Vietnam 3 months visa removal after the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020
Since the big outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, Vietnam border was closed to prevent the pandemic. This has lead to a bad time for tourism in the whole country. Luckily, after 2 years of lock-down, Vietnam started to open the border for international tourists to visit.
However, Vietnam visa since then is not the same as it used to be. For many reasons, Vietnamese government has decided to limit the visa to single entry 30 days only, and tourists must apply E-visa via the government website. As the tourist’s favorite Vietnam 3 months visa is gone, the rise back of tourism has been slowed down a lot due to people finding it difficult to apply for the visa.
Currently, Vietnam is offering a one-month single-entry e-visa to visitors from 80 countries and territories, including the U.S. and Australia. Despite many compains, the Vietnam 3 months visa is not decided to be brought back.
Therefore, although Vietnam is one of the first Southeast Asian countries to reopen to international tourism post Covid, Vietnam only received 3.6 million foreign tourists last year, around 20% of pre-pandemic levels. Many tourists say it is so inconvenient to apply the visa again in every 30 days.
What international tourists say about Vietnam 3 months visa removal
Many of AN Tours Vietnam guests has told us, in their trip to Vietnam, it is a huge problem to leave and enter the country, applying for Vietnam visa again every 30 days. As Vietnam is a beautiful country with many places to visit, it usually take 2-3 months to cover the basic things to do. That also means 1 month visa is not enough for a complete Vietnam trip.
“We have been waiting for the Vietnam 3 months visa for so long, but there has been no signal of that. Traveling with children makes it more tired to do the visa run every month.” – said Lisa, who booked our combo of Mekong Delta, Cu Chi Tunnel, Food Tour & City Tour in Ho Chi Minh City as she did not have much time left on the visa.
Great news: Vietnam 3 months visa will be back soon in 2023!
In recent government meeting for tourism concerns, Luong Hoai Nam, a member of the Tourism Advisory Board, said Vietnam’s visa policy remains strict compared to other countries, making it difficult for the aviation and tourism industries to take off.
He proposed the government consider granting visa exemptions to 68 countries and territories as Thailand did and prolong the visa-free stay from 15 to 30 days. Instead of just granting a single-entry e-visa, Vietnam should offer multiple-entry visas for tourists as it did in pre-pandemic times to compete with neighboring countries.
Pham Trung Luong, former head of the Institute for Tourism Development Research, said relaxing visa requirements should be the top priority at this time to help tourism quickly recover.
Answering to all of the concerns, in March 2023, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that Vietnam would waive visas for more countries and extend the length of stay for foreign tourists to speed up the recovery of tourism. “The government will create favorable conditions for domestic and international airlines to open direct routes connecting Vietnam with key tourism markets,” he added.
The government is on their work to bring the Vietnam 3 months visa back soon in 2023. Let’s wait for the good news coming!
What to do until then?
Well, if you are traveling to Vietnam before the 3 months visa is back, you can still do the 1 month visa as normal at the moment. It is quite easy to apply (though not as convenient as the 3 months one) and only costs you 25 USD/ application.
You can read our post Detailed guide to apply Vietnam evisa on official government website >
After the visa, you can consider our amazing, best chosen transfers, tours, hotels,.. here:
All Tours – AN Tours Vietnam
