A customs official conducts immigration procedures for a foreigner at Tân Sơn Nhất airport in HCM City. — VNA/VNS Photo Hà Thái

HÀ NỘI — From the beginning of July, residents from a number of countries worldwide will be allowed to enter Việt Nam using e-visas.

Government also revealed a list of border gates and airports that will accept electronic entry.

Eighty countries that will benefit include Austria, Poland, Portugal, UAE, Germany, India, the Republic of Korea, Japan, US, Italy, Poland, France, China, Russia and the UK.

Eight airports that will accept e-visas are Nội Bài, Tân Sơn Nhất, Cam Ranh, Đà Nẵng, Cát Bi, Cần Thơ, Phú Quốc and Phú Bài.

Sixteen road border gates listed in the new decision include Móng Cái in Quảng Ninh Province, Hữu Nghị in Lạng Sơn Province, Lào Cai, Nấm Cắn in Nghệ An Province, Cầu Treo in Hà Tĩnh Province, La Lay, Lao Bảo in Quảng Trị Province and Hà Tiên in Kiên Giang Province.

Thirteen sea border gates in the list are Hòn Gai, Cẩm Phả in Quảng Ninh Province, Hải Phòng in Hải Phòng City, Nghi Sơn in Thanh Hóa Province, Vũng Áng in Hà Tĩnh Province, Chân Mây in Thừa Thiên-Huế Province, Dung Quất in Quảng Ngãi Province, HCM City sea border gate, among others.

Việt Nam started a two-year e-visa pilot programme for foreigners from 40 countries on February 1, 2017.

The pilot scheme did not require foreigners to be sponsored or invited by organisations or individuals in Việt Nam to be applicable for the e-visas, as long as they have valid passports and are citizens of one of the 40 listed countries.

Foreigners are not required to be present at representative agencies of Việt Nam in their countries, get interviewed or scan their fingers to apply for e-visas.

They can go directly to the website https://immigration.gov.vn and apply for e-visas themselves.

Applications are processed within three working days. Each applicant will be provided with a digital code, with which they can check the application progress and print their e-visas once they have been issued.  

They can also present the codes at border gates and airports for scanning of their e-visas.

The e-visas are valid for 30 days. Each applicant must pay a non-refundable application fee of US$25 via bank transfer.

Visa waiver

Watch our interview with Senior Colonel Đặng Tuấn Việt from the Immigration Department on the new visa policy

Due to COVID-19 pandemic, foreigners entering the country under visa waiver programmes, e-visas or tourism visas after March 1 will be automatically given stay permit extension until June 30 free of charge, according to the Immigration Department.

“The policy of automatic extension of stay permit applies to foreigners entering Việt Nam under visa waiver programmes, e-visa or tourism visas after March 01, regardless of how long they have been in Việt Nam before,”  said Senior Colonel Đặng Tuấn Việt from the Immigration Department.

“After June 30, if the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic does not improve or the transportation and healthcare policies of other countries do not change, we will continue to propose to extend the policy implementation.

The new policy is also applicable to those who enter before March 1 if they meet some certain criteria, Việt added.

“If they can prove by official documents that they are stuck here due to reasons like sickness, pandemic, visiting relatives or wedding, we will still apply this policy for them,” he told Việt Nam News.

If for other reasons, the Ministry of Public Security has instructed foreign diplomatic missions here to sponsor them to be granted a stay permit extension, he said.— VNS