Vietnam visa and entry requirements in 2026

Most travelers coming to Vietnam need either a visa or a valid exemption and almost everyone flying into a major airport now has to file a free online declaration before landing. British, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch passport holders can enter without a visa for 45 days. American, Canadian, Australian, Indian and Israeli passport holders need an e-visa, which costs 25 USD and covers up to 90 days.

Last checked: 27 August 2026. Vietnam changed its entry rules twice this year, so check the date on any other page you read. Rules can change with a few weeks of notice, so confirm your own case on the official Vietnam e-visa portal or with your nearest Vietnamese embassy before you pay for flights. Jungle Boss is a tour operator and cannot arrange, process or speed up a visa.

Do you need a visa for Vietnam? Start here

Three routes cover almost every traveller.

If your passport is on the exemption list, you can enter with no visa for 14 to 45 days depending on nationality. Check the table below, because the list changed in 2025 and several European countries were added.

If it isn't, apply for an e-visa at the official portal. It is open to citizens of every country and territory, it runs up to 90 days, and you can pick single or multiple entry.

To work, study, or stay beyond 90 days, you need a sponsored visa arranged through a Vietnamese company, school or family member and applied for at an embassy. That sits outside this article.

Every route needs a passport valid at least six months from your arrival date, with a blank page for the stamp. Airlines check this at check-in and they do turn people away.

Read the common travel mistakes in Vietnam too. Entry is only the first thing people get wrong.

Vietnam visa requirements by nationality

Verified 27 August 2026 against the sources listed at the top of this page.

Other groups, briefly. Most ASEAN passports get 30 days, with the Philippines at 21 and Brunei at 14. Chile and Panama get 90 days. Japan, South Korea, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland share the UK's 45 day terms. Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland share the Netherlands' terms.

One rule applies to everyone. Fly directly into Phu Quoc from abroad and you can stay 30 days visa free on the island, whatever your passport. Enter Vietnam anywhere else first, including a connection through Ho Chi Minh City, and your normal nationality rules apply to the whole trip.

Official sources disagree on one point. The Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism states that 45 day exemption holders must wait 30 days between visa free visits. Resolution 44/NQ-CP does not set that condition. If you plan to leave Vietnam and come straight back, buy a multiple entry e-visa for the return leg or confirm with a Vietnamese embassy first.

45 days is enough for most trips. If you are working out what fits, see a 10 day Vietnam itinerary and the best time of year to visit Vietnam!

The Vietnam e-visa, step by step

The e-visa is 25 USD for single entry and 50 USD for multiple entry. Official processing is three working days. Allow five, and allow more around Tet and in the summer peak. Apply two to three weeks before you fly.

1. Gather two files. A colour scan of your passport data page, and a passport style photo. Face the camera straight on, no smile, no glasses. A cropped holiday photo is one of the most common reasons an application is rejected.
2. Go to the official portal. evisa.gov.vn or thithucdientu.gov.vn. Both are run by the Vietnam Immigration Department. Nothing else is official.
3. Fill the form exactly as your passport reads. Full name including middle names, passport number, date of birth, expiry date. An issued e-visa cannot be edited. If a detail is wrong you apply again and pay again.
4. Pay by card and save your registration code. The fee is not refundable, including when an application is refused or when the mistake is yours.
5. Check the status yourself with your registration code, email and date of birth. The portal does not email you reliably.
6. Print the approved e-visa and keep a copy on your phone. Check-in staff ask for it more often than immigration does.

Two limits to plan around. An e-visa cannot be extended from inside Vietnam, so you leave and reapply. And it does not permit paid work.

Since Resolution 389/NQ-CP of 2 December 2025, e-visas are valid at 83 border gates, made up of 17 airports, 27 land crossings and 39 seaports, up from 42 gates. The port of entry no longer prints on the visa, so a change of flight or an overland arrival does not invalidate it. For anyone heading to Phong Nha, Cha Lo in Quang Binh and Lao Bao in Quang Tri are both on the approved list for arrivals from Laos.

How to avoid the fake Vietnam visa sites

This costs travellers more money than any other part of the process.

The official portal is evisa.gov.vn, also reachable at thithucdientu.gov.vn. The Immigration Department sits at xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn. The official domain always ends in .gov.vn. Nothing else is a government site, whatever the page looks like.

The official fee is 25 USD single entry and 50 USD multiple entry, paid once, on the government portal.

Copy sites follow a pattern. The domain ends in .com, .org or .net and contains words like official, gov or evisa arranged to look right. The fee is 60 to 120 USD, described as a service charge on top of the government fee. There is a countdown timer or an urgent processing upsell. Some of these sites do submit your application. Others take your passport scan and your money and do nothing, and the scan is worth more to them than the fee.

Two habits protect you. Type the address yourself rather than clicking a search advert, since paid results sit above the official portal on this exact search. And if a site quotes more than 50 USD, close it.

Jungle Boss does not arrange, process or speed up visas, and no legitimate tour operator can. Anyone offering to fast track a government e-visa is selling you the same form you can fill in yourself. The same instinct applies to other tourist traps in Vietnam worth knowing about.

What changed in 2026

The pre-arrival declaration, from 15 April. Arrivals at Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City must file an online declaration before landing and show the resulting QR code at immigration. It started there and expanded through June to Phu Quoc, Noi Bai in Hanoi, Da Nang and Cam Ranh, plus the Dong Dang land gate and a group of seaports. The Immigration Department has said it will go nationwide.

You file it at prearrival.immigration.gov.vn. It is free, it takes a few minutes, and it does not replace your visa. The form asks for your passport details, a passport photo, your flight and your accommodation address, so have your first hotel booking to hand. Submissions open three days before arrival and not earlier.

Vietnamese citizens travelling on Vietnamese passports are exempt, as are transit passengers who do not pass through immigration. Everyone else should file it.

The health declaration, from 1 July. This one was widely misreported. Decree 165/2026/ND-CP came into force on 1 July 2026 and contains a health declaration rule with a seven day window before entry, exit or transit. On 3 July the Ministry of Health's Department of Disease Prevention clarified that the rule "should not be understood as being mandatory and regularly applicable to all persons entering, exiting, or transiting at all times." It applies only when the Minister of Health activates it for a specific disease, based on the outbreak situation.

As of 27 August 2026, no health declaration is required to enter Vietnam. No vaccination certificate is required either. The old tokhaiyte.vn website is not the system for this, and the electronic version was still being built when the clarification was issued.

Decree 286/2026/ND-CP, from 15 September. This gets headlines about tighter rules for e-visa holders and visa exempt travellers. For a tourist it changes nothing you have to do. It covers real time data sharing between Vietnamese ministries and the immigration database. Visa exemptions, the 90 day e-visa and ASEAN visa free entry are unchanged.

At the airport

Have three things ready before you join the queue: your passport, your printed or saved e-visa if you have one, and your pre-arrival QR code as a screenshot. Airport wifi is unreliable and the queue is not the place to discover that.

Immigration usually asks nothing beyond scanning your passport and QR code. Where an officer does ask, it is about your address in Vietnam and your departure date, both of which are on the declaration you already filed.

The QR code speeds up the desk. It does not skip the queue. Tan Son Nhat can still take 30 to 60 minutes at peak, so build a buffer into any same day domestic connection. See the guide to Vietnam's main international airports if you are choosing between arrival points.

Four things hold people up: a passport with under six months validity, a name on the e-visa that does not match the passport, no pre-arrival declaration, which means manual processing at a side desk, and no proof of onward travel, which airlines check more often than immigration does.

If you forgot the declaration, there are QR posters and staff in the arrivals hall at the larger airports. Filing it there is slower, standing up, after a long flight.

Once you are through, your accommodation registers your stay with the local police, normally within 12 hours of check in. Hotels do this automatically. Private apartments and some short term rentals do not, so ask the host whether they can register foreign guests before you book. After that it is domestic travel, such as how to get to Phong Nha from Hanoi, Hue or Da Nang. Carry small notes for taxis, and read how tipping works in Vietnam so you are not guessing on day one.

Staying longer, and overstaying

E-visas cannot be extended from inside Vietnam. Visa exempt stays cannot be extended either. In both cases you leave the country before your permitted stay ends and re-enter on a new e-visa or a new exemption.

A same day border run is legal but not risk free. Officers question travellers who leave and return immediately, and they can refuse re-entry. If you know in advance that you want two stays, buy the 50 USD multiple entry e-visa the first time.

Overstay penalties rose under Decree 282/2025, in force since 15 December 2025.

One to fifteen days over costs 500,000 to 2,000,000 VND, roughly 19 to 76 USD, plus a formal warning. Sixteen days or more costs 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 VND, roughly 190 to 380 USD, and puts deportation on the table. The highest bracket reaches 40,000,000 VND, roughly 1,520 USD, with removal and a re-entry ban. Deportation procedure is set by Decree 59/2026/ND-CP, in force since 1 April 2026, which requires 48 hours written notice and allows contact with your embassy.

You pay the fine at the airport before you are allowed to leave, so bring cash in dong and allow an extra hour.

Most overstays are counting errors. Count your permitted days on a calendar the night you arrive, and set a phone alarm for three days before your exit date.

FAQ

1. Do you need a visa for Vietnam?

It depends on your passport. Citizens of 24 countries, including the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands, can enter for 45 days with no visa. Most ASEAN citizens get 30 days. Everyone else, including US, Canadian, Australian, Indian and Israeli citizens, needs an e-visa, which costs 25 USD and covers up to 90 days.

2. What are the Vietnam visa requirements for US citizens in 2026?

US citizens need a visa. The United States is not on Vietnam's exemption list, so apply for an e-visa at evisa.gov.vn before you fly. It costs 25 USD for single entry or 50 USD for multiple entry, covers up to 90 days, and takes three to five working days. You need a passport valid six months beyond arrival and a passport style photo.

3. Do I need a visa for Vietnam from the UK?

Not for stays up to 45 days. British citizens enter visa free under Resolution 44/NQ-CP, which runs to 14 March 2028. Your passport still needs six months validity and a blank page. For a stay longer than 45 days, apply for the 90 day e-visa instead, since a visa free stay cannot be extended once you are in the country.

4. What is the Vietnam visa for Indians in 2026?

Indian citizens need an e-visa. India is not on the exemption list, so apply at evisa.gov.vn for 25 USD single entry or 50 USD multiple entry, valid up to 90 days. Processing is three working days officially, though Indian applications often run closer to five to seven, so apply at least three weeks before departure.

5. What are the Vietnam visa requirements for Canadians in 2026?

Canadians need an e-visa, on the same terms as US and Australian citizens. Apply at evisa.gov.vn, pay 25 USD for single entry or 50 USD for multiple, and allow three to five working days. Canada is not on the visa exemption list and there is no visa free option other than a direct arrival into Phu Quoc, which allows 30 days on the island.

6. Is Vietnam visa on arrival still available in 2026?

Technically yes, but almost nobody needs it now. Visa on arrival is not a visa you collect at the desk without paperwork. It requires a pre-approval letter arranged in advance through a sponsoring agency in Vietnam, works only at airports, and costs more than the e-visa once the stamping fee is added. The e-visa replaced it for ordinary tourism.

7. How long can you stay in Vietnam?

Up to 45 days visa free if your passport qualifies, or up to 90 days on an e-visa. Phu Quoc allows 30 days visa free for any nationality arriving directly from abroad. Neither a visa free stay nor an e-visa can be extended from inside Vietnam, so anything longer means exiting and re-entering, or a sponsored visa from an embassy.

8. How much does a Vietnam e-visa cost and how long does it take?

25 USD for single entry, 50 USD for multiple entry, paid once on the government portal. Official processing is three working days, with five being realistic and longer around Tet and the July to August peak. The fee is not refundable if your application is refused or if you enter your own details incorrectly.

9. How do I know if a Vietnam visa website is official?

Check the domain. The only official addresses are evisa.gov.vn, thithucdientu.gov.vn and xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn, all ending in .gov.vn. Any site charging more than 50 USD is an agency or a scam, whatever it calls itself. Paid search adverts for copy sites sit above the official portal, so type the address yourself.

10. Do children need their own visa and pre-arrival declaration?

Yes. Entry is tied to individual passports, so every traveller including infants needs their own visa or exemption and their own pre-arrival declaration. Each application needs its own passport scan and its own compliant photo. Do the children's forms first, while you still have the patience for the photo requirements.