A new way to a Vietnam Visa

One of the few visas that we needed to apply for and has actually been more of a formal process was the Vietnam visa. We opted to get our visa while in Bangkok at the Vietnam Embassy. I can’t say I would do that again. First you have to find the embassy, which isn’t too hard if you know your way around Bangkok, which we do, but there aren’t a lot of signs to help you when you get close. Next you have to pay and give them your passport for a few days (I hate not having my passport). Finally, if you are lucky you will get your passport back on time, with a nice big full page Vietnam sticker visa in your passport.

We weren’t one of the lucky few. After a few stops back to check on the progress on this rather routine operation we got our passports back, only to find the wrong dates printed on our passports. Our Vietnam visa was due to expire a day before we were set to land in Ho Chi Minh City. After pointing out to the friendly embassy attendant that he had gotten our dates wrong by a whole month, he whips around grabs a pen and crosses out the printed, and very formal looking, dates and writes over them with the same pen. Before we had a chance to scream ‘noooooo’ he was done. Our rather expensive visas was now scribbled on. He hands them back and points to his edit and says in rather rough English “It ok, I put two stamp. Two stamp OK, one stamp no OK.” Just then another older expat from behind us says “It’s OK they mess the dates up all the time, if it has two stamps where he wrote you should be OK.”

We ended up getting into Vietnam without too much of an issue, but we wasted more than a whole day in Bangkok dealing with it. Not to mention trying to explain this to our airline attendant in the Philippines that yes our visa was actually good, even though they had the dates scribbled out. The whole “Two stamp OK” thing was hard to explain to her before she actually let us on the plane. Airlines will not allow you on the plane to another country without proof that you have proper documentation, because if you don’t returning you to where you came from is their responsibility.

So what would I do differently next time? There is a better way out there. It’s 2014, do it online. There is a site that will help you sort your visa without even stepping into an embassy. Evisa Vietnam is a new way to apply for your visa and skip the headache of dealing with the embassy. Vietnam ended up being one of our favorite South East Asian stops, don’t let getting into the country get in the way of enjoying it.