Vietnam runs an online pre-arrival declaration called Pre-Arrival Information, or PAI, which you complete on the Immigration Department’s own portal before you travel. It is a declaration, not a visa, and it does not replace the e-visa an Indian passport holder needs (Pre-Arrival Information portal, Immigration Department of Vietnam, accessed 2026-08-27). The system went live at Ho Chi Minh City (Tan Son Nhat) on 2026-04-15 and has since been switched on at four more airports. You submit the form and receive a QR code to show at immigration.
Whether it is compulsory depends on where you land, and the official positions differ. Local immigration notices have required it at the airports where it has been switched on, while the Embassy of India in Hanoi describes the Immigration Department as piloting the system and expanding it on a voluntary basis. What is consistent across every account is the consequence of not filing: slower processing at the border. It is not a ground for refusing entry, no fine is published, and terminals display QR codes so you can complete the form on arrival if you have not done it already.
This guide is maintained by Zurich Kotak General Insurance, an IRDAI-registered general insurer in India and part of the Zurich Insurance Group.
How Zurich Kotak fits in: The pre-arrival declaration asks nothing of an insurer, but it comes at the point where the trip is booked and paid for, and Zurich Kotak’s Smart Travel plans cover emergency medical treatment abroad, medical evacuation and repatriation, baggage loss or delay and trip delay, up to the limits of the plan you buy, on the Asia geography Vietnam sits in. The policy is bought per trip and issued online once your dates are fixed. One condition is worth knowing before you land: a claim arising from a two-wheeler accident requires a valid international driving licence and, where local law mandates one, a helmet, and the Car Rental Excess benefit covers cars only, so a rented scooter sits outside it.
Last verified: 2026-08-27. This is a new and still-expanding requirement, so check the official portal before you travel.
The official portal, and only the official portal
File the declaration at https://prearrival.immigration.gov.vn/ , which is the Vietnamese Immigration Department’s own portal. Nothing else is the government.
The exact domain is prearrival.immigration.gov.vn . Compare that string character by character before you type anything into a form, because this is a space thick with impersonation sites. There is one further check available to you, and it is a strong one: the portal serves an organisation-validated TLS certificate issued to Cục Quản lý xuất nhập cảnh, the Immigration Department, for immigration.gov.vn . A certificate authority issues that class of certificate only after verifying the organisation behind the site, so a lookalike domain will not carry one.
A large industry of third-party sites offers to file arrival declarations for a service charge. They are not the government, they cannot get you a faster result, and the form is short enough that there is nothing to outsource. If a site asks you for a card payment to submit an arrival declaration, you are on the wrong site.
The same rule applies to your e-visa, which is a separate document with a separate and genuinely published government fee. Our guide to Vietnam e-visa and how to apply online covers that process and what the official fee is.
This is not a visa, and it does not replace one
The arrival declaration tells immigration who is arriving. Your Vietnam e-visa is permission to enter. You need both.
This is the single most expensive mistake available on this page. An Indian passport holder travelling to Vietnam for tourism needs a valid e-visa (or another qualifying visa) approved before departure. The declaration sits on top of that. Filing it does not grant entry, does not extend a visa, and will not help you at the airline check-in desk if your e-visa is missing.
Airlines check visa status before boarding. Turning up with a declaration QR code and no e-visa means being denied boarding in India, not being turned away in Vietnam.
If you are still working out which route applies to you, start with Vietnam visa for Indians , and if you have seen claims that Vietnam is visa-free for Indian passport holders, is Vietnam visa-free for Indians sets out the actual position.
Travelling to Vietnam? Get covered before you fly. By the time you are filing an arrival declaration, your flights and visa are already paid for. Travel insurance for Vietnam is the last box on the pre-departure list, and the only one that protects everything already booked.
Which airports use it
Five international airports have switched the declaration on, in stages between 2026-04-15 and about 2026-06-22.
Entry point | Position |
Ho Chi Minh City (Tan Son Nhat, SGN) | Live from 2026-04-15, the first airport |
Phu Quoc (PQC) | Live from about 2026-06-01 |
Hanoi (Noi Bai, HAN) | Live from about 2026-06-15 |
Da Nang (DAD) | Live from about 2026-06-15 |
Cam Ranh, for Nha Trang (CXR) | Live from about 2026-06-22 |
Other international airports | Not confirmed |
Land and sea crossings | Not in force. Extension to land borders was reported as under study only |
Two practical notes. First, a nationwide rollout was announced around 2026-05-10, but there is no evidence that it completed and nothing at all is on record after 2026-06-22, so treat these five as the confirmed floor rather than the full list. Second, because the system has been expanding rather than shrinking, filing the declaration when you are not strictly required to is harmless. If you are unsure whether your arrival airport is covered, file it.
When to file it
File it before you travel. No filing window is published on the official portal, and the sources that give one contradict each other, so the safest approach is to complete it once your flight is booked and your accommodation is confirmed.
One account says the declaration is made in the three days before arrival. Another says it is completed at home or before departure with no fixed window at all. We are not going to print a deadline that the available sources disagree about. If the portal declines a submission as too early, note the date it offers you and file again then. What you should not do is leave it until you are standing at the counter.
How to file it
Have your passport, your e-visa details and your Vietnam address in front of you before you start. The form takes a few minutes if you do, and much longer if you are hunting for a hotel booking mid-way.
What to have ready:
1. Your passport, for the number, the exact name spelling and the expiry date.
2. Your approved Vietnam e-visa reference.
3. Your flight number and arrival date.
4. The address you are staying at in Vietnam, as it appears on the booking.
Then:
1. Open prearrival.immigration.gov.vn and check the domain before you begin.
2. Enter your personal and passport details exactly as they appear in the passport, including middle names.
3. Enter your travel details: flight, arrival date, entry airport.
4. Enter your address in Vietnam.
5. Submit, and save the QR code you receive.
6. Keep the QR code available offline, as a screenshot and ideally on paper. Airport wifi is not a plan.
Name spelling is where these forms fail. The details must match the passport, not the way you normally write your name. If your passport has your full name and you enter a short form, expect a problem at the counter.
What it costs
No fee is published for the declaration, and the official portal asks for no payment. Treat any site charging you for it as a third party.
That is a deliberately careful sentence. No Vietnamese government source states in plain words that the declaration is free, so we are not going to put those words in a government’s mouth. What is established is that no fee has been published for it, that the portal has no payment step, and that no payment gateway appears in the portal’s code. Those facts together are enough to tell you that the Immigration Department is not collecting money from you here.
So: any site asking you for a card payment to file a Vietnamese arrival declaration is selling you a form you can complete yourself. Travellers who pay a service fee often assume they have bought a guarantee or some form of priority. They have not. The declaration is either filed correctly or it is not, and you can file it correctly yourself in a few minutes.
Three things Vietnam asks for that get confused with each other
Pre-Arrival Information, the health declaration and the temporary residence declaration are three separate obligations, and most of the confusion online comes from treating them as one.
What it is | Who runs it | Is it a step you complete before you fly? |
Pre-Arrival Information (PAI), the declaration on this page | Immigration Department, Ministry of Public Security | Yes, at the airports where it has been switched on |
Health declaration under Decree 165/2026/ND-CP, Article 22, in force from 2026-07-01 | Ministry of Health | Only if you fall inside a group the Health Minister has designated by disease risk |
Khai báo tạm trú, the temporary residence declaration | Local police, via your accommodation | No. It is an obligation on your hotel or host, not on you |
The health declaration is the one that has been reported worst. Vietnam’s Administration of Disease Prevention clarified publicly on 2026-07-08 that it is not mandatory for every traveller: it applies only to groups the Minister of Health designates according to disease risk. Coverage announcing that Vietnam mandated a health form for all arrivals from 1 July 2026 is simply wrong, and it has been repeated widely enough that you will probably meet it.
The temporary residence declaration is real, but it is not yours to file. A licensed hotel registers its guests as a matter of routine. If you are staying in a private home, the host makes the declaration.
Vietnam is one of several countries in the region now asking for a pre-arrival declaration, and no two are alike on timing or scope: which countries require a digital arrival card sets out what each one wants and when.
Common mistakes
Most problems with this declaration are one of seven things, and all seven are avoidable.
Mistake | What happens | How to avoid it |
Treating it as a visa | Denied boarding in India | File the declaration, and hold a valid e-visa separately |
Leaving it until you land | Slower processing at immigration, at the worst possible moment | File it before you leave India |
Paying a third-party site | Money gone, no benefit | Use prearrival.immigration.gov.vn only |
Name does not match the passport | Held up at the counter | Copy the passport exactly, middle names included |
One submission for the whole family | Travellers arriving without a declaration | One per traveller, including children |
QR code saved only online | No signal, no code | Screenshot it and carry a printout |
Assuming your airport is not covered | Arriving without a declaration that was expected | The list has grown in stages. If you are unsure, file it anyway |
Travel insurance and the pre-departure checklist
Nothing about the arrival declaration requires travel insurance, and we are not going to tell you otherwise. Vietnam does not ask for proof of cover as part of this filing.
What is true is where you are standing when you fill it in. The flights are paid for, the e-visa fee is spent and non-refundable, and the hotel is booked. The declaration is one of the last administrative tasks before you fly, which makes it a sensible moment to check whether the money already committed is protected.
Zurich Kotak’s Smart Travel plans cover Vietnam under the Asia geography, on the Excel tier with sum insured up to USD 100,000 and the Prime tier up to USD 500,000, with a maximum entry age of 70. Emergency medical treatment, medical evacuation, baggage, passport loss, trip cancellation and trip delay are covered up to plan limits. The Senior Citizen plan is not available on the Asia geography, so travellers aged 71 and above need a different route; our senior citizen travel insurance page covers the options.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Vietnam arrival card mandatory for Indians? It depends on where you land, and the official positions differ. Local immigration notices have required the declaration at the airports where it has been switched on, which is five as of 2026-08-27. The Embassy of India in Hanoi describes the Immigration Department as piloting the system and expanding it on a voluntary basis. Not filing it means slower processing at the border rather than refused entry, and no fine is published.
Does the arrival card replace my Vietnam e-visa? No. They are separate and you need both. The e-visa is permission to enter Vietnam; the declaration tells immigration who is arriving and where they are staying. Filing one does not substitute for the other.
How much does the Vietnam arrival card cost? No fee is published for it, and the official portal at prearrival.immigration.gov.vn asks for no payment. No Vietnamese government source states in plain words that it is free, so we will not say so either. Any site charging you to file it is a third party, not the Immigration Department.
When should I submit the Vietnam arrival card? Before you travel. No filing window is published and the sources that give one contradict each other, so the safest approach is to complete it once your flight is booked. If you arrive without it, terminals display QR codes so you can fill it in on the spot, at the cost of a slower passage through immigration.
Does Vietnam require a health declaration from every traveller since 1 July 2026? No. Decree 165/2026/ND-CP Article 22 came into force on 2026-07-01, and Vietnam’s Administration of Disease Prevention clarified on 2026-07-08 that the health declaration applies only to groups the Minister of Health designates according to disease risk. It is a separate obligation from the pre-arrival declaration.
Do children need their own arrival card? Yes. The declaration is per traveller, not per family or per booking, so every person on the passport list needs one, including infants.
