Does Vietnam visa approval letter only work at the airport?

Vietnam visa approval letter is issued by Vietnam Immigration Department to certify that the bearer is granted entry and stay in Vietnam for a certain length of time and purpose of entry. The letter is not a visa itself and will not be enough for the holder to enter Vietnam and pass the immigration counter at the border. Instead, it is effective as a prerequisite for a visa to be issued. The question is: “Will visa only be granted at Vietnam international airport with the approval letter?”.

Visa approval letter for getting visa at airport upon arrival

A visa approval letter will allow you to get visa stamp and sticker at Vietnam’s international airport upon arrival. This is the most common and convenient kind of visa approval letter. The letter will both be sent to the applicant via email in a scanned version and faxed to Immigration system at the airport. On the letter, it says “The above mentioned person shall pick up visa on arrival at the International Airports.” This means that one same letter will be valid for entry at any of Vietnam’s international airport and you only need to print the scanned letter in your email and submit some required papers to receive the visa.

Visa approval letter for entry by air

Visa approval letter for getting visa from Vietnam Embassy

If you are the kind of person who wants to have everything well-prepared and ready before travelling, then getting visa from Vietnam Embassy will be a better choice. However, multiple times driving between your house and the embassy to apply for the letter and the application procedure at the embassy can be sometimes quite depressing. For this reason, visa approval letter was born, allowing you to get visa from the embassy. With the letter, you will be granted visa after present it, together with some other required papers . As your application was already checked and approved by Vietnam Immigration Department, there will be no need for a second check from the Embassy and they will then issue the visa for you immediately. Unlike letter for getting visa at the airport which is valid at all international airport in Vietnam, however, with this kind of visa approval letter, you will need to specify the name of the most convenient Embassy to you where you will apply for the letter. And the letter will be effective at only that Embassy (which is stated on the letter). A scan of letter will also be sent to your email and procedure to get visa will be the same at the airport.

Visa approval letter for getting visa at land border

In case you want to enter Vietnam via land border, this kind of visa approval letter can be what are you looking for. However, it is harder for this kind of visa to be issued, then the visa fee can be higher than aforementioned kinds. The special thing with this kind of letter is that original version of letter is required to be submitted in the application, instead of printed version as above. For this reasons, it is unsafe to apply for this kind of letter unless you are in Vietnam because international delivery by post will be required, leading to some risks of loss or damage of the letter. Therefore, this kind of letter is recommended to be used when you are in Vietnam and would like to extend your visa for long term (as extension is only available for 1 month visa) because travelling by land would be much cheaper than travelling by air, not to mention the processing time to get the letter will be much shorter than the processing time for a visa extension. Besides, this kind of visa will be valid at only one border which was specified in the letter. Therefore, you will need to consider and define this before applying for one.

All of these three kinds of letter are available at vietnamvisaon.com even though the online application form is only valid for entry by air. To apply for other kinds of visa or to get more information, please feel free to contact our supporters to our email contact@vietnamvisaon.com or at our hotlines: + 84 912 630 198 or +84 633 198.