With flexible visa procedures, international visitors to Vietnam have increased sharply.

According to the Immigration Department, more flexible changes in visa procedures, e-visas, and increased length of stay for foreigners have created positive changes in attracting international tourists.

Major General Pham Dang Khoa said the Immigration Law has many amendments to make visa procedures more flexible - Photo: NAM ANH

On August 30, the Immigration Department (A08, Ministry of Public Security) held a press conference to announce the initial results of implementing the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Exit and Entry of Vietnamese Citizens and the Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam (referred to as Law No. 23) from August 15 to present.

Abolish the regulation that passports must be valid for 6 months before being allowed to leave the country

At the press conference, Major General Pham Dang Khoa - Director of A08 - said that Law No. 23 was passed by the National Assembly on June 24 and took effect from August 15. Since the law took effect, it has contributed to simplifying and creating a legal basis to promote administrative reform, decentralization, and implementation of administrative procedures in the electronic environment.

The new law also facilitates all agencies, organizations, foreigners and citizens when exiting and entering the country.

One of the new highlights of the law is the provision to add information about the place of birth on immigration documents. According to Major General Khoa, this is a timely solution to facilitate Vietnamese citizens when leaving the country, meeting practical requirements, helping Vietnamese citizens to have convenience when applying for visas, entering, residing... in countries that require printing information about the place of birth in passports.

Director of Department A08 said that this law has also abolished the regulation that passports must be valid for 6 months or more to be allowed to leave the country.

Leaders of the Immigration Department answered some questions related to visa procedures at the press conference - Photo: NAM ANH

According to the old regulations, citizens' passports must be valid for at least 6 months before they can exit the country, in case foreign countries do not allow them to enter. However, this regulation sometimes causes difficulties for citizens, especially in cases where even though their passports are not valid for 6 months, they have a visa to enter a foreign country or are settled abroad, they are still allowed to enter the country by foreign countries.

Therefore, the above regulation has been adjusted and amended to "Vietnamese citizens are allowed to exit the country when their entry and exit documents are intact and still valid".

Extend visa duration to 90 days

According to Department A08, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of foreigners entering Vietnam in 2022 increased 6.6 times compared to 2021. However, this number is still very low compared to the pre-pandemic period in 2019, only 32.6%.

In that context, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Public Security to coordinate with ministries and branches to research, evaluate, and propose amendments to legal regulations on entry and exit to attract international tourists , investors, and workers.

Therefore, Law No. 23 amends many regulations in a more flexible direction regarding visa procedures such as: increasing the duration of electronic visas from 30 days to no more than 90 days; increasing the temporary residence period from 15 days to 45 days for citizens of countries that Vietnam unilaterally exempts from visas and are granted visas and temporary residence extensions according to regulations.

Additionally, under the new law, e-visas will be valid for single or multiple entries (previously, visas were only valid for single entry).

Representatives of embassies of several countries raised questions about new regulations related to visa procedures at the press conference - Photo: NAM ANH

A08 leaders assessed that increasing the visa duration to no more than 90 days would meet the long-term vacation needs of international tourists , especially groups of tourists from distant markets. At the same time, it would create favorable conditions for foreigners who want to enter Vietnam to research, survey the market, seek and promote investment.

Increasing the temporary stay period from 15 days to 45 days has made it more convenient for tourists to choose long-term tours, helping them to proactively manage their time and vacation schedule...

According to A08 statistics, after 15 days of Law No. 23 taking effect, there were more than 112,000 applications from foreigners requesting electronic visas to enter Vietnam, an increase of more than 70% compared to before the law took effect.

Of which, Chinese citizens using electronic passports account for about 10% with more than 9,100 applications, while citizens of countries newly applying for electronic visas account for 50% with 56,000 applications.

Also in the past 15 days, the immigration agency recorded over 337,000 foreigners entering Vietnam under unilateral visa exemption, focusing on citizens of countries such as South Korea, Japan, the UK...

"Through the situation, the Immigration Department has found that foreign tourists, especially from China, highly appreciate and have responded positively to Vietnam's new visa policy. This is also an opportunity for Vietnamese tourism to increase its competitiveness with other countries in the region, creating favorable conditions for entry according to the principle of reciprocity," Major General Khoa commented.

In the first 8 months of the year, nearly 8 million international visitors came to Vietnam.

According to data from the General Statistics Office, in the first 8 months of the year, there were nearly 8 million international visitors to Vietnam, reaching nearly 100% of the yearly plan. In August alone, Vietnam welcomed over 1.2 million international visitors, 2.5 times higher than the same period last year. This is the month with the highest number of international visitors since the beginning of the year. The countries with the most tourists to Vietnam are South Korea, China and the US. Of which, South Korea has the largest number of visitors with 2.2 million (accounting for 29% of the total number of visitors). China ranked second, reaching 950,000; the US ranked third with 503,000.

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