Thursday, September 11, 2003

Obtaining a VietNamese visa:
Applying for a VietNamese visa is pretty straight forward deal. Go to the VietNamese Consulate San Francisco and down load the visa application (PDF form). You can also obtain a visa through the embassy in Washington DC Send the completed application along with a passport size photo, check, your passport and a postage paid / return envelope to the embassy.

The standard tourist visa is good for up to 30 days and a single entry and exit. The different visa's time limits and prices change from time to time so it's a good idea to check with an embassy to see whats up before you apply. From my experiences it seems the types of visa's availability and there costs sometimes vary from one consular office to the next. So if you get information from one office and decide to apply at another, double check your original information. In general a 30 and 90 day tourist visa are available. along with a 6 month work visa. The embassy's request you should allow two weeks for processing and for an extra fee a 2 days express service is available. Just for reference the visa I am on now took less than a week to obtain. Called the San Francisco Embassy on Monday about what was needed for a via, mailed my photo, application, passport, check and a return express mail envelope that afternoon. On that Friday my passport with the visa inside arrived in the mail.
If your traveling through SE Asia and Bangkok is your start point visa's are available directly from the embassy or through one of the many travel agents around town. I have heard that visa's are cheaper in Bangkok than in the US. I use Bangkok as an example but visa's are available from any embassy in any country and also through travel agents. A word of caution - if your using an agent, make sure of their reliability before surrendering your passport for a visa.
Another little know deal is that If you have a travel agent in Saigon they can set up a visa on arrival at Tan Son Nhat but this must be set up in advance.

One more important point is that the date on your visa is the date your visa starts, so if you arrive 10 days after this date on a 30 day visa you now have a 20 day visa.

Visa's for Vietnam are a real pain but the trouble is well worth it, Vietnam is wonderful place.