VietNamNet Bridge - After five visits to Vietnam, a US tourist has shared with the community of international travelers his experiences in getting a visa to Vietnam in the simplest and fastest way. This is the opinion of an American tourist, not the views of VietNamNet.

"I'm from the U.S. and a frequent traveler. I’ve been to so many places in the world. Before each trip, the first thing I care about is the visa. I often search for information on the Internet about the country where I'm going to visit to know whether it requires a visa or not, and if so, which method is the most convenient for getting the visa.

“The most traditional way is to get the visa from the embassy, but that way takes a lot of time and effort. Currently, many countries grant the visa at the arrival airport. This is the fastest and easiest way to take a visa.

“The Vietnamese government also grants arrival visas to tourists and businessmen of all countries in the world. This type of visa will help you get the visa stamp at the airport instead of taking it at the embassy. To get the visa stamp, you need to have an approval letter from the Vietnam Immigration Department before your trip commences.

“It's easy to get the approval letter because there are so many travel agents in Vietnam to provide this service. You only need to fill your information in a form to get this approval letter. There are many types of visas you can select: once a month, multiple times a month, once every 3 months, multiple times for 3 months, multiple times for six months (only several reputable agents can get the multiple visas for six months for citizens of certain countries).

“Normally there are three key steps to take a Vietnam visa. After you choose a reputable website, you just need to fill in your information, pay for them. They will send a confirmation email and 1-3 days later they will send the visa through the mail. You just print it out and submit it at the airport for visa stamping. It is easy and obvious, right?

“There are some important considerations when you get a Vietnam visa online:

- Find a reputable agent. This is very important. Some agents will ask for a lot of information because they do not have a complete website and no form for you to fill it out. The visa-getting process of unreputable agents can last 3-5 days while it usually takes only 1-3 working days. This can affect your trip if you book an air ticket before getting the visa.

- Check carefully to know whether your nationality is limited or not. As crime rates of citizens from some countries in Vietnam are relatively high, the Vietnam Immigration Department has launched several strict regulations when granting visa for citizens from these countries. They need to send some scanned documents like passport, hotel booking, round-trip air tickets and invitation letter. The Immigration Department will check the information and decide to grant a visa or not. The restricted countries are usually African and the Middle East. This is one of the measures that the Department of Immigration uses to control the crime rates and it does not mean that they want to treat you unfairly.

- Make sure the information you fill in the visa form correctly with the information in your passport (especially name, passport number) because if you enter the wrong information, you cannot get a visa at the airport because the visa is granted based on the information you have filled.

“In the last 3 years I have come to Vietnam 5 times (actually Vietnam is an ideal destination and I love this beautiful country). I always use the online visa service from some reputable companies like VietnamVisaOnline.net and VisaOnArrival.net. Everything went smoothly and took very little time.

“Perhaps I did not list all the information you need but I hope you will have an overview of how to get a Vietnam visa online, and if you plan to go to Vietnam, remember that the Vietnam visa is the first ticket that you need. Wish you a nice trip!”

PV