Come & Go Vietnam Blog

Earlier this year, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security announced the introduction of a new 15-day transit visa, allowing tourists who are spending less than 15 days in the country (ie the vast majority of Vietnam’s 4 million visitors) to get a short visa for just $5. As someone who regularly bangs on about Vietnam’s outdated visa regulations and their detrimental effect on our industry, this seemed like good news.

Alas, it was too good to be true. A client has just asked us if we can arrange a transit visa for them, so we enquired with the powers that be, and here are the requirements:

• The visa must be arranged through a local tour operator in Vietnam (even for tourists who are using an overseas travel agent, or travelling independently!)
• The traveller must have booked a tour with a tour operator, and their full itinerary needs to be sent to the Ministry for approval
• If they HAVEN’T booked a tour with a tour operator, then the tour operator applying for the transit visa, in this case ourselves, must send a minder along with the client at all times and note their activities and hotels carefully. Seriously, I’m not making this up.
• We have to write a guarantee letter to the client and send this to the Ministry in Hanoi, who will either approve or reject the transit visa application within a 10-day period.
• The visa issuer, ie ourselves again, is liable for any damage caused by the traveller’s offspring during their stay. Again, I’m not making this up.

What planet are they on? Why issue a more convenient, practical form of visa but make it so difficult to get hold of? It’s no wonder so many of the tourists I chatted to in Cambodia last week said they would definitely go back to that country, but wouldn’t bother returning to Vietnam simply because getting a visa was so much hassle. WAKE UP.