We are going on a Celebrity Singapore to HK cruise in mid-January 2024, with stops in Thailand and Vietnam.
After a lot of online checking to see what is required for Canadian tourists, it appears we need a tourist visa to land in Vietnam. However, there seems to be two options: a paper visa and an e-visa. The paper visa can be obtained from the Vietnamese Embassy/Consul and appears to cost CDN $110 per (a lot!).
It also seems that an e-visa, according to forums, is much cheaper at around USD $25. [Note: we are not interested in the Visa On Arrival (VOA) options available via various unknown third parties.]
I contacted the Vietnamese Embassy in Ottawa and got the following canned response:
Good day,
1. E-visa is issued by Immigration Department of Viet Nam, not linked to the system of Viet Nam Embassy. E-visa is used normally for air travel, because many seaports and land border gates do not accept e-visa; while regular physical visa issued by Vietnam Embassy is good for air travel, sea cruise and land travel.
2. If you want to apply for an e-visa, you need to apply at the website of the Immigration Department of Vietnam. If you have applied for e-visa and have any problems/questions, you need to contact the Immigration Department because Viet Nam Embassy can not assist you in those cases.
3. If you have problems with e-visa and want to re-apply for a regular visas issued by Viet Nam Embassy, you can apply at Viet Nam Embassy website:https://vietnamembassy.ca/consular-services/visa-application.
Sincerely,
Consular Section
This response states that e-visas are normally used for air arrivals and not sea arrivals, and that they may not be accepted at some, or all, seaports.
Has anyone got any recent experience whether e-visas are accepted at the seaports Celebrity uses for its Vietnam ports of call? Secondly, does anyone have the official Vietnamese government website URL for e-visas? I have tried the following links, all of which fail:
https://evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/
https://evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/web/guest/home
https://evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/en_US/web/guest/khai-thi-thuc-dien-tu/cap-thi-thuc-dien-tu
Thank you for any help.