A bilateral exemption means Vietnam and your country signed a treaty, so your visa-free stay is whatever that treaty says: 14 days for Brunei, 21 for the Philippines, 30 for most of Vietnam's ASEAN partners and 90 for Chile and Panama. A unilateral exemption means Vietnam waived visas on its own, with no treaty: 45 days for each of 24 countries, mostly in Europe, plus Japan and South Korea.
The difference isn't trivia. Vietnam's digital arrival card asks you to pick one, checks the choice against your passport and ties your permitted stay to it. And the answer depends on passport type as well as nationality: a Japanese tourist is unilateral, while a Japanese diplomat is bilateral.
Bilateral vs Unilateral: A Treaty or Vietnam's Own Decision
Vietnam's immigration law, Law 47/2014/QH13, lists the ways to enter without a visa in Article 12. First is entry under an international treaty Vietnam is party to, and that's bilateral. Further down, the list points to Article 13. There, Vietnam waives visas for one country's citizens by its own decision, with no treaty behind it, and that's unilateral.
Article 13 sets the terms. The country must have diplomatic relations with Vietnam, the waiver must fit Vietnam's economic and foreign policy, and it can't harm national security. Each decision lasts no more than five years, can be extended and is canceled if those conditions stop being met. Bilateral exemptions on the Foreign Ministry's list carry no end date; they run while the agreement is in force.
What you'll actually feel is the length of your stay. Article 31 tells the border officer to grant a bilateral visitor the period the treaty sets, or 30 days if it sets none, and a unilateral visitor 45 days. Bilateral stays vary by country, while every unilateral passport gets the same 45.
Who Gets Which: The Ordinary-Passport Lists
Here's where each ordinary passport, the kind most travelers carry, falls under Vietnam's Foreign Ministry list of visa exemptions and Vietnam's two unilateral resolutions.
| Passport | Exemption Type | Visa-Free Stay |
|---|---|---|
| Brunei | Bilateral | 14 days |
| Philippines | Bilateral | 21 days |
| Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand | Bilateral | 30 days |
| Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia | Bilateral | 30 days |
| Chile, Panama | Bilateral | 90 days |
| UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland | Unilateral | 45 days, any purpose |
| Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland | Unilateral | 45 days, tourism only |
Bilateral arrangements carry their own fine print. The Philippine one requires a return or onward air ticket. Malaysia's covers listed purposes such as tourism, family visits and conferences, and the agreements with Chile, Mongolia, Myanmar, Panama and Singapore rule out paid work. The Foreign Ministry's list notes a 6-month passport rule for 11 of the 15. Two cap repeat visits: Kazakhstan's allows no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, and Belarus's no more than 90 days in a calendar year, so neither can be chained indefinitely.
If your passport isn't in the table, check your nationality's visa position before you book anything.
Bilateral Deals: Why the Days Differ and Many Skip Tourists
Each bilateral arrangement was negotiated separately, so each sets its own number. Filipinos have had 21 days since April 1, 2000, while Thais get 30, so Vietnam entry rules for Filipino travelers run on a shorter clock. Cambodia's agreement started at 14 days and was amended to 30 from January 1, 2010. A bilateral number moves only when both governments sign something new.
Most of Vietnam's visa agreements are for officials, not tourists. The lookup table behind the arrival form lists bilateral exemptions for diplomatic passports from 90 countries and official passports from 79. The Foreign Ministry's list for ordinary passports has just 15. India appears in the form's table only for diplomatic and official passports. Timor-Leste's agreement, in force since January 29, 2025, likewise covers only diplomatic and official passports, so Timorese tourists need a visa.
Passport type can even split one nationality. In the same table, Japanese, South Korean and Russian ordinary passports are coded unilateral at 45 days, and their diplomatic and official passports bilateral at 90. A Japanese tourist and a Japanese diplomat on the same flight pick different options.
⚠️ Check the passport types before you trust a visa agreement headline. If a new agreement covers only diplomatic and official passports, nothing changes for tourists, who still need an eVisa or an exemption from the table above.
Unilateral Exemption: 45 Days With an End Date
Vietnam's unilateral list rests on two government resolutions. Both expire. Resolution 44/NQ-CP of March 7, 2025 covers the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. Their citizens get 45 days regardless of passport type and purpose of entry, from March 15, 2025, to March 14, 2028.
Resolution 229/NQ-CP of August 8, 2025 adds Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. Citizens of those countries get 45 days for tourism, from August 15, 2025, to August 14, 2028. British National (Overseas) passports aren't covered by the exemption for UK citizens, and Vietnam entry rules for UK travelers covers the rest.
⚠️ The newer group's 45 days are for tourism only. A British or German passport holder can use the exemption for meetings. A Belgian, Czech or Romanian one flying in for meetings or a trade fair needs a visa, such as an eVisa, sorted before departure.
Every unilateral entry also needs a passport with at least 6 months of validity left when you arrive, by law. And if a site still lists 13 countries including Belarus, it's quoting an older exemption that ended on March 15, 2025, when Resolution 44/NQ-CP replaced it. Our timeline of the resolutions behind Vietnam's 45-day exemption shows each change in order.
The Arrival Card: Choosing Bilateral or Unilateral on the Form
The two terms come up on Vietnam's digital arrival card, the Immigration Department's Pre-arrival Information (PAI) form at prearrival.immigration.gov.vn. Its visa-type list has ten options, four of them exemptions: Bilateral exemption (Miễn song phương), Unilateral exemption (Miễn đơn phương), Phu Quoc Visa Exemption and Visa Exemption Certificate. A line beneath the list reads: "Note: The selected visa type determines your permitted entry period."
Choose by the passport you're traveling on. A Thai, Malaysian or Filipino ordinary passport is Bilateral exemption; a British, German, Japanese or Romanian one is Unilateral exemption. If you're entering on an eVisa, choose Electronic Visa (E-Visa) and enter the visa number, even if your passport is on the unilateral list. A German with a 90-day eVisa who picks Unilateral exemption is declaring a 45-day stay.
The form checks your choice against your nationality and passport type. Pick wrong and it answers "This country and passport do not have a bilateral visa exemption. Please check again" or the unilateral version of the same message. It also rejects an end date longer than your passport allows: "The visa exemption expiry date must not exceed the permitted visa-exempt stay for the country and passport type."
Filing the PAI is optional, and it isn't a visa. If you do file, use only prearrival.immigration.gov.vn, because fake PAI sites exist.
Reciprocity: Why Two Waivers Don't Make a Treaty
A common shortcut says that if two countries let each other in without visas, the arrangement must be bilateral. It isn't. Bilateral means a treaty, and two one-way decisions aren't one, even when they mirror each other.
Russia is the freshest example. Russia now waives visas for Vietnamese ordinary passport holders under its own decree, which Vietnam's Foreign Ministry welcomed as Russia's policy. It took effect on October 15, 2026. Russians still enter Vietnam on the 45-day unilateral list, and either country can change its own rule without asking the other. On the arrival form, a Russian ordinary passport is Unilateral exemption.
Belarus moved the other way. It sat on Vietnam's older unilateral list, and since January 30, 2025, a bilateral agreement has covered Belarusian ordinary passports for 30 days per entry. The legal basis changed, and the arrival form follows the legal basis.
Phu Quoc, Certificates and Tour Groups: Exemptions That Are Neither
Phu Quoc runs on a third basis. Any nationality can visit the island visa-free for up to 30 days under the law's rule for qualifying coastal economic zones, using the form's Phu Quoc Visa Exemption option. The exemption stops at the shoreline, so the mainland needs a visa or one of the exemptions above.
The visa exemption certificate is tied to family, not nationality. Overseas Vietnamese, and foreign spouses and children of Vietnamese citizens or overseas Vietnamese, can apply for one. It lasts up to five years, ending at least 6 months before the passport expires, and each entry allows a stay of up to 6 months.
China has a pilot of its own. Resolution 325/NQ-CP lets Chinese tour groups fly direct from mainland China into Cam Ranh visa-free from October 12, 2026, to December 31, 2027. The catch is that it covers only package tours run by Vietnamese international travel companies, in groups of at least two, staying in Khanh Hoa province. Hong Kong and Macau passports are excluded. The arrival form's lookup table does carry a bilateral entry for Chinese ordinary passports, but outside the pilot, independent Chinese travelers still need a visa.
After the Counter: The Stamp, the Clock and Staying Longer
Whatever you chose on the form, the officer's stamp decides your stay. Legally it's a temporary residence certification, and Article 31 sets its length: the treaty period for bilateral visitors, 45 days for unilateral ones and 30 days on Phu Quoc. The UK government advises checking that the date in your passport is 45 days from your arrival date before you leave border control. Immigration won't change it once you've left the airport, and a wrong date can get you accused of overstaying.
⚠️ Do the date math before you walk away from the counter. Count from your arrival date: 21 days for a Filipino passport, 30 for a Thai one, 45 for a British one. If the stamp says otherwise, raise it with the officer then and there.
The exemption won't stretch for a longer trip. Unilateral visitors can be considered for a visa or an extension under Article 31. Extensions are done from inside Vietnam through a sponsor (a company, organization or person in Vietnam), and we don't handle them. Switching from visa-free entry to an eVisa means leaving Vietnam and re-entering. If your trip runs past your exemption, get an eVisa of up to 90 days before you fly.
A Few Parting Notes
If your passport isn't in the table, as with U.S. and Indian ordinary passports, you need a visa for anywhere beyond Phu Quoc. The eVisa is open to citizens of every country and territory, for up to 90 days. You can apply yourself at evisa.gov.vn and pay Vietnam Immigration's fee of $25 for single entry or $50 for multiple entry, which isn't refunded if the application is refused. Or apply through us: eVisa prices if you're not exempt start at $54 per applicant for a 1-month single-entry eVisa, with the Vietnam Immigration stamp fee included. We prepare, check and file the application; Vietnam Immigration issues the visa and sets the timeline. Vietnam Visa by BDA is a private company, not affiliated with the Vietnamese government.
Recheck your line in the table before each trip. Each unilateral decision lasts no more than five years, and the current two end on March 14, 2028, and August 14, 2028, unless Vietnam renews them.