Not for a tourist eVisa. Vietnam's immigration law ties most visas to a sponsor in Vietnam and then exempts the eVisa, and the eVisa form's nearest question is a Yes or No about who you'll contact in Vietnam.
A Vietnam visa invitation letter only comes into it when you collect a visa at an embassy or at the border, and even then you don't write it. A company or relative in Vietnam files a request with Vietnam Immigration on form NA2 or NA3, and Immigration answers within 5 working days. Most of what's sold online as an invitation letter is that request, or Vietnam Immigration's approval that comes back. Some passports don't need a visa, so check whether you need a visa at all before anything else.
The Tourist eVisa: No Letter, No Sponsor
The rule sits in Article 10(2) of Vietnam's Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners. A visa needs an agency, organization or individual in Vietnam to invite or sponsor you, except under the eVisa articles and one embassy exception covered below. For the eVisa, you apply yourself online, upload a photo and your passport data page, and pay once you have an application code. Nobody in Vietnam has to vouch for you.
Citizens of every country and territory can apply for a Vietnam eVisa, and that's been the rule since August 15, 2023. By law, Vietnam Immigration has 3 working days to decide an eVisa once it has the complete application and the fee.
The closest the form comes to an invitation is item 6.2, which asks about the "Agency/Organization/Individual that the applicant plans to contact when entering Viet Nam" and offers Yes or No, with details only if you answer Yes. A partner company you'll meet or a relative you'll stay with is the kind of contact it means. It's a line on your own NA1a form, not a document someone else has to produce.
⚠️ Don't pay for a letter your eVisa doesn't need. If a site wants an invitation or approval letter fee on a tourist eVisa, it's selling a document Vietnamese law doesn't ask for on that visa. Your application, your photo and your passport data page are the whole file.
When a Letter Is Required: Embassy Visas and Visa on Arrival
The sponsor rule bites when you want a visa issued by a Vietnamese embassy or consulate, or stamped at the border. Once Immigration has approved the sponsor's request and notified the mission, you hand in your passport, the visa application form and a photo, and the mission issues the visa within 3 working days of that notice.
Visa on arrival is narrower still. Article 18 allows it only in listed cases, such as departing from a country with no Vietnamese visa office, a tour run by a Vietnamese international travel company, a relative's funeral or serious illness, or an emergency. Independent holiday travel isn't one of them. The approval has to exist before you board: a sponsor in Vietnam gets it from Vietnam Immigration, and the border officer stamps the visa against it. At the counter you hand over your passport, the approval and a completed form with a photo, and the government fee is $25 for single entry or $50 for multiple entry.
What the Letter Really Is: NA2, NA3 and Immigration's Reply
In Vietnamese practice there's no letter from your host to you. The document is the sponsor's request to the Immigration Department, on one of two forms set by Circular 70/2026/TT-BCA, in force since July 1, 2026:
- NA2, from an organization. A formal letter to the Immigration Department listing each foreigner, the number of entries and dates, the purpose, the program and the receiving organization. It ends by asking Immigration to notify a named Vietnamese embassy or to let the visitors collect visas at a border gate.
- NA3, from a family member. Its English title is *Sponsoring application form for foreign family members to enter Vietnam*, and the sponsor addresses it to the same department.
Vietnam Immigration's answer goes back to the sponsor, not to you. Form NB1 lists each approved person with where they'll receive the visa and a notification number, and separately lists anyone refused, with the reason. That number is the part you need. The Washington embassy's application form has a box for "Visa Approval/Reference Number (if any)", and the number goes in that box. Here's more on the approval letter and its stamping fee.
The vetting step costs nothing at the government end. The Ministry of Public Security's procedure page for NA2 and NA3 requests lists no fee, and the visa fee is paid when the visa is issued. Whatever an agency quotes for a "letter" is a charge for its own work, not a fee Vietnam Immigration collects.
Who Can Sponsor You: Companies, Relatives and the 2026 Rules
The law's list of sponsors runs from state bodies to diplomatic missions, but the ones a traveler is likely to have are these:
- Enterprises set up under Vietnamese law, and other legal entities.
- Vietnamese citizens who live permanently in Vietnam.
- Foreigners holding a permanent or temporary residence card.
Individuals can sponsor visits only, and they have to prove the relationship. A company also can't start sponsoring the day it decides to. Before its first request, an organization files a certified copy of its establishment license and a letter introducing its seal and authorized signature with the Immigration Department, once. A partner that has never invited anyone should start there before you book flights.
Law 118/2025/QH15, in force since July 1, 2026, changed two things a family sponsor will notice. A Vietnamese citizen living in Vietnam can sponsor foreign grandparents, parents-in-law, a spouse, children and siblings to visit, and grandparents can sponsor foreign grandchildren. And sponsors can now file by public postal service or online as well as in person, as long as they meet the e-account and e-signature conditions for the online route.
⚠️ A friend on a tourist visa can't sponsor you. An individual sponsor has to be a Vietnamese citizen living in Vietnam or a foreigner holding a permanent or temporary residence card, can sponsor visits only, and must hold papers proving the relationship to you.
Sponsor Timelines: Two Clocks Before You Fly
The sponsor route runs on two clocks, one after the other. Vietnam Immigration has 5 working days to answer a request when the visitor will collect the visa at an embassy, 3 working days for an ordinary border pickup and 12 working hours for a funeral, a seriously ill relative or an emergency. Then the embassy runs its own clock: in Washington, it's 3 business days once you hold an approval, or 5 working days if you apply without one.
Stack Immigration's 5 working days on the 3 the law gives the mission once it's notified and a sponsored embassy visa needs 8 working days of government time before postage, against 3 working days by law for an eVisa. Vietnam's embassy in Australia tells business visitors the sponsor's approval "takes at least 5 working days or more" from the date every required document is in, so a partner who files late can sink a trip on paper alone.
Tourists at a Vietnamese Embassy: Let the Embassy Arrange It
If you'd rather carry a visa from a Vietnamese embassy, you may not need a sponsor of your own. The law's own exception is narrow: Article 17(3) lets the head of a Vietnamese mission issue a visa of up to 30 days without a sponsor, but only to people with working ties to that mission and their families, or to people backed by a request from the host country's foreign ministry or a diplomatic note from a foreign embassy. Everyone else depends on the mission's practice, as at Vietnam's embassy in Washington. If you're coming for less than 3 months and have no approval, you leave the approval number blank and "the Embassy will take care of it", though it warns extra processing fees may apply.
Washington also says US citizens can be granted multiple-entry visas of up to one year. Its form offers the less-than-6-months and up-to-one-year visa lengths only with an approval, which is where a sponsor comes back in. US passport holders can check the visa position for US citizens first. A trip that fits inside an eVisa's maximum of 90 days skips the mail and the approval box entirely.
Business Travelers: Meetings on an eVisa, Work Through a Sponsor
The eVisa form's purpose list offers tourist, visiting relatives, working, business and others, so a business trip doesn't automatically mean a sponsored visa. The same form reminds applicants that investors, lawyers, workers and students need supporting papers, and that your activities in Vietnam must match your purpose of entry.
Longer or employment-based stays go through a sponsor. DN1 business visas, for working with a Vietnamese company, can be valid for up to one year, as can DN2 visas for offering services or setting up a commercial presence under trade treaties. Work visas (LĐ1 and LĐ2) can be valid for up to two years. Each starts with the company's NA2 request, and our guide to how business and work visas are sponsored walks through the categories. We file eVisas only and don't arrange work permits or work visas.
⚠️ The purpose you declare follows you around. Decree 282/2025/ND-CP fines a foreigner VND 20 to 25 million for activities that don't match the purpose declared for the visa, and VND 15 to 20 million for working without permission.
The Private Letter: Why Shared Approvals Exposed Strangers
The phrase "private letter" makes sense once you see form NB3, Immigration's reply for a visa-on-arrival pickup, which lists every approved person in one table with sex, date of birth, nationality, passport number and border gate. When one NA2 request covered many unrelated travelers, they all received the same reply, so your passport number and birth date went to every stranger on the list. A private letter is an NB3 that lists only you and your own group.
None of this touches the eVisa. Your eVisa is your own PDF file, downloaded from evisa.gov.vn. The visa-on-arrival letter is a document we don't handle. As our FAQ puts it, "We don't process visa-on-arrival letters anymore," and we don't write invitation letters or act as anyone's sponsor.
Applying Online Instead: The eVisa in Practice
Or we can prepare, check and file it for you. Our prices start at $54 per applicant for a 1-month single-entry eVisa, with the Vietnam Immigration stamp fee included, and run to $84 for 1-month multiple entry, $94 for 3-month single and $104 for 3-month multiple. Normal delivery is 5 to 10 business days, and the clock starts when your application reaches Vietnam Immigration, normally within 2 business hours of payment, not at checkout. Processing times are set by Vietnam Immigration. We can file, chase and correct; we can't move an approval up the line. Give yourself one to two weeks and the speed tiers stop mattering.
Our page on how to apply for the eVisa online walks through each step. Vietnam Visa by BDA is a private company. We're not affiliated with the Vietnamese government.
A Few Parting Notes
If your trip doesn't fit an eVisa, ask your host before you book which form it will file: NA2 for an organization, after its one-time registration with Vietnam Immigration, or NA3 for a relative. Then get the reference number from Immigration's NB1 reply, because that number, not a letter addressed to you, is what the embassy form wants.
Plans change mid-trip, too. If you're in Vietnam on an eVisa and need a new visa, a sponsor in Vietnam has to apply for it, so the letter question can come back after you've landed. The sponsor files with Vietnam Immigration or the Foreign Ministry, and the decision takes up to 5 working days from a complete file.