Vietnam – evisa and not missing your flight

This post attempts to explain the Vietnam evisa system and how you need to allow extra time at the airport for it. Now before I begin, I will mention we flew into Ho Chi Minh City, and not all airports are the same.

When applying for a Vietnamese evisa, you need to say what city you are flying into*. Therefore, we booked our flights first and then applied for an evisa.

Using Skyscanner, I booked flights to Nha Trang. We were flying from Phuket and could not get a direct flight and had a stop in Ho Chi Minh before getting a domestic flight to Nha Trang. The flights were with different airlines, and we were aware that we would have to complete customs, pick up our luggage and check into our other flight. I assumed (even though I know one should never assume) that because kiwi.com was selling this flight (through Skyscanner) that the two and half hours allocated between the two flights was sufficient.

It turns out that it wasn’t. However, our flights had been rescheduled a couple of days before, and we were set to leave an hour later from Phuket, and our flight to Nha Trang was now two hours later. Thus, giving us four and a half hours between flights. So that all sounded good, easy… no problem. We would have time for something to eat and a drink while we waited…. supposedly.

iVisa

iVisa makes getting a visa super easy.  If you enter where you are from and where you are going, iVisa will tell you everything you need to know about entering the country. You can even get passport and visa photos done! I didn’t know about iVisa when we went to Vietnam, so I got an evisa through the Vietnam Visa website, which is mentioned below.

Applying for an evisa

OK, so how do you apply for an evisa? Click on this website: https://vietnamvisa.govt.vn/, fill in the application form with the number of visas required and the type of visa required, and then click on ‘apply now’. Each visa approval costs USD 17.00.

Then you fill in details of the applicants – name, gender, date of birth, nationality, passport number. And then fill in the contact details, click on ‘next step’ to review and pay.

Within two days, you will receive an approval letter. You need to print out this letter and take it with you. You will also receive a visa application form PDF. You need to print this off, fill it in and take it with you. Complete the application form before you arrive to save time, and you need to supply two passport photos.

Arriving in Vietnam

When you arrive in Vietnam, you must take the approval letter, completed visa application form and photos to the ‘landing visa’ area. DO NOT line up at immigration before you get your visa; you will be sent back to ‘landing visa’ area.

The ‘landing visa’ area is easy to miss. There is no clear signage, and there is a barrier stopping people from entering it. A guard is standing nearby, and he will let you in once you work out this is where you need to be. You line up and hand in your passport, approval letter, application form and photos. Then take a seat and wait to be called. We waited for about 40 minutes.

Once your name is called, you go up to the counter, pay and collect your passport. You can only pay cash. Price per visa is USD 25.00. If you are not prepared and do not have the cash, you will need to wait until your name is called, then someone will take you to an ATM. Much easier to be prepared, obviously I know this because we were not. However, when we got called up to the counter, we asked if we could pay in Thai Baht. It turns out we could. However, it ended up costing a bit more using the baht. Once you have your visa head over to immigration.

Back to our ordeal…

After we received our visas, we went back and took place at the end of the immigration line and waited, once again for about 30-40 minutes. We were not stressed about missing our plane at this stage because we had the extra couple of hours due to the rescheduling. Nonetheless, we were both hungry and thirsty, having not consumed anything since breakfast.

However, our ordeal was not over yet. We found our way to departure check-in. There are two check-in areas. The first is for Vietjet and further on, another few minutes walk, is the check-in area for the rest of the flights. We finally found our check-in desk with Jetstar and proceeded to check-in. The gentleman on the counter said we were not flying with Jetstar but with Vietjet. I said I was sure it was Jetstar and showed the itinerary. He pointed the direction to Vietjet. So off we go, backtracking to Vietjet counter… all the time I was muttering I know I had booked Jetstar, and the guys an idiot.

We lined up at the enquire counter for Vietjet only to be told we are not flying with them and we went back to Jetstar. This time the staff member got his supervisor who tells us that this flight is cancelled. They then proceeded to take us over to the Vietnam Airways counter and book us on a flight. Once we had the tickets in hand, we are told we must go straight through to the departure gate. We looked at our tickets. They stated the flight boarding time as 15:50. It was 15:45, so we wasted no time heading in the direction of the departure gate.

We ended up standing in a plodding line at security for about 40 minutes before finally reaching the security area, presenting our passport, and boarding pass and continuing to be screened. Now, this was a stressful time. We had approached airport staff members twice to mention our flight was boarding, and both times they indicated it was fine.

Once through, we rushed to our gate. Naturally, they were waiting for their last two passengers and sent us through promptly. We then had to wait for 5 to 10 minutes for a bus to take us to the plane. Once on the bus, we were taken to our waiting plane; but not directly. No, we were driven around as the bus driver searched for the plane. Anyhow, he finally found the plane, and we boarded. It was a little embarrassing walking back to row 27, when you have, at no fault of your own, delayed a planeload of passengers.

We were finally on the way to our final destination, and we eventually received a much-needed glass of water!

In conclusion, two and a half hours is insufficient time to get your visa, clear immigration, check in, and board your next flight.

• *On a previous trip we arrived at Hai Phong. On the visa form you only have three options (Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi and Nha Trang). We just put down our arrival as Hanoi and didn’t have a problem.

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