Vietnam Visa info update

We are doing a combined Irrawaddy - Mekong trip (with Vantage) in October - November 2016. Being in the DC area we get our own Visas. We took our passports, visa applications, itinerary and cashiers checks ($20pp) to Myanmar Thursday a week ago, and picked them up in one week as promised. Then walked the passports the few blocks to the Vietnam Consulate. At the end of August the Consulate had responded to our email with a multiple entry visa price of US$130 and afternoon opening at 1:30pm. Unknown to us on 1 Sep 2016 the Washington DC Vietnam Consulate changed to issuing only One Year Multiple Entry Visas at US$220 pp, and changed their opening hours (now shown on their website as 2:30pm, but last Thursday they did open at 2pm). $440 per couple plus ancillary expenses for a few days in country - OUCH!:mad: On the good side Vietnam got the applications on Thursday afternoon, issued the Visas on Friday, mailed them on Friday, and we got them Saturday (yesterday). We still have almost a month until travel and had not requested expedited service.

 

Thom

Thom , we agree that the cost of Viet Nam visas are quite high...plus we could not get the embassy website to accept the applications once we had completed the on-line forms......no one answers email or phone at the embassy.....so we used gen-visa and new have the visas nicely in our passports now so are good to go.

 

Plan to try a few local Vietnamese restaurants in the next few weeks to introduce our palates. Excited about this trip.......we thoroughly enjoyed Myanmar/Irrawaddy so I am sure you will have an awesome adventure when combining the two. Wish you were on our boat!!!! Maybe I can leave a note in a secret place for you to find once you are onboard :)!! or some scotch!

I believe at this time they also changed the Visa On Arrival policy - no more single entry (cheap) visas for U.S. citizens.

 

Vietnam Changes Visa Requirements for US Travelers

Great way to ENCOURAGE tourism.... (sarcasm)

Visa policies tend to be based on reciprocity, especially where the USA is concerned, so you will tend to find that if the USA is not granting favorable terms to citizens of a particular country then they may feel it is appropriate to do the same in return...

 

Regarding tourism, in the region, Vietnam is not seeing as much of the tourists $$ as Cambodia.

 

A lot of tours will spend a day or two either end in Vietnam but the bulk of their time (and money) in Cambodia due to Siem Reap.

 

Even in Cambodia, they worry that people travel to Thailand and just spend a couple of days in Siem Reap, but they at least have the Mekong to use as a way of encouraging people to spend more in their country.

Visa policies tend to be based on reciprocity, especially where the USA is concerned, so you will tend to find that if the USA is not granting favorable terms to citizens of a particular country then they may feel it is appropriate to do the same in return...

I am well aware that quite a number of countries charge US citizens $160 because this is what the US charges their citizens. Some countries (eg Chile, etc) don't even require US citizens to have a visa, but do charge a $160 "visa reciprocity fee." Brazil suspended its visa requirement and associated $160 fee for US citizens during the recent Olympics in a desperate move to encourage visitors, and Argentina has a current suspension of their $160 fee to encourage visitors. Vietnam is the first country where I have been charged more than $160. Has the US raised its fee? (I don't think so.) Note that I do acknowledge any country's right to charge whatever they think appropriate, but do think that discouraging tourism is not in the best interests of most countries.

 

Thom