I recently returned from a school trip to Asia which included a one-week pre-trip to Vietnam with a few friends from my graduate program. The experience was incredible and Vietnam is a very beautiful country. However, the visa application process was a bit unusual. A Vietnamese visa for Americans to visit is required.
A Vietnamese visa for Americans is required. With that in mind, I will outline the step-by-step process for obtaining a Vietnamese travel visa as a US passport holder to reassure those who might be confused about the details.
1) Decide if you want to complete the visa ahead of time and receive a loose-leaf visa in the mail, OR apply for visa on arrival.
I’ll focus on the first of the two options for a couple reasons.
First, you’re all here because you worry about the details, and aren’t likely the type of people that are comfortable not having your visa safely in hand before traveling.
Second, and more anecdotally, the line for the visa on arrival desk was super long when I landed in Hanoi. The last thing you want to do after a 14+ hour flight from the US is wait in one more line than you have to!
2) Visit http://visa.vietnamembassy-usa.org/ to get the process started.
There are some grammatical errors on the site, but trust that it is a legitimate source for acquiring a visa (more on this sentiment later). Pretty sure the Vietnamese embassy isn’t pouring money into perfecting their presence online.
3) Fill out the form as you normally would with your relevant traveler information.
Pro tip: the images you upload must be less than 1000×1000 pixels. It says this on the page but it might take you a few tries to get your headshot to be the right size. In most programs, you can edit a photo to force it to these dimensions.
4) Submit your information and receive the following message:
5) Text the embassy the code you receive via email.
You will receive an unnecessarily-long confirmation number via the email address you provided which you must text to the embassy (yes, text) to confirm your application. Within 12 hours (but mine came within a few minutes) you will receive a reply that looks a lot like this:
6) Send your fee to the Vietnamese embassy via PayPal.
This is potentially shady part #2. You read that correctly, you send the fee to the Vietnamese embassy via PayPal. I hesitated at this point. But, I did some internet searching and discovered this was a safe way to get your visa. I sent over my $100 and in a week or two I had my pink loose-leaf Vietnam visa. It was time to start getting excited about my trip.
Wrapping up: Vietnamese visa for Americans
One other oddity is that the loose-leaf visa does you no courtesies in terms of its size. It is smaller than printer paper but larger than your passport. I ended up folding mine in quarters and paperclipping it into my passport which was kind of obnoxious but kept it secured in a relevant place.
Best of luck when completing the process. For other travel information and tips, head back to the START HERE page!
