A Vietnam e-visa is decided by the Immigration Department of Vietnam, not by us. We prepare your application, check it by hand and file it on the Government portal, but whether a visa is issued, and how quickly, sits with the Immigration Department alone. What we can do is tell you where your application stands, explain what usually lies behind a delay or a refusal, and help you decide what to do next. This guide covers both situations, because the first question is always which one you are in.
First, is it late or is it refused?
The official processing time for a Vietnam e-visa is three working days. We tell customers three to five working days, because the official figure does not always hold. Working days leave out weekends and Vietnamese public holidays, so an application filed on a Thursday afternoon has not run late by Monday.
You can check the status yourself on the portal’s search page, https://evisa.gov.vn/e-visa/search, with three things: the registration code from your application, the email address used on it and your date of birth. If we filed for you, we check this for you as part of the order and email you as soon as the visa is issued, so you do not have to.
What the page shows tells you which situation you are in. An application that is still being processed is simply not decided yet; that is a delay, not a refusal. A refusal is shown on the same page, and nothing you do on the status page will change it. If yours is still in progress after five working days, we will already have told you; if you applied on your own, the sections below explain the usual reasons.
Why e-visas run late
- Tet and public holidays. The Lunar New Year, Tet, falls in late January or February and is the biggest pause of the year. There were reports that no e-visas were approved for about a week over Tet 2026, and that processing in February ran at seven to ten working days. Other public holidays add days too.
- Peak season. When many travellers apply at once, three working days can stretch.
- Dates far ahead. Vietnam counts the e-visa’s validity from the day it is issued. An application whose dates run well past 90 days from issue does not fit that rule and may be rejected. Apply no more than two to three weeks before you travel: the e-visa’s 90 days are counted from the day it is issued, not from your arrival.
Why the portal rejects applications
The portal checks the photo and passport image by machine, and most refusals trace back to one of these:
- The photo fails an automatic check. No face detected, face not straight to the camera, a photo of a photo, more than one face, or a portrait that does not match the passport page. The portal warns that a “low match rate” may lead to rejection.
- The passport image has no machine-readable lines. The two lines of characters at the bottom of the data page must be in frame and readable; the portal rejects an image without them.
- The name is typed differently from the passport. The form asks for the full name exactly as in the machine-readable lines, in capital letters. A missing middle name or a swapped order is a mismatch.
- Dates that run more than 90 days from the issue date.
- A purpose that needs permits. Business, work, study and investment need the relevant permits; a tourist e-visa is for tourism.
- A declared past violation. The form asks whether you have ever broken Vietnamese laws or regulations. A yes is for the Immigration Department to weigh, and we cannot predict how it will.
The Immigration Department may not give a reason, and we do not see every detail of its decision.
What a refusal costs
The Government fee is 25 US dollars for a single-entry e-visa and 50 US dollars for multiple entry. It is paid on the portal with the application and, as the portal says before you pay, it is not refunded if the visa is refused. That is the Government’s rule, and no agency can recover it.
Our price includes that fee. What happens to the rest of what you paid us depends on the stage your application had reached; the rules are set out on our refunds page, and we apply them as written.
Reapplying
If the refusal was about the photo or the passport image, fix the file and apply again. Our photo and document guide covers each rule. A new application is a new filing: a new Government fee and the full processing time again, so allow for that before you travel.
Until the visa is in your hands, do not book flights or hotels you cannot cancel or change. If the reason for the refusal is something other than the files, message us before reapplying and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth doing.
If you are already in Vietnam
An e-visa cannot be extended. Staying longer, or changing the purpose of your stay, needs a new visa through a sponsor in Vietnam, and that is an “ask us” service rather than something we file online. Message us with your dates and we will tell you what applies.
The Phú Quốc alternative
If your trip is to Phú Quốc island only, you may not need the e-visa at all. Travellers of every nationality can stay on the island for up to 30 days without a visa, provided they arrive there directly from abroad or connect airside through another Vietnamese airport. Our guide to Phú Quốc without a visa explains which routes count and where the rule stops.
If your e-visa is late or has been refused, send us your reference number on WhatsApp and we will tell you where it stands and what we would do next.