visa. Maybe if I would have paid they would have gotten it to me in 1 or 2 who knows. My fault for doing everything at the last minute I guess.

But I'm still confused about what type of visa I have (says B3, I asked for tourism), why I was only given 30 days instead of 90 and what is the best/cheapest way to renew (or I wonder if I could "fix" it somehow since my letter does say 90 days?) for an extended stay...

I'm really interested in taking a Vnese language class and getting the student visa if possible...maybe the longer visa duration would help offset some of the cost of the class?

Would they give me a student Visa for that? Many foreigners use this visa option in Japan but I don't know about Vietnam...