Moldovan passport holders need a visa to enter Vietnam, and from Chisinau the eVisa is the only route that does not involve sending your passport abroad. Here is what Vietnam asks for, what it costs, how long it takes, and the details worth settling before you book.
Yes, you need a visa. Twenty-four countries hold Vietnam's 45-day unilateral exemption, twelve named by Resolution 44/NQ-CP of 7 March 2025 and twelve more by Resolution 229/NQ-CP of 8 August 2025. Moldova appears in neither text, and there is no bilateral treaty doing the same job for an ordinary Moldovan passport.
One narrow exception exists, and it applies only if you travel for the state. Moldova's Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishes the entry regime its citizens face country by country, and for Vietnam it records visa-free entry of up to 90 days for diplomatic and service passports, alongside a flat "visa required" for ordinary passports. The burgundy passport you travel on for holidays is an ordinary one, and that arrangement does nothing for it.
So Moldovan travelers meet the same conditions as any other non-exempt nationality, and the eVisa clears them. Resolution 127/NQ-CP threw it open to every country and territory on 15 August 2023, as the Embassy of Vietnam in the United States sets out. Ninety days is the ceiling, single or multiple entry is your choice, and what arrives is a PDF.
Where you can use it grew at the end of 2025. Resolution 389/NQ-CP of 2 December 2025 added 41 gates, taking the total to 83 checkpoints: 17 airports, 27 land border gates and 39 seaports. Long Thanh and Gia Binh count only once they open, so roughly 15 airports are usable today, and every gateway a Moldovan itinerary touches is on the list.
Phu Quoc is where the rule bends. The island waives the visa for 30 days for any nationality arriving directly from abroad by air or sea, with an onward ticket out within 30 days. Step onto the mainland and the waiver is gone.
Moldovan travel documents have opened up a great deal in a decade: biometric passport holders have entered the Schengen area without a visa since 28 April 2014, as Moldova's foreign ministry records. Vietnam sits outside that trend, which is why some travelers assume they are covered. Anyone on another passport can check the eligibility index.
No embassy trip, no visa-on-arrival queue. That matters more than usual here: Vietnam keeps no resident embassy in Chisinau. Its ambassador for Moldova has been the one based in Kyiv, accredited to both countries and presenting credentials in Chisinau in May 2018. A paper visa would mean sending your passport abroad. The eVisa never leaves your desk.
We do not process visa-on-arrival letters. That route works at a short list of airports, never at a land or sea border, and ends in a counter queue after a night flight. The eVisa is settled before you leave home and works at all 83 checkpoints.
Six things. The first two are where most stalled applications go wrong.
⚠️ Emergency and temporary passports sit in a gray area, so do not assume yours will be accepted. No Vietnamese government or embassy source states whether they qualify for an eVisa, and we will not guess with your trip. Apply on your ordinary Moldovan passport where you can. If a temporary document is all you hold, call us on +84 832 320 320 before you pay.
| 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 is 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 since 1 April 2026. On a $54 single-entry order, $25 goes to Vietnam and $29 is ours for preparing, checking, filing and chasing the application.
You can skip us and file it yourself at evisa.gov.vn for the stamp fee alone. With three clear weeks and a straightforward passport, that is the cheaper path and we will not pretend otherwise. Our fee buys the second read, the correction, and a person who answers when something goes wrong. The full fee breakdown lists every surcharge.
Three speeds, priced per applicant:
None of those counts begin at checkout. They start at the handover to Vietnam Immigration, inside 2 business hours of payment. Vietnam's statutory figure is 3 working days, 3 to 5 is what we see, and Tet closes offices for most of a week.
The timeline belongs to Vietnam Immigration, not to us. We can file fast, chase and correct, but no agency makes the department decide sooner. Flying inside 24 hours? Call the hotline before you pay so we can confirm we can deliver, and if we cannot, we will refund you.
The name of the visa matters less than the shape of your itinerary. If Vietnam sits between one arrival and one departure, single entry is all you need.
Multiple entry is the answer the moment your route leaves Vietnam and returns. Nobody flies 15 hours from Chisinau for one country, and a trip that long usually collects Cambodia, Laos or Thailand. Cross into Siem Reap on a single-entry visa and it is spent, whatever days remain. The upgrade costs $30 on a one-month visa and $10 on a three-month one. When in doubt, choose multiple entry.
Before you pay for anything, read this. Romania's National Citizenship Authority had recorded 858,913 Moldovan citizens reacquiring Romanian citizenship since 1991 as of July 2025. Many Moldovan travelers hold two passports, and the two are not in the same position in Vietnam.
Romania is one of the 12 countries in Resolution 229/NQ-CP, so a Romanian passport holder entering for tourism is exempt for 45 days until 14 August 2028. A Moldovan passport holder is not. If you hold both, read the Romanian eligibility page first, because you may owe us nothing at all.
One rule decides the rest: US State Department guidance for Vietnam states that you must enter and exit Vietnam on the same passport. Pick the document before you book, apply on it if it needs a visa, and present it at both ends.
Vietnam's own wording is thin: a photograph, straight on, no glasses. Which is why photographs remain a common reason a file stops moving. Hit all five points below and yours will not be the problem:
Two airports take almost every Moldovan arrival. Noi Bai in Hanoi (HAN) and Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) are the only Vietnamese airports reachable from Chisinau with a single connection, because they are the cities served nonstop from the hubs a Moldovan itinerary uses.
Da Nang (DAD) is an eVisa checkpoint and the gateway to Hoi An and Hue, but from Chisinau it needs a second connection through Bangkok, Singapore or Seoul. Phu Quoc (PQC) is a checkpoint too, usually reached on a domestic hop.
If you leave Vietnam and return by road, the breakdown matters: 27 gates are land crossings, covering a walk back in from Cambodia or Laos, and 39 are seaports. Vietnam has dropped the port-of-entry field from the issued document too, so nominating Noi Bai and landing at Tan Son Nhat is no longer a problem.
⚠️ There is a second form to fill in, and it is not the visa. Vietnam's Immigration Department opened Pre-Arrival Information at prearrival.immigration.gov.vn in stages through 2026: Tan Son Nhat from 15 April, Phu Quoc from 1 June, Noi Bai and Da Nang from 15 June. File passport, flight and accommodation details inside the three days before you land and a QR code comes back. Its legal footing is disputed: mandatory per Vietnamese state media, not currently a legal requirement per the UK Foreign Office. Do it at those four airports, and treat the eVisa as the separate document it is.
The end of 2025 brought a much harsher regime. On 15 December 2025 Decree 282/2025 replaced Decree 144/2021, and the ceiling on overstay fines went from VND 20 million to VND 40 million, near USD 1,520.
The bands rise with its length. Under 16 days runs VND 500,000 to 2 million, roughly USD 19 to 76. From 16 to 30 days it jumps to VND 5 to 10 million, roughly USD 190 to 380, and climbs from there. Those conversions date from December 2025, so read them as approximate.
The fine is the smaller problem. An overstay is grounds for deportation and a future entry ban, and UK Foreign Office guidance notes that Vietnamese authorities can stop you leaving until it is paid. Waiting that out in Hanoi, with one connection a day back toward Chisinau, costs far more than the fine.
⚠️ The clock on your stay is set at issue, not at the border. The PDF builds its window around the entry date you typed into the form, so a flight delayed two days out of Chisinau costs you two days in Vietnam. Read the exit date off the PDF and plan to that.
No. Vietnam has no resident mission in Moldova, and its ambassador for Moldova has been the one accredited from Kyiv. That makes a paper visa slow to arrange from Chisinau, which is why almost every Moldovan traveler files an eVisa instead. Nothing in the process asks you to visit a mission anywhere.
You need a visa. Some comparison pages confuse the 90-day maximum length of the eVisa with an exemption, and others repeat the diplomatic and service passport arrangement as though it covered everyone. Moldova's foreign ministry lists Vietnam as visa required for ordinary passports. Arrive without one and the airline will not board you.
No, and no minimum balance applies. The Vietnamese form asks for passport details, a photograph, your travel dates and your entry point. It does not ask for bank statements, payslips or hotel bookings. The one place a ticket matters is the Phu Quoc waiver, which needs proof you leave inside 30 days.
Not through us, and it fits this trip badly. Visa on arrival still needs a pre-approval letter before you fly, works at only a few airports, and never at a land or sea border. After a night connection through Istanbul or the Gulf, a second queue for a stamp is the last thing you want.
Strictly, no. The island's 30-day waiver applies to any nationality arriving from abroad by air or sea and staying put. From Chisinau nothing flies near it directly, so you would clear the long-haul leg into Ho Chi Minh City and pick up a domestic flight airside, which still qualifies. Most people buy the eVisa regardless, because one mainland night cancels it.
Check the airport code on your booking. Chisinau International changed its IATA code from KIV to RMO on 18 January 2024, and old itineraries still show the retired code. It has no bearing on the eVisa, which names your Vietnamese entry point, not your departure airport.
Getting there takes the better part of a day, one stop at best. There is no nonstop service between Moldova and Vietnam. Istanbul is the strongest single connection: Nhan Dan reported on 7 August 2026 that Turkish Airlines flies direct between Istanbul and both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, carrying over 439,000 passengers on those routes in 2025. Dubai is the other realistic one-stop, nonstop from Chisinau and then about 6 hours 45 minutes to Hanoi or 7 hours 25 minutes to Ho Chi Minh City. Budget 15 to 20 hours door to door. Vienna, Warsaw and Bucharest are nonstop from Chisinau but none has a nonstop to Vietnam, so each costs a second stop.
Every routing runs west or south. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency's conflict zone bulletins for Ukraine and the Russian Federation run to 31 January 2027, so the old eastbound connection through Moscow is gone. Plan on Istanbul or the Gulf and leave a generous connection.
Vietnam is four or five hours ahead, depending on the month. Vietnam sits at UTC+7 and never changes its clocks. Moldova keeps UTC+2 and moves to summer time on the last Sunday in March, returning on the last Sunday in October, rules the government reconfirmed on 25 February 2026. So Vietnam is 4 hours ahead of Chisinau in summer and 5 in winter, and our 08:00 to 21:00 support window falls at roughly 04:00 to 17:00 Chisinau time in summer, 03:00 to 16:00 in winter. Our guide to time in Vietnam has the detail.
Watch two Moldovan clusters and one Vietnamese one. Moldova's calendar carries 14 non-working holidays in 2026, among them the run from New Year through Orthodox Christmas on 7 and 8 January, Easter and Pastele Blajinilor in April, and Independence Day on 27 August paired with Limba Noastra on 31 August. Those are the weeks Moldovans travel and a document is hardest to replace at home. Add Tet in Vietnam, and the rule writes itself: hold the visa before the holiday, not during it.
Payment is in US dollars. Your bank converts from lei at its own rate, so expect a small gap between the screen price and your statement. Our Vietnam visa guide and our answers to common visa questions cover the rest.