Despite the advantages of Vietnam visa on arrival, not all people love it and some people might unluckily swim in trouble pool with this type of visa. This writing written by a staff in Vietnam tour operator suggests some common mistakes when applying Vietnam visa on arrival.

Time to Apply visa

The visa on arrival is well-known with rush service by which the applicant can get the visa result within few working hours. However, many people miss these important words “working hours”. It means that the applicant has to care about time zone, working hours, working days and national days off in Vietnam. If you apply in night time, weekend or national days, the application will be processed in the next working shift. In case your flight cannot wait until the next working days, you might have to pay large extra money for special service to get visa during working off days or in the worst case, you will lose the flight.

Wrong information the visa letter

When you apply the Vietnam visa online, you are not required to send off your passport, just need to fill in some of your passport information which the visa letter will be issued basing on. Please remember that, once the visa letter is issued, no information can be changed and you have to apply a new booking to amend any incorrect information. See below some typical errors that many people have made:

• Full name: It has to be identical with your passport and be typed with English alphabet. Only one letter missing or wrong typing can make the visa invalid. The order between last name and first name is not important.
• Passport number: It has to be identical as in your passport. Normally, it appears on the top of the right of the passport picture page.
• Arrival date: If you want to get the visa before book the flight, you should choose the earliest date that you can enter Viet Nam. The reason is that, you can enter Viet Nam on or after the effective date of the visa but not sooner. Someone might misunderstand this issue.
• Type of visa: Consider your plan and decide the most suitable type of visa (single or multiple entries visa) which can save your money.

Shortage of cash to pay stamping fee

The visa on arrival has 2 different fees: First is services fee paid online to the website you apply for visa letter and Stamping fee paid in cash upon your arrival airport to Government to get the visa stamp. In some cases, travelers misunderstand that they need to pay online only then they do not prepare cash to pay the second fee; or they think that credit cards are acceptable. Therefore, at the landing time, they face with the unexpected problem and feel unlike this inconvenience.

Everything has its advantages and disadvantages and so does the visa on arrival; however, if the applicants acknowledge some above issues and prepare well, the visa on arrival will surely bring a lot of clear benefits.