The 90-day e-visa is the easiest entry Vietnam has ever offered — if your photo, passport scan and name formatting don't trip the system.
01Who actually needs it
Citizens of the EU, UK and Japan currently enter visa-free for up to 45 days. Stay longer, or hold a US, Canadian, Australian or most other passports, and the 90-day e-visa (single or multiple entry, US$25) is your route. There is exactly one official site: evisa.gov.vn — every 'vietnamvisa-something.com' is a reseller charging a markup for the same form.
02The application, minute by minute
You need a passport photo page scan, a plain-background portrait (no glasses, no smiling with teeth — the auto-check is strict), your entry date and the exact port of entry. Fill your name exactly as the passport machine-readable zone shows it, including middle names, no diacritics. Pay by card; save the registration code. Processing says 3 working days; in practice most approvals land in 2, but Tet and late-summer peaks stretch to 5–7 — apply two weeks out.
03The three classic refusals
1) Portrait rejected for shadows or cropped hair — retake against a white wall in daylight. 2) Name order mismatched against the passport MRZ — copy it character-for-character. 3) Port of entry doesn't match arrival: the visa lists specific checkpoints, so if you switch from flying into Hanoi to crossing overland at Moc Bai, that's a new application, not a shrug at the border.
04At immigration
Print the approval PDF (airlines still ask at check-in more often than Vietnam does). Landing, you skip the visa-on-arrival counter chaos entirely and walk to the regular queue. Officers scan the QR, stamp 90 days, done — our HAN entry in June took four minutes from queue to kerb.
05Airport vs land border: what actually changes
Flying in, the e-visa is boring in the best way: scan, stamp, done — Hanoi, HCMC, Da Nang and the new Long Thanh all process it at the regular counters. Land borders are where preparation pays. Crossings like Moc Bai (from Cambodia) and Lao Bao (from Laos) check that the exact checkpoint is printed on your approval, and officers occasionally ask for onward-travel proof. Buses won't wait for a passenger renegotiating paperwork, so cross-checking your listed port the day you book the bus — not the day you ride it — is the difference between a five-minute stamp and watching your minivan leave.
06If things go wrong: rejected, delayed, or typo'd
A rejection email usually arrives without a reason; in practice it's the photo or a name mismatch nine times out of ten, and the $25 is not refunded — fix the file and reapply rather than emailing the portal, which rarely answers. Stuck in 'processing' past day five? Reapply with a fresh application; duplicates don't penalise you. Spot a typo after approval and the passport number or name is wrong: that visa is unusable, full stop — airlines deny boarding on mismatches. A wrong entry date, oddly, is forgiving: the visa states a validity window, and entering any day inside it is fine.
07Mixing visa-free entry with the e-visa on long trips
For EU, UK and Japanese passports the smartest long-trip pattern combines both tools: enter visa-free (45 days, zero paperwork), loop out to Laos or Cambodia when the clock runs low, then return on a fresh visa-free stamp or a pre-arranged e-visa for the longer second act. There is no formal limit on consecutive visa-free entries yet, but immigration officers can and occasionally do question rapid-fire border runs — a night in Vientiane reads better than a same-day U-turn at Moc Bai. Plan the pivot city around something you actually want (the railway, Angkor) and the 'visa run' stops being admin and becomes the itinerary.
08Questions we actually get
Can I extend the 90 days inside Vietnam?
Extensions exist via agents but are unreliable and pricey; the standard play is a border run and a fresh e-visa.
Does the 45-day visa-free entry convert to an e-visa later?
No conversion inside the country — decide before you fly, or plan the border run.
Is the multiple-entry version worth $25 extra... wait, same price?
Single and multiple both cost $25 — always tick multiple; a Laos or Cambodia side-loop later will thank you.
Do children need their own e-visa?
Yes — every passport holder applies separately, infants included; a family of four means four applications and four fees.
Founder of Mekong Atlas. Twelve years riding buses, trains and slow boats across Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia — every route on this site travelled in person, prices re-checked on the ground.