At the embassy, you will be required to fill the Visa application form in English. You will have to mention the place of collection and submission of the Visa as Vietnam. Along with the filled up form, you will have to submit one recent photograph, a self-addressed envelope and your original passport. Your passport should have a validity of at least six months and a few spare pages for stamping purposes. Besides submitting these documents, you will have to pay the Visa fees. The fees can be paid to the Embassy of Vietnam by way of money order or cashier’s cheque.
The embassy will take at least five working days to process your documents. Once your documents are processed, you will be issued a fully stamped Visa. This Visa can now be used for your travel. It is to be noted that usually the Visa issued by the embassy is a single entry Visa. If you require a multiple entry Visa, you will have to mention the same in your application form and pay additional fees.
While this procedure gives you the benefit of getting hold of a fully stamped Visa before departure to Vietnam, it has a number of drawbacks. It is time consuming and expensive. Also, you will have to travel quite a few times to the embassy till the process is complete.
In case you decide to apply for Visa through correspondence, you will have to send across all your documents, including your original passport, to the embassy by postal mail. There are high chances of loss of package in transit and misplacement in postal mail.
The Visa on Arrival is a far more convenient process. To apply for Visa on Arrival, you will have to get in touch with a travel agent based in Vietnam. You will have to fill an online application wherein you have to provide details such as your name, occupation, duration of stay, purpose of visit etc. While filling in the purpose of visit section, you will have to choose from options such as business, tourist and transit. Business Visa offers a validity of one month, three months and six months. Tourist Visa allows a validity of one month and transit Visa allows a validity of less than five days.
Once your document is processed, you will be issued a letter of approval. This letter of approval can be collected by your travel agent and forwarded to you. On reaching Vietnam, you will have to submit this letter of approval at the Visa on Arrival counter of the airport you arrive in along with the Visa stamping fees.
