Vietnam entry reference
Vietnam's Visa Exemption Rules
Who enters Vietnam with no document at all, for how long, and the counting mistake that strands people one day over the line.
- Updated
- 15 August 2026
- Reading time
- 3 minutes
- Purpose
- Independent reference
What an exemption actually is
A visa exemption is a standing decision by the Vietnamese government that citizens of a named country may enter without applying for anything. There is no form, no fee, no portal and no document. You present a passport and are admitted for a fixed number of days.
It is granted unilaterally, which means Vietnam decides it alone and can change it alone, and it is renewed in blocks of a few years rather than permanently.
The 45-day list
Thirteen countries have held a 45-day unilateral exemption since August 2023: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Belarus.
In August 2025 the government extended the same 45-day treatment to twelve more European states — Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia — under an arrangement running to August 2028. Entry must be for tourism.
The 45 days applies regardless of passport type and, for the original thirteen, regardless of entry purpose.
The shorter exemptions
Most ASEAN neighbours hold exemptions in the 14 to 30 day range under separate bilateral arrangements — Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia among them. The number differs by country, so look up your own rather than assuming the regional figure.
Phu Quoc, which works differently
Phu Quoc island runs its own 30-day exemption open to all nationalities, and it is narrower than it first appears. It holds only while the island is your first and only destination in Vietnam. Arrive on an international flight to Phu Quoc, stay on the island, leave from the island — the exemption covers it. Take a domestic hop to Ho Chi Minh City partway through and you have left the arrangement, and it does not convert into anything else.
The counting mistake
The exemption runs from the date of entry, and the day you land is day one. A 45-day exemption used on 1 September expires on 15 October.
People book a return for 16 October, reason that six weeks and a bit is comfortably inside 45 days, and discover at airline check-in that it is not. Airlines carry the cost of returning an inadmissible passenger, so they check this before boarding, and they get it right more often than travellers do. Count the day of arrival, then count to the flight home, and if the answer is 46 you need an e-visa rather than an exemption.
What the exemption does not do
It cannot be extended. An exemption is not a visa and there is no mechanism to add days to it from inside the country.
It is not a floor you can top up. If your trip runs past the exemption you apply for an e-visa for the whole trip. You do not use the exemption and then convert.
It does not guarantee entry. Like every other route, it authorises you to present yourself. The officer decides. A passport with under six months of validity or without blank pages is refused at the counter whatever list your country is on.
If you are exempt and your trip fits
Then you are finished. There is nothing to apply for, nothing to pay, and nothing on this site you still need to read. Check that your passport has six months of validity and two blank pages, and book.
Confirm before you book
Exemption lists change by government resolution, occasionally at short notice, and expiry dates on the current arrangements are real. The lists above were checked on 15 August 2026. Confirm your own nationality’s current position at evisa.gov.vn before committing to dates.