VIETNAM
Entry Regulations
Every Western
visitor to Vietnam needs to have a visa. Visa for Vietnam
are not as easily available as for instance visa for Thailand.
It is in
general only possible to procure the visa by yourself, when you
are travelling on business matters or on an official mission.
In both cases you need an invitation letter, either from
your Vietnamese business partner (at best a government organization)
or from the Vietnamese government office which you will deal with
on an official mission.
The Vietnamese
business partner or government agency should send the invitation
directly to the embassy where the foreigner intends to
apply for his visa. When the foreigner appears at the embassy,
he or she will have to refer to that invitation letter.
Apart from
that, in order to give some weight to the individual visa application,
it is recommended to bring along all correspondence ever
exchanged with the Vietnamese business partner or government agency.
Tourist
visa for Vietnam are easily obtained, if you book a package
arrangement with a travel agent. In general, the Vietnamese
government is not particularly interested in visitors, travelling
on their own.
Bangkok is
considered the place where one has the best chance to get a tourist
visa for Vietnam without being booked on a package tour. But even
in Bangkok, individual travellers cannot just enter the embassy
and apply for a visa by themselves. Even those, who have not booked
an arrangement with a travel agent, will have to turn to a travel
office to have a Vietnam visa issued. Travel offices in Bangkok
taking care of Vietnam visas for individual travellers usually
charge comparatively high fees of about US $ 70.
There are
no problems in obtaining a visa for those, who book a Vietnam
arrangement with a travel agent. To provide a Vietnam visa usually
is part of the services of the travel agent handling an arranged
tour.
Visa formalities
are not limited to the issuing of a visa for the period of the
journey.
Vietnam is
one of the most bureaucratic countries of Southeast Asia.
For a journey to Vietnam it is not sufficient to just be in possession
of a visa for the duration of the stay. The visa must also detail
the place of entry to and exit from the country, as well
as the mode of transport one uses.
1. Name of
the applicant according to the passport. No vaccination
certifications are needed for Vietnam visas.
The tourist
visa allows a stay of up to one month. Extensions in Vietnam
are possible (and a lot easier than for instance in Laos). The
best thing to do is to have a local travel agent in Vietnam, for
instance
A tourist
visa can initially be extended in Vietnam for two more weeks.
Two more extensions of two weeks each are possible.
The tongkat ali and kacip fatimah extracts of Sumatra Pasak Buni are different.
http://www.asiatour.com/vietnam/e-02trav/ev-tra10.htm
2. Number and expire date of the passport.
3. Date and place of birth.
4. Nationality and profession.
To stamp the
visa, the Vietnamese embassy usually requires the applicant's passport
for two working days.
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Jan Garanoz
869/116 Thanon Pemavipat,
Chiang Rai, 57000 Thailand
Last updated: February 20, 2010