Why won’t Vietnam fix its e-visa problem?

Recent letters to Traveller suggest a surprising number of readers are running foul of Vietnam’s e-visa system.

The problem comes at the check-in desk, when details on the e-visa do not match those on the passport. As a result, the traveller must obtain an emergency entry document at the airport, at a hefty cost, and a visa will be issued on arrival in Vietnam. In the case of one reader, since this was a public holiday in Vietnam, the charge was an extra $595.

The process for applying for a Vietnamese e-visa is fairly straightforward. At the official Vietnamese government e-visa website (evisa.immigration.gov.vn) the applicant uploads their data and waits for their visa to be issued.

However, according to a spokesperson for the Vietnamese consulate, it’s not uncommon for applicants to input the wrong passport number or date of birth, or misspell their name. The e-visa is then issued with incorrect data and if the recipient doesn’t spot the mistake, it all goes wrong at the check-in desk.

That might explain the occasional slip-up, but this is happening to travellers far more often than the odd blooper. Even when the mistake is identified, it might not be corrected.

In the words of one reader, the e-visa application form had to be resubmitted several times in an attempt to get the name on the visa corrected, yet the e-visa was still issued with the wrong name, and the reader had to pay an exorbitant sum on arrival in Vietnam.

The suggestion that this is the fault of applicants stretches credulity.

The application process for e-visas for India is very similar, and the number of Australian residents visiting India is comparable to the numbers visiting Vietnam, yet there is no such problem with Indian e-visas.

A document published on the website of the Vietnam embassy in Norway titled “7 Common mistakes in Vietnam e-visa application process” concludes with the statement: “It is not frequent but the errors in e-visa could be made by the Vietnam Immigration Department.”

That’s as good an admission of failure as you’ll get from an official source.