Short answer: Vietnam’s digital arrival declaration — most people call it the digital arrival card — is an entry formality separate from your visa. As of 6 September 2026 it is recommended, not mandatory, and it was introduced at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on 15 April 2026. It can extend to other airports at short notice. It is not a visa and does not replace one: if you have no permission to enter Vietnam, completing it will not get you on the plane.
Ask online, we answer right awayType your question on this page. No app to install, no number to save.Ask onlineThe date is attached on purpose. This is the kind of requirement that changes between the day a page is written and the day you fly, and much of what you will read about it is already out of date — including, eventually, this page. Treat what follows as the position on 6 September 2026, and check it yourself before departure.
What the digital arrival card is — and what it is not
It is a declaration you make in a government system about yourself and your trip, so the border has your details before you land rather than collecting them on paper at the desk. It sits alongside your visa, in a separate system, for a separate purpose.
The distinction that matters: a visa or exemption is permission to enter; the declaration is information about your entry. Filing information does not create permission.
So the arrival card:
- Is not a visa and is not a visa application
- Does not extend or shorten the stay your visa or exemption allows
- Does not change the ports at which your visa is valid
- Does not fix a rejected e-visa, speed up a pending one, or stand in for a visa on arrival approval letter
That matters: a confirmation screen from the arrival system settles nothing about your right to enter.
Where things stand, as of 6 September 2026
| Question | Position on 6 September 2026 |
|---|---|
| Where it applies | Tan Son Nhat International Airport (Ho Chi Minh City), from 15 April 2026 |
| Is it mandatory? | No — recommended, not required |
| Could it change? | Yes. It may be extended to other airports at short notice |
Two things can move, either making the rows above wrong: it could become mandatory, and it could apply at other airports. Neither has happened as of this date; both are plausible, with little warning.
Why so many pages tell you it is mandatory
Because requirements change and web pages do not. A page written when a rule was proposed, or drafted from a press release about a pilot, sits in the results long after the facts under it have shifted, and nobody re-dates it. The commercial pull runs the same way: “mandatory” sells a form-filling service; “recommended” does not.
Same failure mode as Vietnam’s visa exemption list, where confident pages tell travellers from countries that are not exempt that they can fly visa-free for 45 days — see which EU citizens need a Vietnam visa. The honest sentence carries a date and a source; the dishonest one carries neither.
The declaration is worthless without the underlying permission
Get the order of operations right: first establish that you may enter Vietnam, then deal with the declaration.
Visa exemption. 45 days, 24 countries, under decrees 44/NQ-CP (7 March 2025, running to 14 March 2028) and 229 (15 August 2025, running to 14 August 2028). From the EU, 18 states are exempt and 9 are not — Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal. Outside the EU it covers the UK, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Japan and South Korea. It follows your passport, not your departure airport, and extending the 45 days from inside Vietnam takes a Vietnamese sponsor. For the twelve countries under 229, the exemption covers tourism only. Terms for every visa-free country: Vietnam visa exemption countries.
The e-visa. Up to 90 days, single or multiple entry chosen at application and not changeable afterwards, USD 25 single or USD 50 multiple on the government portal, non-refundable if you are refused. Valid at all official ports — air, land and sea. Standard processing is 3 working days.
Visa on arrival. Requires an approval letter arranged before you fly, works only at international airports, and still means a cash stamping fee and a queue on landing: e-visa versus visa on arrival.
What to actually do before you fly
- Settle the visa question first, by your passport — not by the nationality of whoever advised you
- Check the declaration’s current status for your arrival airport a few days before departure — official Vietnamese immigration channels, your airline, or your own government’s travel advice
- If it is offered, complete it. If it was not required, you lost a few minutes; if it becomes required and you skipped it, you are sorting it out at a desk after a long flight
- Carry a printed copy of the e-visa or approval letter. Airline staff ask for the visa, not the arrival card
On cost we will not state a figure we cannot verify. It is a government declaration, not a visa, and anyone charging to “guarantee” one is selling certainty they do not have.
What the arrival card will not rescue
If the e-visa itself went wrong, the declaration is irrelevant to it. The causes are consistent:
- The photo — plain white background, no glasses, no head covering, ears visible, face square to the camera. It rejects more applications than everything else combined, and the notice never says which rule broke it: photo rejected
- A failed payment — if the card was declined, no application exists. The clock never started and no email is coming: payment failed
- Name order and passport — names exactly as printed on the data page, sequence included; at least six months’ validity from arrival and two blank pages
There is no appeal against a rejection — you file again and pay again: rejected and reapplying fast. If the status has simply said Processing for days, that is not by itself a rejection signal — there is no partial-approval tier — though one running well past the normal window is worth chasing: still processing.
If your flight is close
Be clear about what nobody can sell you: the Vietnamese government does not sell speed. There is no express fee and no priority lane on the portal. A service claiming an official fast track is describing something that does not exist — the most reliable signal of a dishonest intermediary there is.
What an agency does is narrower: file it correctly so it does not bounce, submit inside Vietnamese working hours rather than the middle of Hanoi’s night, and file at a weekend, which the state portal cannot. Agency tiers run 48 hours, 24 hours, 4 hours and 1 hour.
Vietnam is UTC+7 with no daylight saving, and the office works roughly 08:00-17:00 local. Friday 18:00 in Dublin is Saturday 01:00 in Hanoi; Friday 18:00 in Auckland is Friday 13:00 in Hanoi, inside the working day. Where you sit decides whether “urgent” exists at all before Monday.
The honest version of the pitch: if you have three weeks, apply yourself at evisa.gov.vn and keep the service fee. We are worth paying inside a week, when you are unsure about the photo, or when you are already in trouble — the wider picture is in our emergency and urgent Vietnam visa guide.
Common questions
I am flying into Hanoi or Da Nang, not Ho Chi Minh City. As of 6 September 2026 it was introduced at Tan Son Nhat and may extend elsewhere at short notice. Check for your airport close to departure, not from a page written weeks before.
I am visa-exempt — does that cover it? Exemption settles the visa question, not the declaration, which is a separate system. Check its status as any other traveller would.
I am only transiting. Then the prior question is whether you enter Vietnam at all, which changes the visa answer first: transit, layover and stopover visas.
The short version
- The digital arrival card is not a visa and creates no permission to enter
- As of 6 September 2026 it is recommended, not mandatory, at Tan Son Nhat, where it began on 15 April 2026
- Pages saying “mandatory” are usually stale, or selling something
- It may extend to other airports with little warning — check before you fly, and complete it if offered
- Sort the visa first: exemption by passport, e-visa in 3 working days, or an approval letter for VOA
- No official expedite exists — anyone selling one is telling you about themselves