How to Get a VISA for Vietnam and How to Stay Longer

First Time in Vietnam; Immigration Laws

If you are coming to Vietnam you might need a Visa before you get here. As Americans, Andrew and I needed one to enter, and I know Canadians, Australians, Indians and Kiwis need them as well and you can obtain one for 90 days on a tourist visa.

If you are Korean, Japanese, Russian, British, German or French you can come here without a visa but you can only stay for a certain amount of time, most likely 45 days depending on where you are from.

The visa application fee is only $25 USD and it can take up to 5 business days to process so we highly recommend applying two weeks in advance so it is well taken care of before your flights. We didn’t receive our e-visa until the night before we left, I'm sure you can feel our stress through the page. That’s the basics of how to get your visa for Vietnam but what if you want to stay here longer…

2. Short Trips around SE Asia

This option comes highly recommended as it forces you to travel. Ever want to see the mountains of Chiang Mai or the temples in Cambodia? Now is your chance. You will leave Vietnam and enter a new country. Then once you leave you will apply for a new visa in that new country. If doing this on your own you can expect 3-5 days for the paper work to process and you will be issued a new 90 day tourist visa. Keep in mind this is 3-5 business days so don’t book for Friday to Monday and expect your visa to be processed!

We recently did this option between Christmas and New Years. We found flights to Bangkok for about $100 USD and vacationed for five days. Because we were traveling over the weekend we paid a service to expedite our visas since we didn’t have time for the standard processing time. The fee for a 2 day expedited visa was 1.3 million VND or $50USD.

Remember the visa itself costs $25USD so this is a great option!

4. Day Trips on Expedited Visa

If you hate the bus but don’t want to spend 3-5 days out of the country while your visa processes through the Vietnamese government, you can fly out of Vietnam and come back later that day. This will require an expedited visa for us Americans. Those can run up to about $70USD and you still need to buy the roundtrip flight. Some flights to Thailand from Da Nang are around $100 so you could pay for the expedited Visa and a flight and it would be around $170. Take note, they need about 4 hours and it must be during the week day! 

Extending Beyond 90 Days

If you want to stay in Vietnam past your allowed time, you have to get creative as many tourist visas are for 90 days max. We have some tried and true options and will give you our personal experience along with the pros and cons. First let's talk about what a Visa run is. 

A visa run is when you are required to leave the country and re-enter on a new visa.

This can be necessary for a number of reasons. Your tourist visa may be expiring and you need to re-enter on a new one. Or if you get a job they will require you to leave and re-enter on a work visa. 

If you are one of those lucky ducks who doesn’t need a visa to be in Vietnam, you still can't stay indefinitely and as a formality you need to leave and come back, therefore you do need to do a version of a Visa run. Let's look at your options so you can decide what is best for your situation. 

Renewal Options for Visas 

1. Find Employment

You can get a job teaching English and acquire a work visa. Those jobs are the only ones that offer work visas that we have found. It depends on the school but if they are following the law they will sponsor you to get a work visa which will be valid for the length of the contract. In that scenario you will still need to leave Vietnam and re-enter but now you will have  a TRC (temporary residence card) which is more secure than a tourist visa. 

3. Border Run

If you are looking to save time and money a border run could be the best option for you! Basically you drive or have someone drive you to the border of the closest neighboring country to process a new visa. If you are in Da Nang like we are, it's Laos but if you are in Ho Chi Minh it's Cambodia. Some people hop on a bus and go alone and others use agencies. For our first two visa runs we used an agency and it was a very smooth process. It cost about $150usd per person which includes a visa to Laos and Vietnam as well as all day transportation.  Is it a long day? Yes about 12 hours but it's worth it to have another 90 days in Vietnam!

Article about this in detail coming soon!

5. Become a Student

If you want to learn Vietnamese you can enroll in courses and possibly be eligible for a student visa. You do need to apply through a reputable program that will sponsor you but you can get a year long visa! Some programs are around $1,300 USD for the year which is probably more than you would spend on 4 visa runs but I do encourage it if you are looking to learn the language! Some programs include courses on culture as well making it a great way to learn about the intricacies of this country. 

Common Border Run Options

Distance/Time Estimates

Da Nang

Lao Bảo (Vietnam–Laos)

~12h by bus/train + taxi

Agencies like Lynn Visa make it doable in a day.

HCM City

Mộc Bài (Vietnam–Cambodia)

~3–5 h round trip

Cheapest/frequent option;

Hanoi

Na Meo (Vietnam–Laos);

Several hours (road)

Land trip longer; flights require tickets and time.