Algerian passport holders need a visa to enter Vietnam, and for almost all Algerians that visa is the eVisa. Here is what is required, what it costs, how long it takes, and the details that matter when you fly out of Algiers with no direct service and a working week that ends on Thursday.
Yes, you need a visa. Two resolutions carry Vietnam's 45-day exemption between them: Resolution 44/NQ-CP of 7 March 2025 names 12 countries, and Resolution 229/NQ-CP of 8 August 2025 adds another 12, for 24 altogether. Algeria is on neither list, and no bilateral instrument lifts the requirement for ordinary Algerian passports.
That holds however short the trip. Tourism, family, a conference, a week of meetings all need a visa before you board, and no airline at Houari Boumediene will check you through without one.
What the eVisa does is satisfy that requirement without an embassy in the loop. Since 15 August 2023, under Resolution 127/NQ-CP, it has been open to citizens of every country and territory, as the Embassy of Vietnam in the United States confirms. Ninety days is the maximum, single or multiple entry, and the document is a PDF.
Where it works widened at the end of 2025. Resolution 389/NQ-CP of 2 December 2025 added 41 border gates, taking the total to 83 checkpoints made up of 17 airports, 27 land border gates and 39 seaports. Long Thanh and Gia Binh count only once they open, so about 15 airports are usable today, all of them ones an Algerian traveler would use. Phu Quoc is the single exception to the visa itself: 30 days waived if you arrive straight from abroad by air or sea, hold an onward ticket out within 30 days and stay put. Cross to the mainland and the waiver is void.
Something may change, but it hasn't yet. On upgrading to a Strategic Partnership, the joint statement of 20 November 2025 committed both sides to "initiate negotiations on a visa exemption agreement for holders of ordinary passports" and to pursue a direct flight agreement. Negotiations are not an agreement, and nothing is in force as of August 2026.
If you also hold a French passport, France is on the 45-day list, which changes the answer. Our eligibility index by country has the comparison, and whichever document you pick, enter and exit Vietnam on the same passport.
No embassy trip, no visa-on-arrival queue. Vietnam does keep a resident embassy in Algiers, so a paper visa is possible, but it means an appointment, a journey into the capital and your passport out of your hands for days. The eVisa is filed online and comes back as a PDF you print and carry.
We don't process visa-on-arrival letters. That route needs a pre-approval letter, works at a handful of airports only, never at a land or sea border, and leaves you queuing after twenty hours of travel. The eVisa is settled before you leave home.
Six things. Most stalled applications are missing one of the first two.
⚠️ Nobody can tell you whether an emergency or temporary travel document will be accepted, so do not stake a trip on one. There is no published Vietnamese government or embassy position either way, and guessing on your behalf is not something we will do. File on your ordinary Algerian passport. If a temporary document is all you hold, reach us on +84 832 320 320 before any money changes hands.
| Option | Validity | Our fee (per applicant) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Month Single Entry | 30 days from arrival | $54 |
| 1 Month Multiple Entry | 30 days from arrival | $84 |
| 3 Month Single Entry | 90 days from arrival | $94 |
| 3 Month Multiple Entry | 90 days from arrival | $104 |
All prices include the Vietnam Immigration Department's stamp fee. Here's the arithmetic. Vietnam charges $25 for a single-entry eVisa and $50 for a multiple-entry one, a rate set by Circular 28/2026/TT-BTC and unchanged since 1 April 2026. On a $54 single-entry order, $25 goes to Vietnam and $29 is what we charge for preparing, checking, filing and chasing it.
You can skip us and apply directly at evisa.gov.vn for the stamp fee alone. Some people should: with three weeks in hand and patience for the form, that's the cheaper route and we won't pretend otherwise. Our fee buys the review, the correction and a person who answers when something goes wrong. The full fee breakdown lists every add-on, and the stamp fee is not refunded if an application is refused.
Three speeds, priced per applicant:
The clock does not start when you press submit. It starts when your file lands at Vietnam Immigration, usually inside 2 business hours of payment. Statute puts the standard at 3 working days; 3 to 5 is what actually happens, and Tet shuts Hanoi's offices for days, which stretches everything.
Two calendars sit between you and your visa. Algeria's weekend runs Friday and Saturday, so a form submitted on a Thursday evening lands in a Vietnamese week already underway, while an approval issued on a Friday reaches an Algerian inbox on a day off. The hour, at least, never moves: Algeria holds UTC+1 all year, so the six-hour gap to Hanoi is the same arithmetic in January as in July.
The timeline belongs to Vietnam Immigration, not to us. We can file fast, chase and correct, but we can't make a decision land sooner than the department issues it. Apply one to two weeks out and speed stops mattering. Flying inside 24 hours? Call the hotline before you pay; if we can't help, we say so first and refund you.
Let the itinerary decide this, not the product name. A trip that lands once and leaves once is fully covered by single entry, and the upgrade buys you nothing at all.
Multiple entry earns its place the moment your route leaves Vietnam and returns. Nobody flies twenty hours from Algiers for one country, and a trip built around Vietnam usually picks up Cambodia, Laos or Thailand. Fly out to Siem Reap and back into Ho Chi Minh City on single entry and the visa is spent the moment you cross out. The upgrade is $30 on a one-month visa, $10 on a three-month one. When in doubt, choose multiple entry.
All the portal specifies is a photograph taken straight on, no glasses. That leaves room to submit something that gets bounced, a common reason applications stall. Five checks close the gap:
A phone photo against a white wall in daylight works. A cropped holiday snap doesn't.
Nearly every Algerian traveler lands at one of two airports, and the route map decides that, not the rules. Noi Bai in Hanoi (HAN) and Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) are the Vietnamese airports reachable with one connection from Algiers, whether you route through Istanbul, Doha, Dubai or Paris.
Da Nang (DAD) is on the eVisa list and the gateway to Hoi An and the central coast, but from Algiers it needs a second connection, usually in Bangkok, Singapore or Doha. Phu Quoc (PQC) is an eVisa checkpoint too, otherwise a short domestic hop.
The other gates count once the trip stops being Vietnam-only. Your eVisa is good at 27 land crossings, so coming back overland from Cambodia or Laos causes no trouble, and at 39 seaports for ship arrivals. Port of entry is no longer printed on the issued eVisa, so the checkpoint you named is not binding.
⚠️ The Vietnamese airports Algerians use now expect a declaration before you arrive. The Immigration Department runs it at prearrival.immigration.gov.vn, live at Tan Son Nhat from 15 April 2026, Phu Quoc from 1 June and Noi Bai and Da Nang from 15 June 2026. Passport, flight and accommodation details go in during the three days before you land, and a QR code comes back. Sources disagree on whether it is a legal obligation, Vietnamese state media saying it is and the UK Foreign Office saying it is not, so assume you need it. It substitutes for no part of the visa.
The penalty regime hardened at the close of 2025. From 15 December that year, overstays have been governed by Decree 282/2025 in place of Decree 144/2021, and it doubled what an overstayer can be fined, VND 20 million becoming VND 40 million, somewhere near USD 1,520.
What you pay tracks how far past the date you went. Fewer than 16 days sits at VND 500,000 to 2 million, roughly USD 19 to 76. The 16 to 30 day range becomes VND 5 to 10 million, roughly USD 190 to 380, with heavier bands above that up to the ceiling. December 2025 exchange rates produced those dollar figures, so treat them loosely.
The fine is rarely the real cost. An overstay is grounds for deportation and a future entry ban, and Vietnamese authorities can stop you leaving until the fine is paid. Waiting that out, with your connection gone, costs far more.
⚠️ The exit date is set at issue, not at the border. The PDF's validity window is calculated from the entry date you typed into the form. Show up three days after it and those three days come out of your stay, not out of thin air. Work from the printed date; the stamp in your passport says nothing about when you must leave.
Yes. Vietnam's eVisa has been open to citizens of every country and territory since 15 August 2023, and Algeria has no separate rule. Be outside Vietnam when you apply and hold a valid passport. Nationality doesn't cap the length, so 90 days and multiple entry are both open.
There is. Vietnam keeps a resident embassy in Algiers, led in 2026 by Ambassador Tran Quoc Khanh, so a counter-issued visa is a real option here, unlike in countries with no Vietnamese mission. It's slower and means handing over your passport, so most Algerians file online.
Not if you're traveling this year. The November 2025 joint statement committed both governments to open negotiations on an exemption for ordinary passports and to pursue a direct flight agreement. Neither is in force. Book on today's rules and let a future exemption be a pleasant surprise.
Not through us. We stopped processing visa-on-arrival letters. The route survives as a pre-approval scheme at a few airports, never at a land border or seaport, and still needs paperwork before you fly. After a night flight and a connection, a counter queue is the last thing you want.
Strictly, no. Phu Quoc waives the visa for 30 days if you arrive directly from abroad by air or sea and stay on the island. No Algerian airport flies there, so you'd transit airside through Ho Chi Minh City onto a domestic leg, which still qualifies. Many apply anyway, because one mainland night voids it.
Getting there takes the better part of a day. There's no nonstop service between Algeria and Vietnam, so in practice you connect once. Istanbul, Doha and Dubai are all nonstop from Algiers and all carry nonstop service on to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the Gulf hubs adding roughly six to seven hours out and another seven onward. Paris is the fourth and often most comfortable option: Algiers to Paris is about two and a half hours, and Vietnam Airlines flies Paris to both Vietnamese gateways nonstop in eleven to twelve. Budget 17 to 22 hours door to door.
Vietnam is six hours ahead, all year. Vietnam sits at UTC+7 and doesn't observe daylight saving. Neither does Algeria, which has stayed at UTC+1 with no seasonal change since 1981. The gap to Spain, France or Italy moves between five and six hours twice a year; yours is a flat six in January and July alike. Our 08:00 to 21:00 support window is 02:00 to 15:00 in Algiers every day of the year, so an email sent after work is usually answered by morning. Our guide to time in Vietnam has the detail.
Plan around the Algerian calendar as well as the Vietnamese one. The Algerian public holiday calendar puts Revolution Day on 1 November, Yennayer on 12 January and Independence Day on 5 July, while the moveable Islamic holidays shift about eleven days earlier each year: Eid al-Fitr around 9 March in 2027, Eid al-Adha around 16 May. Passport and civil-status offices keep shortened hours through Ramadan, the month before Eid al-Fitr, so get any document reissued well clear of it. Algeria has also kept a Friday and Saturday weekend since 2009, so set your deadlines on a Sunday-to-Thursday week.
Payment is in US dollars. Your bank converts from the dinar at its own rate, so expect a small gap between the screen price and your statement. Vietnam runs on the dong once you land, and card acceptance is good in the cities, thin outside.
Traffic between the two countries is business before tourism. Vietnamese exports to Algeria reached 284 million USD in the first five months of 2026, roughly 85% of it green coffee, and the Bir Seba oil project in the Sahara has tied PetroVietnam and Sonatrach together since 2015. A short business trip is a common reason Algerians file with us, and multiple entry pays when a second follows. Our Vietnam visa guide and our answers to common visa questions fill in the rest.