Vietnam visa policy has changed more in the last three years than in the twenty before it, and a great deal of what's published about it is out of date. Often it's out of date by a single resolution, which is enough to leave you at a check-in desk arguing about a rule that stopped applying in March 2025. What follows is a chronological account of where the rules stand in August 2026: which instrument made each change, when it took effect, and what it means for you. Where sources genuinely conflict, and on one point they do, we name both sides.
The Rules That Apply Today: Vietnam's Visa Policy in Plain Terms
Everything in current Vietnamese visa policy rests on one instrument. Resolution 127/NQ-CP, dated August 14, 2023 and in force from August 15, 2023, extended the electronic visa to citizens of all countries and territories, raised the maximum stay to 90 days, and allowed multiple entry for the first time (Embassy of Vietnam in the United States). Before that date the eVisa ran 30 days, single entry, for a limited list of nationalities.
The eligibility test is short. You must be outside Vietnam when you apply, hold a valid passport, and not fall under Article 21 of the Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners, which sets out the grounds on which an individual can be barred. Vietnam publishes no list of nationalities excluded from the eVisa, because there isn't one. The bar in Article 21 attaches to a person, not a passport.
The mechanics are equally plain. Vietnam's eVisa system charges USD 25 single entry and USD 50 multiple entry, states a processing time of three working days, and offers no expedited tier (Vietnam National Electronic Visa system). The fee isn't returned if the application is refused. Our pricing page publishes it next to what we charge.
What Changed and When: The Instruments Behind the Current Rules
Vietnamese visa rules move by resolution and decree, each with a date it takes effect. A page written between two of those dates isn't wrong so much as expired, and it rarely says which. Here is the sequence behind the rules in force today.
| Effective Date | Instrument | What Changed | What It Means for a Traveler |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 15, 2023 | Resolution 127/NQ-CP | eVisa opened to all countries and territories, up to 90 days, single or multiple entry | Anyone can apply, and 30 days is no longer the ceiling |
| January 30, 2025 | Vietnam and Belarus bilateral agreement | Mutual visa exemption for ordinary passports | Belarusians get 30 days, not 45 |
| March 15, 2025 | Resolution 44/NQ-CP | 45-day exemption renewed for 12 countries to March 14, 2028 | Belarus drops off the unilateral list |
| August 15, 2025 | Resolution 229/NQ-CP | 45-day exemption for 12 more European countries to August 14, 2028 | The 45-day list reaches 24 |
| December 2, 2025 | Resolution 389/NQ-CP | 41 checkpoints added, taking the eVisa total to 83 | Far more gates accept an eVisa |
| December 15, 2025 | Decree 282/2025 | Replaced Decree 144/2021/ND-CP, doubling the maximum overstay fine | Overstaying costs up to VND 40 million |
| April 15, 2026 | Pre-Arrival Information rollout | Digital declaration launched at Ho Chi Minh City, then extended | One more form before you fly |
| September 15, 2026 | Decree 286/2026/ND-CP | Real-time data sharing between agencies | Nothing changes at the counter |
The pattern is obvious: Vietnam has spent three years widening access and tightening enforcement at once. The last entry deserves a sentence so nobody worries about it. Decree 286/2026/ND-CP, effective September 15, 2026, adds electronic data sharing between agencies. Exemption periods, the 30-day visa-free entries and the 90-day eVisa validity are unchanged by it.
Entry Points: Resolution 389 Took the eVisa From 42 Gates to 83
Under Resolution 127/NQ-CP the eVisa was accepted at 42 checkpoints: 13 airports, 16 land border gates and 13 seaports. Resolution 389/NQ-CP, dated December 2, 2025, added 41 more, being 4 airports, 11 land gates and 26 seaports. That took the total to 83 checkpoints, being 17 airports, 27 land borders and 39 seaports (VietnamPlus, Vietnam News Agency).
The seaport expansion is the underrated part, because tripling the number of ports that accept an eVisa matters enormously to cruise passengers, who previously worked around a very short list. The land border additions do the same for overland routes from Laos, Cambodia and China.
⚠️ Two of the four new airports are on the list but not yet usable. Resolution 389/NQ-CP added Long Thanh, Gia Binh, Vinh and Chu Lai, and Long Thanh and Gia Binh apply only once they are put into operation. Until that happens the working number of eVisa airports is about 15, not 17. If your route depends on landing at Long Thanh, confirm the airport is open before buying the ticket.
One further change removes a problem that used to catch people out. The port-of-entry field has been taken off the issued eVisa, so holders are no longer tied to the checkpoint they nominated. Older guidance, a fair amount of it still live, warns that a mismatch between your stated entry point and your actual one will stop you at the counter. That warning has aged out.
The 45-Day Exemption: Twenty-Four Countries Under Two Resolutions
Twenty-four countries hold Vietnam's unilateral 45-day visa exemption, and they got there through two separate resolutions. Resolution 44/NQ-CP, dated March 7, 2025, exempts citizens of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland for 45 days from the date of entry, running from March 15, 2025 to March 14, 2028 (Bao Chinh phu, Vietnam Government Online Newspaper).
Resolution 229/NQ-CP, dated August 8, 2025, adds twelve more under a tourism development stimulus program: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. That exemption also runs 45 days from the date of entry, applies regardless of passport type, and covers August 15, 2025 to August 14, 2028 (Embassy of Vietnam in Japan). Twelve plus twelve is 24, and that is the defensible number.
Two details decide whether the exemption is any use to you. The first is that 45 days is a ceiling, not a starting point: if your trip runs to seven weeks, it doesn't stretch and you need an eVisa. The second is that both resolutions expire in 2028, and Vietnam has reshaped these lists repeatedly, so check your position in the month you travel or start from our eligibility pages, which are maintained by nationality.
Being on the list doesn't settle what you may do once you land, either. Tourism, family visits and short business meetings are one thing; paid work, study and residency need a different visa class, which our guide to the Vietnam business visa covers.
Belarus and Chile: Two Cases That Show Why the Mechanism Matters
Belarus is the clearest example in Vietnamese visa policy of why stale guidance is dangerous. Belarus sat on the previous 13-country unilateral list under Resolution 128/NQ-CP of August 2023, at 45 days, and was not carried into the replacement, Resolution 44/NQ-CP of March 7, 2025, which names only the twelve countries above. Belarusians are still exempt, but on a different basis: a bilateral agreement on mutual visa exemption for ordinary passport holders, in force since January 30, 2025, giving 30 days per entry and no more than 90 days in a calendar year (Embassy of the Republic of Belarus in Vietnam).
The gap between those positions is fifteen days and a yearly cap. A Belarusian working from a page that still says 45 days, and several Vietnamese tourism pages still do, could plan a six-week trip on an exemption that ends at day 30. Anything past that is an overstay, and a stale source is no defense at the counter.
⚠️ A visa page with no date on it isn't worth reading. Belarus is the sharpest illustration, but the trap applies to any figure quoted without its instrument. If a page tells you how many days you get, or how many countries are exempt, and doesn't name the resolution and the date it took effect, you can't tell whether it was written before or after the rule changed.
Chile shows the other half of the picture. Chileans enter visa-free for up to 90 days, the most generous exemption Vietnam grants, under a bilateral agreement for ordinary passport holders in force since August 11, 2017. It carries conditions the unilateral list doesn't: six months of passport validity, and entry for purposes that are not income-generating. Stay past 90 days or come to work and you need a visa. The two mechanisms are separate, and a page that lumps them together gets both wrong.
Phu Quoc: A 30-Day Exemption With Conditions Attached
Phu Quoc runs its own exemption, and it's genuinely open to every nationality. The legal basis is the coastal economic zone provision in Law No. 51/2019/QH14, which amended the Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners and took effect on July 1, 2020, granting visa-free entry with 30 days of temporary residence to foreigners entering such a zone. Phu Quoc qualifies, and the waiver is applied to the island by government resolution.
The conditions are where people come unstuck, and they are strict. You have to arrive directly from a foreign country by air or sea, though airside transit through a Vietnamese international terminal onto a domestic flight to Phu Quoc still counts, which is how most travelers get there. Your passport needs six months of validity, you need an onward ticket out of Vietnam within 30 days, and your stay has to be confined to the island.
That last condition is absolute. Travel on to the mainland and the exemption is void, so a plan pairing a week on the island with a few days in Ho Chi Minh City needs an eVisa. It's a common and expensive misreading, because the island is the part people research first. If your itinerary has any mainland component, treat it as an eVisa trip and check the current position on our FAQs page first.
Overstay Penalties: The Fines Doubled in December 2025
Decree 282/2025 took effect on December 15, 2025, replacing Decree 144/2021/ND-CP on administrative penalties in public order and security. The maximum overstay fine doubled, from VND 20 million to VND 40 million, about USD 1,520 at the conversion published when the decree took effect (Viet Nam News). The bands scale with the length of the overstay.
| Length of Overstay | Fine (VND) | Approximate USD |
|---|---|---|
| Under 16 days | 500,000 to 2,000,000 | 19 to 76 |
| 16 to under 30 days | 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 | 190 to 380 |
| 30 to under 60 days | Up to 15,000,000 | Up to 570 |
| 60 to under 90 days | Up to 20,000,000 | Up to 760 |
| 90 days to 6 months | Up to 25,000,000 | Up to 950 |
| 6 months to under 1 year | Up to 30,000,000 | Up to 1,140 |
| 1 year or longer | Up to 40,000,000 | Up to 1,520 |
Note what didn't change. The band for overstays of under 16 days stayed at VND 500,000 to 2 million, and that's where most accidental overstays land. The increases fall hardest on long overstays, a deliberate signal about who the decree is aimed at. The dollar figures drift with the exchange rate, so read them as scale.
⚠️ The fine is rarely the worst part of an overstay. Vietnamese authorities can stop an overstayer from leaving the country until the penalty is settled, and an overstay is also grounds for deportation and a future entry ban (UK FCDO travel advice). That turns a paperwork error into a missed flight and a problem the next time you apply. If your dates are tight, apply for the longer visa rather than cut it fine.
The Pre-Arrival Declaration: In Force, and Described Two Different Ways
Vietnam's Immigration Department, part of the Ministry of Public Security, runs an online Pre-Arrival Information system. Travelers submit passport, flight and accommodation details no more than three days before arrival and receive a QR code that is scanned at immigration. It is not a visa application and does not replace a visa. It went live at Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City on April 15, 2026, reached Phu Quoc on June 1, then Noi Bai in Hanoi and Da Nang on June 15, with Cam Ranh added in late June.
Here honesty is more useful than confidence, because sources conflict on whether the declaration is legally mandatory. Viet Nam News, reporting on April 17, 2026, calls it a mandatory declaration for foreign nationals and overseas Vietnamese entering on visas, with Vietnamese citizens and airside transit passengers exempt (Viet Nam News). The UK FCDO takes the opposite view, describing travelers as encouraged by the Vietnamese government to complete it and stating that it is not currently a mandatory requirement.
Both are credible sources and we won't pretend one of them doesn't exist. What isn't in dispute is that the system runs at the airports where most foreign arrivals land, and that it takes a few minutes.
⚠️ Complete the declaration whether or not it turns out to be compulsory. Filling it in when it wasn't strictly required costs five minutes. Skipping it at an airport where the staff expect it costs a queue at the far end of a long flight. Do it in the three days before you fly, once your accommodation is booked.
Visa on Arrival: What Can Honestly Be Said in 2026
Visa on arrival is the topic where the published record is weakest, so we'll be careful with it. The route as it has long worked is not a visa handed to anyone who turns up at the counter. It runs on a pre-approved letter obtained from the Immigration Department before you fly, with the visa stamped on landing, and it has never been available at land borders or seaports. Commercial sources say the letter is accepted at eight international airports, the figure varies by source, and no Vietnamese government page listing them could be found.
We could not confirm whether the route remains legally available in 2026 either. No Vietnamese government page affirming it, and none withdrawing it, could be located. That is an unsatisfying answer and it is the accurate one. Anybody telling you with certainty that visa on arrival is dead, or alive and well, is going beyond the published record. Our guide to the Vietnam visa approval letter sets out how the mechanism worked and where the uncertainty sits.
What we can tell you is what we do. We no longer process visa on arrival letters and we recommend the eVisa instead, for practical reasons: it's accepted at 83 checkpoints rather than a handful of airports, and it arrives as a PDF tied to one passport, so you land holding a visa rather than a letter. If you're connecting through Vietnam rather than entering it, our guide to the Vietnam transit visa covers that case.
A Few Parting Notes on Reading Vietnamese Visa News
Checkpoints went from 42 to 83, the exemption lists were rebuilt twice, overstay penalties doubled, and a digital arrival declaration appeared at the busiest airports. None of it is finished, and the next resolution will land without much warning, which makes a working habit worth more than any single fact on this page.
When you read a claim about Vietnamese visa rules, look for the instrument and the date. A page that gives you a country count without naming a resolution is quoting a number it inherited from another page, which inherited it from a third. Then confirm the two things that stop people at the counter: six months of passport validity beyond your arrival, and a stay that covers every night you've booked. Our Vietnam visa guide runs through the rest of the process from application to arrival.