Vietnam E-Visa for Australians started in December 2017

[ethernet]

Visas : Vietnam portal on Immigration - National portal on Immigration
You can now dodge the visa sponsorship pre-approval letter sites for < 30 day stays .Hopefully 90min-2 hour visa delays at the airport will come down.

To enter Vietnam, you must have a valid and appropriate visa, a visa exemption document or a written approval letter for a visa to be issued on arrival. Use the Government of Vietnam's online information portal for visa-related information.

From December 2017, Australians are eligible to apply online for a single entry electronic visa (e-visa), valid for up to a maximum of 30 days. Lodge your application online (for a non-refundable fee) with the Vietnamese National Web Portal of Immigration. You will be given a unique code to track your visa application status. Once your visa is granted, you must print it out and present it at check in. Keep this e-visa print out with you at all times during your travel in Vietnam.

So that's $99 per person at the local embassy (plus registered postage each way) or USD $25 (AUD 33.33 @0.75 ) online - hmm a no brainer really.

The current - soon to be much less lucrative private Visa on Arrival pre-approval sites are not trumpeting this change - and I imagine issuing embassies won't exactly be delighted either.

Removing tardy on arrival waiting times adding 2 hours of inconvience for arrivals is a blessing - I heard so many first time tourists saying they will never return. Plus the fact that that there was in your face queue jumping if your sponsor had the right connections. This unfairness really galled family groups with a child in tow.
You will still see backpackers and deplorables/ bogans in the Diplomatc lines when the other are 80 people deep.

It is an overdue improvement. Australia is not on the 15 day visa free list, and the E-Visa is a subset offered to other countries. DFAT has some catching up to do.

 

[auriga]

I am still waiting for Australia to go on the visa free list!

 

[ethernet]

I am still waiting for Australia to go on the visa free list!

Please note the evisa link in top post is the correct one. There are STILL 100's of fake Vietnam sites offering e-visas that were formerly via on application websites, some even with .gov in them. If they ask for other than $25 plus max 0.96 processing fee for 30 days then get out of there.

Yep, DFAT is a poor performer. Benchmarks show Australians need more visas than many other countries, yet our passport fee must be the most expensive in any Western country.

Expect to pay USD 25 PLUS a 96 cents USD processing fee (3.84%) if paying by Card, unless you just happen to have a Vn savings or bank account. Also expect an SMS verification code in the process.

If it breaks because of the stupid lame PAYOO, go back in with check application status with the number you saved and all your details are still there, click and go onto payment - works under chrome and IE.

PAYOO is useless - does not work for Firefox or old IE's and has external remote advertising links that my browser plugins blocks. Success - actually got the portal to work after working out the site does not work for many browsers - but that is not in the FAQ. Payment directs you to PAYOO payment site with is a broken brittle interface that goes through another

 

[Melburnian1]

Very good advice but are the queues as bad as suggested?

Perhaps so at SGN, but at HAN within the last four years I was on my way within half an hour of landing. It probably helped that the flight was an early afternoon arrival. Positively benign compared to IST or even efficient TPE!

 

[Virgin Bart]

I'm paranoid about these things - are we sure that the website quoted is legit?

 

[ethernet]

Very good advice but are the queues as bad as suggested?

Perhaps so at SGN, but at HAN within the last four years I was on my way within half an hour of landing. It probably helped that the flight was an early afternoon arrival. Positively benign compared to IST or even efficient TPE!

Hey the electronic visa worked a treat!. Instead of 2 hours I was out in under 20 Saigon (plus a mile walk from the airgate). Hugely improved situation, and a regular chop stamp in my $10 per page passport. Just make sure you have a printout upon landing .Proven and tested - WORKING.

Lets hope DFAT pulls a finger so Australians get a 15 day visa free entry - like all the others who have NOT signed a free trade agreement.

 

[RoMambai]

This is great news. Will definitely go down this route when I visit Vietnam again.

I think expectations that DFAT ought to be doing more on lowering visa costs should be moderated. If those making these calls realised how many hoops Vietnamese (and indeed most foreigners) have to jump through to visit Australia they'd realise how good we get it.