By law, Vietnam Immigration has 3 working days to answer an eVisa application, counted from the day it has your complete application and the fee. Those are working days in Vietnam time, so weekends, public holidays and any request to amend your details push the answer later.
So a Vietnam visa still processing after a long weekend isn't automatically late, and the label on the evisa.gov.vn status page tells you which problem you actually have. Unpaid means it never reached Immigration. Amendment required means it's waiting on you. Processing means it's waiting its turn, and that wait is the one part nobody outside Immigration can hurry: the government's eVisa site has no express option, and we can't push an application you filed there up the line. What you can do is read the label correctly, fix what's fixable today and decide early whether to wait, move the flight or travel visa-free.
Normal Processing Time: 3 Working Days, Counted in Hanoi
Vietnam's immigration law sets that figure, and the wording matters. The Immigration Department answers within 3 working days of receiving complete application information and the visa fee. That's a legal deadline. It starts when Immigration has everything, not when you open the form, and it isn't a promise about the minute your PDF appears.
Three working days is the statutory standard, and 3 to 5 working days is what usually happens. Tet and public holidays push it further. The answers to common timing questions on our FAQ page put our own Normal tier at 5 to 10 business days. The clock starts when your application reaches Vietnam Immigration, normally within 2 business hours of payment, not at checkout. Treat the wider range as your planning figure, not as a different law.
⚠️ The clock runs on Hanoi time. The portal says declaration and processing times run in the UTC+7 time zone, and Saturday and Sunday are the civil service's weekly days off. A Friday-evening submission from anywhere in the Americas is already Saturday in Hanoi, so nothing moves until Monday, Vietnam time.
Your Status Label: What It's Actually Telling You
Vietnam Immigration's status search asks for the application number you were shown after applying (the portal calls it the app no.), the email address you used and your date of birth, plus a security code. There's no passport-number lookup on the public form. A site that offers to check your Vietnam visa by passport number isn't Vietnam Immigration, so don't hand it your passport details.
The English portal never says "approved" or "rejected." These are its labels, and what each one means with a flight coming up:
| Status | What It Means | What to Do Today |
|---|---|---|
| Unpaid | Immigration hasn't received it, so the clock hasn't started | Reopen it from the status page and pay |
| Processing | It's waiting its turn at Immigration | Count working days in Vietnam time |
| Amendment required | Immigration wants a change, shown on a Reason line | Fix only what the Reason line asks, then send it back |
| Acceptance | Approved: this is your eVisa | Download it and check the entry dates |
| Denial | Refused, and the government fee isn't refunded | A new application means a new fee |
Acceptance is the approval, not a halfway stage. Once it appears, the status page shows your visa number and the dates you're allowed to enter Vietnam, with buttons to download the eVisa and the receipt.
⚠️ Unpaid means not submitted. A failed or abandoned card payment leaves the application on your side of the counter. The portal's payment step ends with a one-time code (OTP) from your card issuer, and if that step fails, so does the payment. You can reopen an unpaid application from the status page, edit it and pay, instead of starting a second one.
Why Applications Stall: The Government's Own Explanation
Vietnam's Immigration Department has said plainly what slows things down. When the new eVisa site launched in November 2024, officials said many tourists had entered their information on unofficial websites or submitted incorrect or incomplete information, causing processing delays. The old portal was handling over 15,000 applications a day at the time. That's a 2024 number, and it shows the scale of the workload, not today's wait.
Incorrect information comes back to you as Amendment required, with Immigration's request on the Reason line. Because the 3 working days run from complete information, our reading of the law is that the count starts again once the corrected application goes back. No published rule says so either way, but it explains why a file that needed one fix takes longer than the headline figure. Fix it the day you see it.
Unofficial websites are the other half of the government's explanation. If you can't find your application on the status page at all, check where you actually applied. Vietnam's eVisa site runs on evisa.gov.vn and its Vietnamese-language alias, thithucdientu.gov.vn. A look-alike site with a different address isn't Immigration, and nothing you typed there ever reached Immigration. If you ordered through us, ask us instead.
Holiday Closures: Two Dates to Check Against Your Flight
"Avoid holidays" is useless without dates, so here are two. Vietnamese Culture Day gives civil servants a holiday on Tuesday, November 24, 2026, and the Tet break runs from Thursday, February 4, through Wednesday, February 10, 2027.
Nothing published says eVisas are processed through Tet, so plan as if they aren't. A file still waiting on Wednesday, February 3, 2027 sits through the whole break, which costs 5 working days on top of the weekend. If your trip starts in February 2027, have the eVisa in hand before February 4. The November 24 holiday is smaller, but it lands on a Tuesday, so an application submitted the Friday before loses that Tuesday as well as the weekend.
What to Do Before Flying: The Order That Works
Work down this list in order. Each step takes minutes, and the early ones are in your hands rather than Immigration's.
- Check the status now. Use the app no., your email and your date of birth on the status page.
- If it says Unpaid, reopen it, check the details and pay. The 3 working days start from there.
- If it says Amendment required, read the Reason line, change only what it asks for and send it back the same day.
- If it says Processing, count working days in Vietnam time, leaving out weekends and holidays. Inside 3, waiting is the right call.
- If it's past 3 working days, send a request through the portal's support form (details in the next section).
- If you fly within days, check whether your passport gets you in without a visa (two sections down).
- If nothing has moved and you're not visa-exempt, change the flight if your fare allows it. Pick new dates inside the validity window you asked for on the form, because you can only enter Vietnam from the entry date printed on the visa and must leave by its expiration date.
⚠️ A second application isn't a shortcut. No published rule says what happens to the first application if you file another, and Vietnam Immigration doesn't refund its eVisa fee if an application is refused. Filing again means paying the fee again, with two files to track.
Getting Help: The Portal's Support Form, Not Your Embassy
The right door is the support form on evisa.gov.vn. It offers four issue types: Wrong application information, Pay failed, Don't remember registration code and Others. A stalled Processing file goes under Others. A lost app no. goes under Don't remember registration code, which beats filing a fresh application and paying twice.
Your own country's embassy is the wrong call. The U.S. Embassy in Vietnam says Vietnamese visa issues are at the sole discretion of the Vietnamese government and that it can't assist. The decision belongs to Vietnam Immigration, so send the request there. Keep your message short: the app no., your travel date and what the status page shows.
Flight in a Few Days: Check Whether You Need a Visa at All
Before you rebook anything, check whether you need a visa at all. Vietnam waives visas for citizens of 24 countries for up to 45 days, under two government resolutions with different rules:
- Any purpose: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, under Resolution 44/NQ-CP.
- Tourism only: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland, under Resolution 229/NQ-CP.
Vietnam also has visa-free agreements with 15 countries, from 14 days for Brunei to 90 days for Chile and Panama. The others are Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. And anyone can visit Phu Quoc island visa-free for up to 30 days, flying in direct or connecting through another Vietnamese international airport without leaving the transit area. That exemption covers the island only, not the mainland.
If your passport is on one of these lists and your trip fits its conditions, you can travel without the eVisa you're waiting on. A US passport isn't on any of them, so Americans need a visa, and the timing above applies to them too.
When to Contact Us: What We Can and Can't Do
Vietnam Visa by BDA is a private company. We're not affiliated with the Vietnamese government. You can apply directly at evisa.gov.vn and pay only the $25 single-entry or $50 multiple-entry stamp fee. We prepare, check and file the application for you, and Vietnam Immigration issues the visa. Here's where that helps and where it doesn't:
- You applied at evisa.gov.vn yourself. We can't take over or speed up that application. The steps above are your route.
- You ordered from us and you're past your tier's delivery time. Email or call us. Processing times are set by Vietnam Immigration. We can file, chase and correct; we can't move an approval up the line.
- You haven't applied anywhere and you fly within days. Our Urgent and Super Urgent tiers deliver in 2 business days (+$45 per applicant) or 1 business day (+$85 per applicant) on top of the base price, which starts at $54 per applicant for a 1-month single-entry eVisa with the Vietnam Immigration stamp fee included. Both count from when your application reaches Vietnam Immigration, and Immigration still decides.
The tightest case needs a phone call: you haven't filed anywhere and your flight leaves within 24 hours. Phone +84 832 320 320 before paying so we can tell you whether it's doable. If we can't deliver in time, we'll tell you upfront and refund. Our support line is staffed from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Vietnam time every day, and those are support hours, not Immigration's processing hours.
A Few Parting Notes
When the status finally reads Acceptance, check the entry dates on the status page against your flight before you do anything else. Then download the eVisa. Vietnam's immigration law describes printing the eVisa from the portal, so carry a printed copy and keep one on your phone.
For the next trip, give yourself one to two weeks and the speed tiers stop mattering. That's what our terms recommend too, and the top of that range leaves room for a holiday and an amendment. For the rules beyond this one problem, see our Vietnam visa policy guide.