Types of visa to Vietnam

Tourist visa: (short staying time) It’s what you need to enter Vietnam! Available one-month single-entry visa (stay in Vietnam maximum one month). Tourist visa may be extended one time for 30 days after your arrival in Vietnam. If you plan to spend more than one month in Vietnam, or if you plan to exit Vietnam and re-enter from Cambodia, Laos or China, you will need a one-month or three-month multiple-entry visa with the approval from local agents.

Business Visas: Business visa is usually valid for three or six months, allow single entry or multiple entries and the right to work. Getting a business visa has now become cheap and easy, although prices are about double those of a tourist visa. It is generally easier to apply for a business visa once in Vietnam, after having arrived on a tourist visa.

Student visas: A student visa is usually arranged after your arrival. It’s acceptable to enter Vietnam on a tourist visa, enrol in a Vietnamese language course and then apply at the immigration police for a change in status. In reality, the easiest way to do it is to contact a travel company and have them help you make the application.

Visa Extensions: If you’ve got the dollars, they’ve got the rubber stamp. Tourist-visa extensions cost as little US$10, but it is easier to pay more and sort this out through a travel agency. Getting the stamp yourself can be a bureaucratic nightmare. The procedure takes two or three days and you can only extend one time for 30 days. In theory you should be able to extend your visa in any provincial capital. In practice it goes smoothest in major cities, such as HCMC, Hanoi, Danang and Hue, which cater to mass tourism.

Re-Entry Visas: It’s possible to enter Cambodia, Laos or any other country from Vietnam and then re- enter without having to apply for another visa. However, you must apply for a re-entry visa before you leave Vietnam. If you do not have a re-entry visa, you will have to go through the whole Vietnamese visa nonsense again. Re-entry visas are easiest to arrange in Hanoi or HCMC, but you will almost certainly have to ask a travel agent to do the paperwork for you. Travel agents charge about US$25 for this service and can complete the procedure in a day or two.

Vietnam visa information

Only citizens of certain countries can visit Vietnam without an Entry Visa (valid for visit within 30 days), specifically as follows:

– Not more than 30 days: for citizens of Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Laos.
– Not more than 15 days: for citizens of Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland.
– French citizens holding valid diplomatic passports are exempt from visa requirements when visiting Vietnam and are allowed to stay for up 3 months at one time or on several visits within six months since their first immigration dates.
– Citizens of Chile holding valid diplomatic or official passports are exempt from needing entry, exit and transit visas in Vietnam’s territory and are allowed to stay for up 60 days on each visit.

Citizens from all other countries are required to get an Entry Visa before departure or a pre-approved Entry Visa (issued on arrival at Vietnams International Airports) supplied before arrival in Vietnam.

The whole Visa-to-Vietnam Application Process should be recommended to you as follows;

It is common that you obtain your Entry Visa by having a valid passport stamped prior to your departure by applying to the Vietnam Embassy and/or Consulate (in case there is a Consulate instead of Embassy) in your country. However, if your particular city does not have a Vietnamese Embassy, and you wish to avoid procedural delays (anywhere from 4 to 10 days) which sometimes happen with visa approvals at embassies outside Vietnam, myvietnam-visa.com can make this requirement a fairly easy exercise. We provide a specialized form which you may copy and paste into a word document, fill out the required information and return to us by fax or email. We will then arrange to obtain the visa approval code service for you. Yet, you still subsequently have to get the official Vietnamese Stamp of with your passport to the Embassy or Consulate to get the Visa Stamp on your passport on the same day. You are now ready to go to Vietnam!

In case there is no Vietnam embassy or Consulate in your country, or you would like to make Vietnam part of a multi-destination trip, we recommend Visa upon Arrival as your best option.

What is a ‘Visa upon Arrival?’: this is probably the easiest way to obtain your visa without having to chase down embassies, consulates and the like prior to your trip. It is a valid alternative when applying for a tourist visa. The Entry Visa will be stamped on your passport as you pass through our Immigration Checkpoint. Though valid for thirty days, it can be extended once you enter Viet Nam. With this type of visa, you only can enter the country by air.

How to get a Visa upon Arrival: The service also facilitates customers at most in this case. We obtain what is called an Approval Letter for you from the Viet Nam Immigration Department. Then we will send you a copy by fax or email. Copies of the same document will be forwarded on your behalf to Vietnam Immigration Checkpoints at International Airports only. Thus when you arrive in Viet Nam, the Immigration officers will have those documents on hand and will be able to issue your Entry Visa expediently.

Hanoi buffet at Saigon Hotel

In the lead up to Hanoi’s 1,000th anniversary, the Saigon Hotel’s restaurant on Wednesday introduces a buffet program themed “Hanoi in the heart of Saigon”. The program runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m every day, Monday through Saturday.

It features more than 40 selected dishes of Hanoi and Saigon. Tourists can enjoy northern specialties like bun oc (noodles with snails), oc um chuoi dau (snails steamed with bananas), chan ga nuong (grilled chicken legs), and nom hoa chuoi (banana flower salad). Some of the drinks are free.

Prices are VND119,000 per adult and VND79,000 per child. There is a 10% discount on ticket price in the first month of the program.

The three-star hotel in the city center, highly regarded for its service and price, is an ideal choice for business and leisure travelers. Its recent food programs gained much attention from gourmets.

Dining at the hotel’s Saigon Paris Restaurant, guests can enjoy city views. With 250-guest capacity and a fine interior design, the restaurant is a good venue for receptions, weddings, birthdays and conference parties.

Vietnamese, Chinese and French cuisines are served at the restaurant. Saigon spring rolls, seafood hot pot; sweet and sour fish soup, fried crab with tamarind are popular Vietnamese dishes on the menu. French cuisines include prawn with mayonnaise sauce, stuffed crab, Chateaubriand beef; duck with orange. Chinese favorites are Cantonese fried rice, steamed sea bass with Chinese mushroom, sautéed noodles with seafood.

The Saigon Hotel Corp. is located at 41-47 Dong Du Street, HCMC’s District 1, tel: (08) 3829 9734, email: sales@saigonhotel.com.vn.

Source SGT

Programs for Hanoi’s 1000th Anniversary

The specific content of programs on the occasion of Hanoi’s 1000^th Anniversary.

On October 1st, 2010 – Morning: Grand opening ceremony at Ly Thai To Park. – Evening: VTV’s live broadcasting connecting Hanoi and other cities in. – Vietnam and in other countries. From 2 – 9 October – Sport Day: Hanoi’s Football Tournament – Heritage Day: handicraft villages exhibitions – Tourism Day: International Tourism Festival (2 – 5 Oct) – Youth Day: Carnaval style activities (8 – 10 Oct) – International seminar about Hanoi (7 – 9 Oct) On October 9th, 2010: In the evening – Gala dinner hosted by the Party General Secretary, Prime Minister and President. On October 10th, 2010: – Morning: Official meeting and marching at Ba Dinh square – Evening: Musical performance at My Dinh stadium. Source: vietnamtourism.com.vn

A Vietnamese Visa is required for almost all foreigners.

1. Tourist visas allow visitors to enter and exit Vietnam at Hanoi, HCMC and Danang air-ports or at any of its twelve land borders, three each with Cambodia and China, and six with Laos.

2. Only citizens of certain countries can visit Vietnam without Vietnam Visa. Those countries include: most citizens of ASEAN countries are no need Vietnam entry visa for visit Vietnam within 30 days; citizens of Korea, Japan & Scandinavians (Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland passport holders) are no need visa to vietnam for visit Vietnam within 15 days. All other citizens are required to get Visa Vietnam before departure (Vietnam entry visa issued prior to departure by Vietnamese consulates or embassies) or a pre-approved Vietnam Visa (visa is issued on arrival at Vietnams International Airports) supplied before arrival in Vietnam.

3. Tourist visas are valid for a single 30-day stay. The government often talks about issuing visas on arrival to certain favoured nationalities, but as yet this sensible scheme has failed to materialise. Arranging the paperwork for a Vietnamese visa has become fairly straightforward, but it remains expensive and unnecessarily time-consuming.

4. It is possible to arrange a visa on arrival through a Vietnamese travel agent. They will need passport details in advance and will send a confirmation for the visa to be issued at your airport of arrival. In Asia the best place to pick up a Vietnamese visa is Cambodia, where it COST A around US$30 and can be arranged the same day. Bangkok is also a popular place as many agents offer cheap packages with an air ticket and visa thrown in.

5. If you plan to spend more than a month in Vietnam, or if you plan to exit Vietnam and enter again from Cambodia or Laos, arrange a three-month multiple-Visa. These cost around US$95 in Cambodia, but are not available from all Vietnamese embassies. In our experience personal appearance influences the reception you receive from airport immigration – if you wear shorts or scruffy clothing, look dirty or unshaven, you can expect problems. Try your best to look ‘respectable’.

Vietnam Visa exemption information:

1. No Vietnam entry Visa required for travel less than 30 days: Citizens of Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei and Laos.

2. No Vietnam Visa required for travel less than 15 days: Citizens of Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.

3. No visa required for travel less than 90 days or several visits within 6 months: Citizens of France holding valid diplomatic or official passports.

4. No Vietnam Visa required for travel less than 60 days: Citizens of Chile holding valid diplomatic or official passports.

5. No Vietnam Visa required for travel less than 60 days: APEC Business Travel Card (ABTC) Holders from Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies.

6. No Vietnam Visa for traveling to Phu Quoc Island Vietnam : Foreigners and Vietnamese nationals bearing foreign passports who enter Vietnam through an international border gate and then travel to Phu Quoc Island and stay in Phu Quoc less than 15 days will also be exempt from Vietnam entry visa application. Passports must be valid for at least 45 days. After arriving in Phu Quoc Island, if visitors want to travel other localities or stay in the island for more than 15 days, the immigration department will be responsible for issuing visas right on the spot.

Vietnamese cultural showcase to open in RoK

A Vietnamese cultural showcase is scheduled to open at the end of August in the Republic of Korea’s (RoK) National Folk Museum in Seoul, to promote the country’s many different cultures.

The Welcome to Vietnam showcase and another on Mongolian culture (Senbeno Mongolia) are the first two items launched this year in the RoK, where almost 1.2 millions foreigners live. With this programme, children in the RoK will be able to find out more about the country’s range of diverse cultures, which will help to stamp out cultural problems in the country. Through the showcase, the visitors will have chances to find out about Vietnam’s history, its language, environment, cuisine, customs, religions, musical instruments and traditional games by examining the plentiful and vivid documents and artefacts. At present, there are over 90,000 Vietnamese people living and working in the RoK, the second largest foreign community after China including 35,000 Vietnamese brides married to Korean men.

Source VNA

Traditional Vietnamese, Japanese foods spotlighted

Traditional dishes of Vietnamese and Japanese food will be on display at a gastronomy night, which is to be held in Hoi An Town, Quang Nam Province on July 7.

The programme, co-organised by the Quang Nam Tourism Association, Hoi An Hotel and the Japan’s Institute for Human Resource Development, will spotlight dishes made by professor Iijima Yukichika, Vice Director of the Association of Global Hotel Management.

It is aimed at helping Vietnamese people better understand culinary the gastronomy of Japan, which is well-known for traditional dishes like sushi, sashimi, tempura and different types of noodle as well as promoting the country’s tourism-related products to Japanese friends.

Earlier, the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) organised a similar culinary programme in the Lotte Mart supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City from February 26 to March 14.
Yoshida Sakae, JETRO’s managing director, expressed his wish that through the event, JETRO would set up more diverse food distribution systems.

Vietnam is seen as a promising market for Japanese processed food and a favourite destination for Japanese arrivals.

In the first six months of this year, Japanese arrivals to Vietnam increased by 18.5% to more than 210,000.

Source VNA