Indians cannot simply fly to Vietnam and get a visa at the airport. Vietnam’s visa on arrival works only if an approval has been arranged before you fly, through a Vietnam-side sponsor, and the online market for these “approval letters” is riddled with scams. If you searched for a Vietnam visa on arrival for Indian passport holders hoping for a walk-up counter, this page is the honest answer: the pre-approval letter route exists, but for almost every traveller the official e-visa is cheaper, cleaner and safer. This guide, from Zurich Kotak General Insurance, an IRDAI-registered general insurer in India and part of the Zurich Insurance Group, explains how the Vietnam VoA for Indians actually works and where travellers get burned. For the complete picture of entry routes, fees and documents, start with our Vietnam visa for Indians guide, and sort your travel insurance for Vietnam before you book.
The reality first: VoA is not a walk-up option for Indians
There is no counter at any Vietnamese airport where an Indian traveller can land unannounced and buy a visa. Vietnam’s law on foreigners’ entry (Law No. 47/2014/QH13, Article 18) restricts visas issued at border gates to narrow categories, such as travellers from countries with no Vietnamese visa-issuing authority, multi-country itineraries, participants of tours organised by licensed Vietnamese travel companies, ship crew and family emergencies (Law 47/2014/QH13, accessed 2026-07-09). In every case, a Vietnam-side agency or sponsor must file for approval with the Immigration Department in advance, and the officer at the landing-visa counter checks your name against that advance notification. No pre-arranged approval, no visa, and the airline will usually refuse boarding in India in the first place. Vietnam is not visa-free for Indians, so a visa arranged before departure is always required (Vietnam Immigration Department, accessed 2026-07-09).
How Vietnam visa on arrival actually works
The Vietnam visa on arrival process for Indians has two stages: a pre-approval letter arranged online before you fly, and a landing-visa counter at the airport where the visa is actually stamped. Here is the full sequence:
1. You pay an agent for a pre-approval letter. Travel agencies in Vietnam sponsor your entry with the Immigration Department, typically charging a service fee of roughly USD 10 to 50 (about INR 950 to 4,800) per person depending on speed and entry type ( myvietnamvisa.com , accessed 2026-07-09). This fee is private and unregulated; it is not a government charge.
2. You receive the approval letter by email, usually as a PDF that also lists other applicants in the same batch, which means strangers see your passport details.
3. You fly with the letter, a visa application form, and passport photos. The letter route is generally honoured only for air arrivals at Vietnam’s major international airports, such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Hai Phong and Phu Quoc, not at land borders or seaports (agent-reported; verify current airport list before travel).
4. At the landing-visa counter, before immigration, you pay the stamping fee in cash. The official fee is USD 25 (about INR 2,390) for a single-entry visa and USD 50 (about INR 4,780) for multiple entry, set by Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance under Circular 28/2026/TT-BTC, in force since 2026-04-01 (LuatVietnam, accessed 2026-07-09). Cards are often not accepted at the counter, and queues can be long when several flights land together.
The full cost stack and how it compares with the e-visa lives in our Vietnam visa for Indians guide; the short version is that the letter fee comes on top of the same stamping fee, so a Vietnam airport visa for Indians is almost never the cheaper route.
The scam problem with VoA letters
The approval-letter market is the single biggest visa-scam surface for Vietnam-bound travellers, because the sellers are private agents and the buyer cannot verify a letter until they are already at the airport. Consumer guides and travel forums consistently report the same patterns ( vietnamtourism.com , accessed 2026-07-09):
· Lookalike “official” websites. Sites with official-sounding names and .com addresses charge 100 to 300 per cent markups on the USD 25 government fee, or sell a letter you did not need at all. Vietnam’s Immigration Department states that its e-visa portal operates on exactly two domains, evisa.gov.vn and thithucdientu.gov.vn ; any other site is a third party, whatever its name suggests (Vietnam Immigration Department, accessed 2026-07-09).
· Fake or invalid letters. A convincing PDF arrives by email, but the sponsoring filing behind it was never made. The traveller discovers this at the landing-visa counter, or at check-in in India when the airline denies boarding.
· Inflated “stamping fees”. The fee is fixed in law at USD 25 or USD 50. Demands for more, “fast-track fees” to skip a queue, or on-the-spot “fines” are red flags.
· Personal-data exposure. Batch approval letters circulate passport numbers of everyone on the list.
Practical red flags: guaranteed approval, prices far from the official fee, wire-transfer-only payment, and any domain that is not . gov.vn claiming to be the government. We deliberately name no companies here; the pattern matters more than any one operator.
E-visa vs visa on arrival for Indians
The e-visa is the better route for almost every Indian traveller because it is the official, direct channel: you pay the government its published fee and arrive with the visa already issued. Vietnam’s e-visa is valid for up to 90 days with single or multiple entry, applied for entirely online (Vietnam Immigration Department, accessed 2026-07-09). Here is the honest comparison:
Factor | E-visa | Visa on arrival (letter) |
Channel | Official government portal only | Private agents + airport counter |
Total cost | USD 25/50 (about INR 2,390/4,780), nothing else | Agent fee (USD 10-50) plus the same USD 25/50 stamping fee |
Cost transparency | Published, fixed | Agent fee unregulated; markup and add-on risk |
Scam exposure | Lookalike sites exist, but the . gov.vn rule filters them | High: fake letters, inflated fees, data exposure |
On arrival | Straight to immigration | Landing-visa queue first, cash fee, then immigration |
Entry points | Airports, land borders and seaports listed on the portal | Air arrivals only |
If you are ready to apply, apply for the Vietnam e-visa instead ; our walkthrough covers the official portal step by step.
When VoA still makes sense
The letter route survives only in edge cases: genuinely last-minute travel when the e-visa cannot be processed in time. E-visa processing takes around three working days but can stretch in peak season, so a traveller who must fly within 24 to 48 hours sometimes uses an established agent’s urgent letter service as a paid workaround. Even then, use a letter only when a verifiable agency arranges it, ideally a tour operator you are already contracted with, which is closer to the arrangement Article 18 was written for. If your dates allow three to seven working days of buffer, there is no good reason for an Indian tourist to choose the VoA route in 2026.
If it goes wrong at the border
A pre-approval letter is not a guarantee of entry: immigration can refuse to stamp a visa, an airline can refuse boarding if your documents look wrong, and no insurance policy can overturn either decision. What cover can do is soften the financial damage. Zurich Kotak’s Smart Travel policy includes a Visa Cost Cover that reimburses the visa fee, not the premium, if your visa is rejected or you are denied a visa on arrival. Trip-cancellation cover responds to its own listed perils, so read the policy wording before assuming a refused entry triggers it. The rest of the policy does the bigger job: emergency medical treatment, hospitalisation, baggage and trip disruption, with Zurich Kotak’s 24x7 claims assistance a phone call away. Buy the policy when you book the trip, not at the airport, so cancellation cover is live while your visa is still in process. See our travel insurance for Vietnam page for what a Vietnam plan covers.
Travelling to Vietnam? Get covered before you fly. Get your Vietnam travel insurance quote
FAQ
Q: Can Indians get a visa on arrival in Vietnam?
A: Only with a pre-arranged approval letter; there is no walk-up visa on arrival for Indians at any Vietnamese airport. The “on arrival” part is just where the visa is stamped, not where permission is granted. Without the letter, airlines will normally deny boarding in India.
Q: Is the Vietnam visa on arrival letter legit?
A: Genuine approval letters exist, but the market that sells them is scam-prone, so treat every seller with suspicion. Fakes are convincing PDFs with no Immigration Department filing behind them. Red flags: guaranteed approval, prices far from the official USD 25/50 stamping fee, wire-transfer-only payment, and “official” websites that do not end in .gov.vn.
Q: Which is better for Indians, e-visa or visa on arrival?
A: The e-visa, because it is the official direct channel: you pay the government USD 25 (about INR 2,390) single entry or USD 50 (about INR 4,780) multiple entry and arrive with the visa already issued. The VoA route adds an unregulated agent fee, an extra airport queue, cash-only payment and scam exposure, for no benefit unless travel is genuinely last-minute.
Q: What does visa on arrival cost in Vietnam?
A: Two parts: an agent’s letter fee, typically USD 10 to 50 (about INR 950 to 4,800) per person, plus the official stamping fee of USD 25 single entry or USD 50 multiple entry (about INR 2,390 or 4,780), paid in cash at the airport. Anything charged above the fixed stamping fee is a red flag. Our Vietnam visa for Indians guide has the full cost comparison.
Q: Can I be refused entry with a VoA letter?
A: Yes. A letter is a pre-approval, not a guarantee; immigration can still refuse the visa at the counter, and a fake letter means refusal is certain, with return on the next available flight. Insurance cannot reverse a refusal, though Zurich Kotak’s Visa Cost Cover reimburses the visa fee if your visa is rejected or denied on arrival.
