The Vietnamese Prime Minister agreed to suspend the unilateral visa exemption for eight European countries including Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain at the meeting ending in the afternoon of March 9th, 2020.
According to the Resolution No. 46/NQ-CP dated June 18th, 2015, Visa-free entry is granted for any citizens of the United Kingdom who enters Vietnam with temporary residence duration not exceeding 15 days from the date of entry, supposed that he/she comply with the provisions of Vietnamese laws.
However, as the Corona Virus epidemic outbreak is more and more dangerous, Vietnam Government organized an urgent conference this afternoon and decided to suspense the visa waiver program to eight countries, included United Kingdom (UK). As a result, all UK passport holders are now required a visa before coming to Vietnam. UK passport holders are also required to fill out the medical declaration when coming to all Vietnamese entry ports. All UK passport holders departing from Italy, Korea, Japan, Iran, China mainland to Vietnam are quarantine 14 days at designated health facilities in Vietnam.
If UK passport holders are not from these above countries, and have a good health, they can apply Vietnam visa and come to Vietnam normally. Vietnam visa is still opened online for UK passport holders. UK citizens can access the visa online application link to process Evisa or visa on arrival. Both types of visa can be done online within 2 working days.
For Evisa (electronic visa), Vietnam government requires all applicants to submit passport photo and digital photo when applying online. It takes two working days to process and can be expedited. Visa result will sent to applicant’s email when it’s approved.
For visa on arrival, applicants must apply online for the approval letter first, and then get visa at the Vietnamese airports. It takes two working days to process the approval letter and can be expedited. After receiving the approval letter through email, the applicants print it out, and use it to get visa stamp when arriving at Vietnamese airports.