How to distinguish a Vietnam visa center operated by government or privately

• Hanh Pham
• November 20, 2018
• General information

Vietnam visa is kind of travel documents allowed by Vietnamese competent authorities, giving the authorization to travel to and enter Vietnam. In Vietnam visa policy, there are certain nationals who do not need a visa for Vietnam, unconditionally or conditionally. See details of Vietnam visa exemption policy here.

For those who need a visa for Vietnam, at the moment, there are up to 3 ways to get a visa for Vietnam, namely:

• Vietnam embassy visa;
• Vietnam e-visa; and
• Vietnam visa on arrival

While the visa in the first and the second way are issued by Vietnam authorities (Vietnam embassy or Vietnam Immigration Department respectively) directly to applicants, the last one requires travelers to get a visa approval letter issued by the Vietnam Immigration Department through a Vietnam visa center. As such, those using the third option are required to submit their application via such a center.

Can such a Vietnam visa center be under operation of a government authority?

Many may wish to find a government Vietnam visa center to get their visa on arrival as they believe it’s more reliable. It’s now the matter of whether there is any Vietnam visa center operated by Vietnam authority and if yes, how to define it.

With more than 11 years serving in this market, we must say that at the moment, there is no government agency offering this kind of service. All websites in this aspect are operated by private owners.

Don’t believe in this fact? Just make a look around, pay more attention to the link you access to:

1. Domains of a Vietnam government/authority website are often ended by .gov or .gov.vn;
2. While domains of privately-operated website are ended with others, including .com, .com.vn, org.vn, .govt.vn, .vn.

In case you find any website offering this VOA service ended with .gov or .gov.vn, it’s a government website. Otherwise, it’s not.

If you spend more time reading text, many trustworthy Vietnam visa centers have proudly announced that they are just commercial websites offering the service, but many others do not state anything in this regard.

How to find a trustworthy Vietnam visa center?

Among several privately-owned Vietnam visa centers, it’s the matter of how to find a reliable one.

Here, we recommend you 5 criteria as grounds for your decision:

1. Identify their experience, how long they have operated in Vietnam visa aspect;
2. Test their hotline to make sure it works 24/7
3. Check their Vietnam visa service reviews
4. Read their terms and conditions to know your rights and their obligations
5. Check their address to make sure they are real

You can refer to https://www.vietnam-visa.com/how-to-identify-a-reliable-vietnam-visa-on-arrival-service-provider/ for full details.

How to work with a Vietnam visa center?

After the first part of this post, you perhaps know that to get the visa on arrival, you are required to work with a Vietnam visa center to get the approval letter beforehand. This center actually:

• makes your visa procedure simpler by processing your information with a Vietnam government agency – Vietnam Immigration Department on your behalf, and
• acts like a person responsible for your money and visa as well.

The whole process with them can be summarized in 3 simple steps as follows:

1. Access to their website, find their online application form and fill the form with your information, and make payment of service fee;
2. Receive visa approval letter sent to your email within certain period of time (remember to select a reliable center to ensure you get it on time as guaranteed);
3. Show your passport and letter at departure airport to get on board and then show them together with Vietnamese visa application form (formerly known as entry and exit form), 2 passport-sized photos and pay stamping fee in cash for visa stamping at arrival airport in Vietnam.

Cost of Vietnam visa on arrival charged by Vietnam visa center?

Through this process, you perhaps already know that to get this kind of visa, you need to pay two kinds of fee:

1. Service fee, and
2. Stamping fee.

The service fee is the fee you shall pay online in advance to the Vietnam visa center for processing your visa application with Vietnam Immigration Department, get the approval letter from the department and deliver it to your email. This fee may vary by your nationality, the visa type you wish to get, number of people in your group, processing time (normal or urgent) and also the visa center as well.

The stamping fee is the fee you shall pay in cash at VOA counter at arrival airport in Vietnam to get visa stamped. This fee is fixed by the Vietnam Ministry of Finance and only depends on your visa type.

You can see here for full details of Vietnam visa cost for each nationality.

Here comes useful information for you to choose a trustworthy Vietnam visa on arrival center and also a brief introduction to this kind of visa. Should you need any further information, please feel free to let us know.