For some reason I assumed I could go to Vietnam without visa since I have a Canadian passport. Now I’m at airport in Tokyo and don’t know what to do.
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I applied for visas (NZ passport) for my partner and myself 2 weeks before leaving for Vietnam from Sri Lanka (we have been travelling all year). It took several attempts, and hours, to even get the payment accepted trying various debit and credit cards.
You have to check the application yourself every day to see the progress. On the 5th day (business days) it said I needed to amend the residential address in Vietnam (I never usually book accommodation more that a couple of days in advance), I had only given the hotel name, so I added full street address. After reviewing before resubmitting I noticed that the date of entry field had jumped forward a day in 2 locations of the form (something that occurred every time after as well!) which would’ve meant less processing time for us, very frustrating! I picked up on this and fixed it each time.
I had to ‘amend’ 3 more times before it was finally granted 4 hours before my flight. I made zero changes in the application in the last 2 submissions but got accepted, how does that make sense?! They had also given me a completely random 13 day entry window which didn’t even match my requested date of exit…
My partner was not so lucky, her visa was granted 2 days after we were meant to have arrived. Luckily our original flight into Vietnam was a connecting flight via Bangkok which we went to for 3 days and had a great time. But after this disaster we decided if they make it that hard to enter then it’s not worth going to at a much greater expense. Ended up coming to Philippines instead and had my phone snatched out of my hand after 2 days in Manila. FML
Buddy, have you heard of the word “a”? Sure doesn’t look like it from your post haha.
Hope you get it sorted out and it works out without too much pain
I did something similar a couple of months ago. I just waited in Thailand for my visa application to be processed. It took 5 days! I think the average is 3 but just be aware it can take even longer.
Happens a lot. In the airport we saw a guy being denied boarding at the gate for a flight to Vietnam, we assume because he didn’t have a visa.
We made that assumption and was paying attention to that flight because we were also supposed to be on that flight, but decided to double check visa requirements the night before and found out lol. So instead we were taking a flight to KL that was leaving at the same gate an hour later.
Don’t worry about the E-Visa, get on an expat group on Facebook marketplace. Someone will know someone who can get you a “visa on arrival”, should cost about $50 and get sorted in a couple of hours, maybe a little more for the rush.
Don’t listen to some negative people here - also a Canadian who made the same mistake 4 weeks ago. Vietnam and Cambodia are 2/35 countries I’ve visited requiring this goofy pre-registration, and Vietnam just changed it from VoA recently. It’s baffling.
Unfortunately we had to get a hotel in Brisbane and stay an extra 5 nights until we got approved. Sorry about your experience
Ya I don’t get it, the OP already knows about the mistake. With a US passport sometimes you’re just entitled and didn’t even realize to look up.
I’ve been to 70 countries and it happened to me last year… it happens when you’re hopping around l!
Hahah I literally had this same exact thing happen to me. I was leaving from Tokyo to India and I was so used to getting visa on arrival, when they asked me to show my visa, I was just like “Huh?”
So they wouldn’t let me board my flight. I ended up just applying for the Indian visa at the airport and then booked a flight to Taiwan for the week instead to wait it out until I got the visa approved.
Can you change your flight to Thailand and wait there until you go to Vietnam? I’m assuming Canadians don’t need visa for Thailand …
Had this situation.
https://govietnamvisa.com Sign up for express service as fast as you want. Pick airport pick up and they will come to the airport to work out documents for you.
Contact Vietnamese embassy and arrange to pay for the visa in cash when you land in Vietnam. This is what I did when I made the same mistake.
They have an emergency visa on arrival for 125usd I believe. I messed up on my visa and when I arrived they gave me this option.
You traveled across the world “assuming” you don’t need a visa? You can get an eVisa, but just a passport doesn’t cut it. Go back to Canada.
Be nice
don’t they have an eVisa system? apply online and hope for a swift response
https://www.vietnam-visa.com/super-urgent-visa-service/
You pay extra but you can get one superfast.
First-world people are sooo funny sometimes!