Emergency Vietnam Visa on Arrival

Having last visited Vietnam 5 years ago in a painkiller enhanced fog I vaguely thought I could pick up a visa for Vietnam when I landed at the airport. Well that’s partly true. Having booked with Qantas which included a two day stopover in Singapore, I thought everything was on track.

No visa red flags had appeared on the Qantas site, and surely they would say something?

Vietnam was part of a two week holiday thanks to the Cathay Pacific First Class mistake fare.

My points brother Milton who was also joining me and Julie for part of the trip asked me if I had all my Visas organised. We were good for the US but assumed Vietnam was a traditional Visa on Arrival. 

The Australian Government website smart traveller was not much help. It said you needed a Visa approval letter but more importantly said:

“To avoid online visa or travel agent scams, apply for your visa through the Government of Vietnam’s official website or offices”

With less than 24 hours before jumping on our first plane. There was no way we could get to the Vietnam official offices and the official website was confusing. Plus I thought Visa on Arrival was literal.

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We cannot issue you a boarding pass without a Visa on Arrival Letter

 We had spent two great days in Singapore visiting Hawker Centres and staying at the Hotel Indigo Katong. On our day of departure we got to Singapore Airport early,  arriving about 2 hours and 20 minutes before departure.

That’s when things started to unravel

At check in the Vietnam Airlines staff asked about our Visa on Arrival letter. My answer that we would get a visa on arrival did not cut it, and he denied us boarding. Suggesting we could get an emergency visa and visit the airport information counter.

At that stage the heart rate went up and the mouth started to go dry. Off we went to the information desk who said they could not help but the Visa Travel Agency across the way might be able to help. 

It was a game of pass the parcel. He could not help us get to Vietnam but suggested we google “emergency Vietnam Visa”. Thankfully I had a laptop and fast Changi Airport wifi. He pointed to the first company govietnamvisa.com. It was a google ad!! It was top of the list because they paid for it to be there.

OMG this was exactly what the Australian Government had told me to avoid.

Time was not our friend, so we dived in, filled in all the details, passport and credit cards. They had the lot… At this stage we had about 80 minutes to spare.  We paid for the 1 hour express visa. I could have doubled the price for 15 mins express, but thought I had enough time.

The downsides

At this stage I was thinking of the downsides if this had not gone through, and should I have paid for 15 minutes. I would have needed new Singapore accommodation booking for the night, tickets to Hanoi the next day, missing our Halong Bay cruise highlight. Later I checked my pulse on the Garmin app and it was peaking more than my daily cycle to work.

Tip: Once you have confirmation of the payment make a call to the helpful staff. They will let you know of any issues. We had to send pictures of our passports as well.

Next step was to get some passport photos from a booth at the airport. Luckily we had some left over Singapore currency otherwise we would have been looking for an ATM as well

Then the Visa waiting game.

I must have called them 3 times thanks to my Vodafone all you can eat plan. As I had paid for the 60 minute service that’s what I got. I think it was closer to 68 minutes from the time I pressed send on the payment.

We were the last to check in with seven minutes to spare. All of a sudden life got so much better.

The cost for this stuff up was around AUD473.86. There go the savings from walking from Mascot station and getting my tax back. The upside was our holiday could continue.

As part of the mistake fare I have a return ticket to Da Nang that I did not intend to use. However to make sure I was not offloaded in JFK I bought visa letter from Vietnamvisapro.com, another dodgy looking website!! By ordering two days early it only cost $17.89. A saving of $455.97 – Ouch.

Summary: Ignore the advice from the Australian Government and use either of the two websites I referred to. They look dodgy as but appear to work fine. Good Luck!.