Guide · 6 min read
Vietnam Visa Run: Common Planning Mistakes
The planning mistakes that most often derail a Vietnam visa run, from misreading your permitted stay to e-visa typos, and how to avoid each one.
Most visa runs that go wrong fail for predictable reasons. None of these mistakes is unusual, and all of them are easier to avoid at home than to fix at the border.
1. Reading the wrong date
People plan around the date printed on their visa rather than the stay they were granted on entry. The date that matters for leaving on time is your permitted stay. Check your entry stamp or e-visa record.
2. Leaving it to the last day
Border queues, traffic, a slow e-visa approval or a typo in an application can all cost a day. Plan to travel with days of margin before your stay ends, not on the final day.
3. Applying on an unofficial visa website
Many websites look official but aren't. They charge extra and sometimes delay applications. For a Vietnam e-visa, use evisa.gov.vn. For the neighbouring country, use its official government site.
4. Typos in the e-visa application
A wrong digit in your passport number or a misspelled name can make an e-visa unusable. When it's approved, check every field against your passport before you travel.
5. Assuming every border gate accepts e-visas
E-visa holders must enter and exit through designated ports. The list has grown, most recently in December 2025, but it doesn't include every crossing. Check the gate on your return route.
6. Forgetting the other country's rules
A visa run means entering a second country too. Whether you need a visa there, can get one on arrival, or can use an e-visa at that checkpoint depends on your nationality. Check before you go.
7. Travelling on a passport that's nearly full or nearly expired
Too little validity or no blank pages can stop the trip at the first counter. Check both, for every country on the route.
8. Treating a visa run as a long-term residence plan
Repeated back-to-back entries can lead to questions about the purpose of your stay. If you're living or working in Vietnam, a visa run is not a substitute for the right visa or permit.
9. Trusting a guarantee
Anyone who "guarantees" re-entry is promising something only the authorities control. Choose an organiser who is honest about what they can and can't do. Our how it works page explains where our role ends.
Avoid all nine in one go
Work through the visa run checklist a week before you travel, and read planning a visa run from Ho Chi Minh City for a timeline to work back from.