Vietnam Visa for Indians: E-Visa Cost, Process and Timeline

The Vietnam visa for Indians used to be the most tedious part of planning the trip. It is now, quietly, one of the easiest visas an Indian passport holder can get: entirely online, no consulate visit, no agent required, and valid for a stay of up to 90 days.

The catch is that the internet is full of lookalike websites charging four times the official fee, and a surprising number of travellers still get turned away at the airport for mistakes that take thirty seconds to avoid. So this is the whole thing, honestly: what it costs, how long it takes, exactly where to apply, and what goes wrong.

The Vietnam visa for Indians, in one table

Use the official website. Only the official website.

This is the single most important paragraph on this page.

The only official portal is evisa.gov.vn. It is run by the Vietnamese Immigration Department, it charges USD 25, and it is the site your application must go through.

Search "Vietnam visa" and you will find dozens of sites that look official — official-sounding domains, government-style crests, professional design — charging USD 80, 100, sometimes more, for the identical visa. They are not scams in the strict sense; most of them do actually submit your application. They are simply charging you a large fee to fill in a form you could have filled in yourself in fifteen minutes. Some are outright fraudulent and will take your money and your passport data and disappear.

If you are booking a package with us, we handle the application on your behalf and tell you exactly what the government fee is. If you are doing it yourself, type the address in manually rather than clicking a search result. It costs nothing to be careful here.

How to apply, step by step

1. Scan your passport's photo page. A clear, flat, full-page scan — no glare, no fingers, all four corners visible.
2. Take a passport-style photo. Plain background, face straight to camera, no glasses, no smiling. A phone photo against a white wall is fine if it is well lit.
3. Go to evisa.gov.vn and start a new application.
4. Fill in your details exactly as they appear in your passport. Not your everyday spelling — your passport spelling. This is where most rejections come from.
5. Choose single or multiple entry. Multiple entry is worth the extra USD 25 if you plan to hop into Cambodia or Laos and come back.
6. Enter your intended entry and exit points. You must nominate these, and they must match your flights.
7. Pay the fee by card and note down your application code.
8. Wait 3 to 5 working days, then check the status using your code. The approved e-visa arrives as a PDF.
9. Print it. More than once. See below.

The mistakes that actually get people denied

A name that does not match the passport

If your passport says SURESH KUMAR and you type Suresh K, the application can be rejected — and the fee is not refunded. Copy every field character for character from the passport. Middle names, initials, spacing: all of it.

Not printing the e-visa

The e-visa arrives as a PDF and travellers assume showing it on a phone is enough. It often is not. Airline check-in staff and Vietnamese immigration will ask for a printout, and a dead phone battery at the check-in counter is not their problem. Carry at least two printed copies. This is the most common reason Indian travellers are refused boarding for Vietnam, and it is entirely self-inflicted.

Landing at a border gate your visa does not cover

E-visa holders may enter through a list of designated ports — around 42 of them, including the main airports at Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang. You nominate your entry point in the application, and it needs to match your actual flight. If you change flights after applying, check that your arrival airport is still covered.

Passport validity under six months

Your passport must be valid for at least six months beyond your date of arrival, with blank pages for stamps. Check this today, not the week you fly — a passport renewal takes longer than the visa does.

Applying too late

Processing is 3 to 5 working days, but "working days" excludes Vietnamese public holidays, and during Tet the immigration department effectively shuts down. Apply at least three weeks before you fly. There is no advantage to leaving it late and no fast-track option worth paying for.

Single or multiple entry: which do you need?

Single entry is right for most people, and it is what a standard Vietnam holiday needs. Choose multiple entry if you are planning a side trip — Siem Reap in Cambodia, Luang Prabang in Laos, or a weekend in Bangkok — and returning to Vietnam afterwards. The extra USD 25 is far cheaper than discovering at the border that you need a second visa.

What the 90 days actually means

The 90-day allowance is generous by regional standards and worth understanding properly. It is the maximum stay permitted, not a minimum commitment — a 10-day holiday uses the same visa. For a single-entry visa, the clock starts when you land and runs continuously. For multiple entry, you can come and go as often as you like within the visa's validity window.

For most travellers this simply means you have breathing room. If you fall for the place and want to extend your trip by a week, the visa is unlikely to be what stops you.

What it costs, all in

Budget roughly ₹2,100 for a single-entry e-visa and ₹4,200 for multiple entry, plus nothing else. There is no service charge, no biometric appointment, no courier fee, no agent commission — unless you choose to pay one. If a website is quoting you ₹6,000 or ₹8,000, you are paying someone a large margin for typing.

One last thing

Visa rules change, and Vietnam's have changed repeatedly in the last few years — mostly in travellers' favour, but not always with much notice. Everything on this page was accurate when we published it, and we re-check it every quarter. Before you apply, confirm the current fee and rules on evisa.gov.vn itself.

If all of this sounds like admin you would rather not do, that is fair. We handle the e-visa as part of our Vietnam tour packages — we fill in the forms, check the passport details, and tell you exactly what the government charges. Tell us your dates and we will take it from there.

Official source: Vietnam National Immigration Portal (evisa.gov.vn). Fees and timelines verified July 2026 — always confirm before applying.

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