Vietnam offers flexible visa options for Indians who wanted to visit the country for tourism purposes. Visa On Arrival is a popular option used by many Indian Tourists so far until last year the immigration department of Vietnam added India on the eligible country list for eVisa.
The following website of Vietnam Government provides this eVisa service.
https://www.immigration.gov.vn/
eVisa is a simple way that we apply our visa application directly to the immigration officer via their online service page. It involves no middleman as like the Visa On Arrival process where in you need to get a visa letter from a Vietnam tour agency.
The following is the URL where i applied for this visa…
https://evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/trang-chu-ttdt
You need to have a scanned copy of your passport size picture and passport (personal information page) before starting this process. I did took passport picture with my phone camera only and cropped it similar to the sample image they displayed. And my application was approved. So it doesn’t really matter you scanned it or use your mobile cam… as long as it is displaying your passport correctly it will be accepted. The visa form asks for Entry and Exit ports of the visit. Remember to enter correct information as this can not be changed later. If you unaware of which port you are entering or exit Vietnam do not use eVisa.
They charged 26USD for processing application (including 1USD for payment gateway charges)
Finally they gave a reference number along with a message that the visa application will take upto 3 working days to get processed. But i got approval message from vietnam immigration department in just around 7 hours.
The advantage of this eVisa is you need to only pay 26 USD fee at the time of application. When you arrive at the airport you don’t need to pay stamping fee. For visa on arrival you need to pay 25USD fee for visa stamping at the time of arrival. To get visa on arrival the visa letter is required which costs between 8USD – 12 USD depends on service provider.