Vietnam E-Visa Rules 2026
What Decree 286 changed on 15 September 2026, and what it left alone
Half of what circulates about Vietnam's e-visa rules in late 2026 is a scare story. A decree took effect on 15 September, the coverage talked about tighter tracking of foreigners, and people started asking whether the 90-day visa was finished. It is not. The 90 days are still there, the 25 and 50 dollar fees are still there, and the list of nationalities who can apply has not moved. What changed is mostly plumbing: which agency hands your file to which other agency, and how fast. The rule that genuinely bites a long-stay visitor is an older one, that an e-visa cannot be extended from inside the country. That is the problem a border run solves.
The short version
The e-visa you apply for at evisa.gov.vn is the same document it was in 2023 and 2024: up to 90 days, single or multiple entry, open to every nationality, granted or refused with no appeal on the fee. Standard processing is about three working days. Decree 286/2026/ND-CP does not touch any of that.
What it does touch is what happens to your record after the visa is issued. Before this decree, immigration data lived in systems that did not always talk to each other. A detail you gave on arrival could sit in a provincial file while another agency held a different version, and the mismatch was unlikely to surface quickly. Decree 286 closes that gap, and it is worth understanding before you book anything that depends on your dates being clean.
What Decree 286/2026 actually did
The decree was signed on 17 June 2026, took effect on 15 September 2026, and replaced Decree 64/2015/ND-CP, which had governed coordination on foreign nationals since 2015. It applies specifically to people entering on an e-visa or under visa exemption. Four provisions are worth knowing:
- Article 7. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs must push data on visas and temporary residence cards into the National Immigration Database immediately after issue. Where the technical systems are not ready, it has five working days instead.
- Article 8, clause 5. The Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of National Defence exchange information in real time. In practice that means border records, entry stamps and immigration data move between the two without the old delay.
- Article 9, clause 1. Coordination widened well past visas and work permits. It now covers investment registration, enterprise registration, practising licences, training programmes, and conferences or seminars attended by e-visa and visa-exempt entrants.
- Article 11. There is now an explicit route for handling violations committed by e-visa or visa-exempt people while working or attending a conference. Decree 64/2015 had no separate provision for e-visa holders at all.
Read together, this is an administrative upgrade rather than a new set of restrictions. The government's own summary is about coordination, efficiency and national security. Nobody following the rules loses anything. People whose papers disagree with one another lose the margin they used to have.
What did not change
Worth saying plainly, because the coverage around the decree suggested otherwise. The 90-day maximum stay is unchanged. Single and multiple entry remain the two options. The fee is still 25 US dollars for single entry and 50 for multiple, paid on the official portal and non-refundable if the application is refused. The list of eligible nationalities is unchanged, and it is still open to all of them, not a shortlist. The visa-exemption countries, roughly 39 of them, are untouched, and the 30-day visa-free window ASEAN nationals get is untouched.
Two things do sit next to this decree and are easy to confuse with it. The amended Immigration Law that came into force on 1 July 2026 introduced the new five-year UD1 and UD2 categories for digital technology talent and their families, which is a separate story and one namvisa.com covers properly. And the landlord and hotel rules about registering foreign guests were already on the books before 15 September. What the decree added was the expectation that they get followed up on, because the data now reaches more desks.
For anyone planning a straightforward 90-day stay in Haiphong on a fresh e-visa, none of this requires a change of plan.
The rule that actually bites: you cannot extend an e-visa
This is the part that sends people to the border, and it predates Decree 286 by years. Immigration issues the e-visa as a fixed-validity entry permit. The dates are locked the moment it is granted and there is no in-country procedure to stretch it. Walk into the immigration office at No 2 Tran Binh Trong in Haiphong and ask to extend a tourist e-visa by 30 days, and you will be turned away, because the process does not exist. Visa-exemption entries cannot be extended either, so the 45-day stamp does not become 90.
What you can do is apply for a new e-visa while you are still inside Vietnam, and this is the detail most guides miss. You submit the application from your laptop in Haiphong, set the entry date to a future day after you have crossed out of the country, and the new visa is issued to your email. It just cannot be used until you have actually left and come back in. That is precisely what a visa run is: the exit at Huu Nghi to activate a visa that is already sitting in your inbox.
The catch that ruins the plan is timing. If the e-visa has already expired, you are in overstay territory, and an overstayer is not eligible to exit on the usual footing. The overstay page covers the fine brackets and why day 16 is the line that matters, but the one line to remember is that you sort the overstay file first and the run second.
The port of entry has to match the gate you use
An e-visa is issued against a named checkpoint. You cannot cross at a different one and sort it out at the desk. If the visa says Noi Bai and you turn up at Huu Nghi, the officer is looking at a document that does not cover where you are standing.
Resolution 389/NQ-CP, issued on 2 December 2025, made this easier to get right by expanding the list of e-visa checkpoints from 42 to 83. Those 83 break down as 17 international airports, 27 land border gates and 39 seaports, and Huu Nghi is one of the land gates on it. It has been a named e-visa entry point since the 2023 expansion, so a run from Haiphong genuinely works on an e-visa rather than a paper visa.
The Haiphong version of the mistake is common enough to be worth spelling out. Almost everyone heading here for a long stay lands at Noi Bai in Hanoi, because Cat Bi's international network is thin. So they file the e-visa against Noi Bai, arrive, drive down, and then a few weeks later want to run the border at Huu Nghi. On a first entry the flight and the visa agree. On the re-entry after a run, the visa has to name Huu Nghi, because that is the door you are walking back through. Get the arrival entry point on the application right for the crossing you are actually making. The Huu Nghi page walks the gate itself, hour by hour.
What it means if you are living in Haiphong
Two practical consequences, and neither is dramatic. First, the address trail. Your hotel or landlord files a temporary residence declaration when you check in, and the fine for them not doing it runs up to 40,000,000 VND. Decree 286 pushed sponsoring organisations to coordinate those declarations, and the data now reaches more desks than before. The version that keeps you out of trouble is simple: the address you give on entry, the address your accommodation files, and the booking you actually hold should be the same address. If you move mid-stay, from the city out to Do Son or across to Cat Ba, the new place files its own declaration. No gaps.
Second, the run itself. A Haiphong e-visa holder who wants another 90 days does the same thing a Haiphong e-visa holder did in 2024: private car to Huu Nghi in Lang Son, roughly 250 km and 3.5 to 4 hours up the expressway in a car, cross, cross back on the new visa. The decree changed nothing about that day. The cost page prices it, and the pre-arrival page explains why the airport QR form is a different document if you fly in first.
One honesty note that belongs on any page mentioning Huu Nghi. It is a China gate. To complete a run you have to enter the country next door, and China admits around 50 nationalities visa-free for up to 30 days under a policy running to 31 December 2026, with the UK and Canada added on 17 February 2026. Other passports, US ones included, need a Chinese visa arranged in Hanoi in advance, and nothing is issued at the gate. If China is closed to your passport, the alternatives are the Laos-side gates at Na Meo in Thanh Hoa or Lao Bao in Quang Tri, both overnight trips from here, which hanoivisarun.com covers in detail. Send us your passport country and we will tell you straight which route fits.
E-visa questions we get from Haiphong
Did Vietnam's 90-day e-visa change in 2026?
No. The e-visa is still valid for up to 90 days, still offered as single or multiple entry, and the eligible nationalities list is unchanged. Decree 286/2026/ND-CP, in force from 15 September 2026, governs how Vietnamese agencies share data on e-visa holders. It does not change how long you can stay or what you pay.
Can I extend a Vietnam e-visa from inside the country?
No. Immigration issues the e-visa as a fixed-validity entry permit and there is no in-country extension procedure for this visa type. The dates are locked when it is issued, and visa-exemption entries cannot be extended either. Your options are to leave and re-enter on a new e-visa, which is what a border run does, or to convert to a sponsored category such as a business or work visa if you qualify and have a sponsor.
What is the Vietnam e-visa fee in 2026?
The official fee on evisa.gov.vn is 25 US dollars for single entry and 50 for multiple entry, non-refundable even if the application is refused. Standard processing is about three working days. Third-party sites charge three to six times that for the same form, so check which domain you are on before you pay.
Can I enter at a different border gate than the one on my e-visa?
No. An e-visa is issued against a named checkpoint and you cannot cross at a different one without fixing the application first. Resolution 389/NQ-CP of 2 December 2025 took the list from 42 to 83 checkpoints: 17 airports, 27 land border gates and 39 seaports. The usual mistake is filing against Noi Bai because that is where your flight lands, then crossing back in at Huu Nghi after a run.
Does Decree 286/2026 affect ordinary visitors staying in Haiphong?
Not much, if your paperwork is clean. It pushes visa and residence data into the National Immigration Database in real time and widens coordination between agencies. For a hotel guest it mostly means the address you declare should match the booking you actually hold, because the data no longer sits in separate silos. On a valid visa with a declared address, nothing in the decree catches you.
Working out which rule applies to you
Rules pages are abstract until they meet a stamp. If you are in Haiphong now and trying to decide between a new e-visa and sitting on the one you have, the two dates that settle it are the exit date on your current visa and the date you want to travel. Give us both on WhatsApp, along with your passport country, and we will tell you whether a same-day Huu Nghi run is on the table or whether you are looking at an overnight to the Laos side instead.
