Sri Lankan passport holders need a visa to enter Vietnam, and for a holiday or a short business trip that means the eVisa: applied for online, valid for up to 90 days and priced from $54 with the government fee included. Here's what a Vietnam visa for Sri Lankan citizens requires, how long Vietnam Immigration takes and what the new nonstop flights from Colombo change about where you land.
Yes, you need a visa. Sri Lanka isn't on Resolution 44/NQ-CP of March 7, 2025 or Resolution 229/NQ-CP, the two lists that give 24 countries 45 days visa-free. It isn't one of the 15 countries with a bilateral visa-free agreement for ordinary passports either, and those run from 14 days (Brunei) to 90 days (Chile and Panama).
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What you can do is apply for the eVisa. Citizens of every country and territory have been able to apply since August 15, 2023, for up to 90 days, single or multiple entry. Vietnam accepts eVisa holders at 83 border crossings: 17 airports, 27 land border gates and 39 seaports.
Over 38,000 passengers traveled between Vietnam and Sri Lanka in 2025, up 17.5% on 2024, and passenger numbers in the first quarter of 2026 rose more than 136% year on year.
Sri Lankans can skip the visa in one place: Phu Quoc. The island allows visa-free stays of up to 30 days for travelers who fly in from abroad or change planes at another Vietnamese international airport without leaving the transit area. Cross to the mainland without a visa and you risk a fine of VND 3 to 5 million. Holding a second passport too? Vietnam visa rules by nationality show whether it changes the answer.
No embassy trip, no visa-on-arrival line. The other route for Sri Lankans is a paper application at the Vietnamese Embassy in Colombo, on a printed form, with fees set by the embassy. The eVisa skips all of that: you apply online and the approved visa comes back as a PDF.
The eVisa covers tourism, family visits, conferences and short-term business. Vietnam Visa by BDA is a private company. We aren't affiliated with the Vietnamese government.
Visa on arrival won't save you any paperwork either, and we stopped processing visa-on-arrival letters; the questions below explain why it rarely fits a trip from Colombo.
Have these ready before you start:
⚠️ One full passport, start to finish. Vietnam Immigration's eVisa portal doesn't issue visas for emergency or temporary passports. Enter and leave Vietnam on the same passport, too: if you renew it mid-trip, the visa has to be transferred to the new one.
| 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. Speed tiers and add-ons are in the full fee breakdown.
The stamp fee is $25 for a single-entry eVisa and $50 for multiple entry, and our fee is the difference:
You can apply for the eVisa yourself on Vietnam Immigration's own site, evisa.gov.vn, and pay only the $25 single / $50 multiple stamp fee. What our share buys is a second set of eyes on the form, checked against your passport before anything reaches Immigration.
Vietnam Immigration doesn't refund its eVisa fee if the application is refused. Our refund covers a cancellation within 5 to 10 minutes of applying, problems we spot before we submit, such as a passport that won't qualify, and cases where we can't help you because we expect Immigration would deny the application, or can't deliver on time. Once the eVisa is issued, it's non-refundable.
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Three speeds, priced per applicant:
None of those clocks starts at checkout. Each one starts when we file with Vietnam Immigration, normally within 2 business hours of payment. The law gives Immigration 3 working days to decide once it has the complete application and the fee, and 3 to 5 working days is what usually happens. The timeline belongs to Immigration, not to us: we file, chase and correct, but we can't move an approval forward.
That matters on a route this thin. Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet each fly the nonstop three times a week, so an eVisa that arrives late means waiting days for the next departure, not hours. Apply one to two weeks before you fly and none of the speed tiers matter. Flying within 24 hours? Call +84 832 320 320 before paying and we'll tell you whether it's doable.
Tet and public holidays slow everything down. The 2027 Tet break for Vietnam's civil servants runs from Thursday, February 4 to Wednesday, February 10, so a February trip needs its eVisa applied for in January.
Decide by the shape of your trip. A single-entry eVisa covers one arrival; once you leave Vietnam, it's used up. Multiple entry lets you leave and come back on the same eVisa, and it costs $30 more on a 1-month visa and $10 more on a 3-month visa.
The trip shape to watch: the nonstop into Ho Chi Minh City, a few days in Cambodia for Angkor Wat, then back to Ho Chi Minh City for the flight home. That's two entries into Vietnam, so it needs multiple entry, and so does a side trip to Laos or Thailand. For anything past 30 days, look at the 3-month options.
When in doubt, choose multiple entry.
Vietnam Immigration's form sets these photo rules:
The portal publishes no exception for head coverings worn for religious reasons. If you wear one, contact us before you apply, by email or on +84 832 320 320, so we can talk the photo through before you pay.
There's no Vietnam visa application form to download for the eVisa. Everything happens online; here's how the online application works:
Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) in Ho Chi Minh City is the entry point to put on your eVisa if you're flying nonstop, because both routes from Colombo (CMB) land there:
Both followed the Joint Statement from the May 7 to 8, 2026 state visit, which recorded progress toward direct flights within the year. There's more on flights to Vietnam if you're comparing routes.
Use one of the border gates on the government's eVisa list to enter and leave, and pick the gate you actually plan to use when you apply. One trap near Ho Chi Minh City: Long Thanh airport is on the eVisa list but isn't open yet, so don't choose it for a Colombo flight. If you connect through another hub and land at Hanoi's Noi Bai (HAN) or Da Nang (DAD) instead, name that airport.
Tan Son Nhat is also where Vietnam Immigration has piloted its online Pre-arrival Information (PAI) form since April 15, 2026. Filling it in is optional and it isn't a visa. You can submit it up to three days before you arrive and get a QR code to show on arrival. Use only prearrival.immigration.gov.vn, because fake PAI sites exist.
With an eVisa you can stay until the end date on the eVisa, not a day past it. Since December 15, 2025, Decree 282/2025/ND-CP has set the fines, and they climb the longer you stay:
Reach 16 days and deportation is possible as well, and anyone deported is barred from Vietnam for three years. The UK government adds that overstayers can be stopped from leaving Vietnam until the fine is paid.
⚠️ Your last legal day is the end date printed on your eVisa. Check it the day the PDF arrives and book your flight home on or before it. Need longer? Extensions are done from inside Vietnam, through a sponsor applying to Vietnam Immigration, and we don't handle extensions.
Not for the eVisa. It's an online application, on Vietnam Immigration's own site or through us, so there's nothing to download or post. The paper Visa Application Form that turns up in searches is for applying at a Vietnamese embassy, with a photo glued or stapled on. In Sri Lanka, that's the Embassy of Vietnam at 45 Rosmead Place, Colombo 07.
Not if you fly to Phu Quoc from abroad, or connect through another Vietnamese international airport without leaving the transit area. The Colombo nonstops land in Ho Chi Minh City, though, and switching to a domestic flight there means going through immigration. That takes a visa, so on the nonstop you need the eVisa, even for an island-only trip.
Not as a walk-up option. Visa on arrival needs a sponsor in Vietnam to get Immigration approval first, and the visa is then stamped at the border against that approval. For a holiday or a business trip, the eVisa does the same job without a sponsor.
Copy it from the ICAO lines on your passport's data page, letter for letter, in capitals. Don't expand initials that the passport doesn't expand, and don't shorten a name it spells out in full. If your passport shows only one name, it goes in the given-name box and the surname box stays empty.
Don't resubmit the same form unchanged. Vietnam Immigration doesn't refund its eVisa fee after a refusal, so each new attempt pays it again, and our own refund isn't a money-back promise once Immigration has decided. Send us the refusal and the details you entered before you reapply, so the new form doesn't repeat the old mistake.
Elsewhere in Asia: China, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, India, Japan.
Also applying for the eVisa: United States, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Pakistan.
Not listed? The eVisa has been open to every country and territory in the world since Resolution 127/NQ-CP in August 2023 - check your nationality on the full list →