Vietnam extends visa exemption for nationals of five European countries

It is a great news for all German, French, UK, Italian and Spanish visitors to Vietnam as the Vietnamese Government has approved to extend the visa exemption programs for such citizens for another 1 year.

Accordingly to new approval under Resolution No. 56/NQ-CP, German, French, British, Italian, and Spanish passport holders continue to be allowed to stay in Vietnam for 15 days without Vietnam visa. This policy takes effect until June 20, 2017.

The previous visa exemption, valid from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016, did increase arrivals from those five countries by 15 percent to 681,000 after 11 months in effect, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

In the first five months of this year, tourist arrivals from the five countries topped 342,000, a 20.10 percent from the same period last year.

To get visa exemption, those travelers must ensure the following requirements:

Their passport is valid for at least 6 months from their arrival date;
Their stay in Vietnam is no more than 15 days; &
Their arrival date is not within 30 days from date of exit of their last visit to Vietnam with visa exemption.

Otherwise, a valid Vietnam visa is required. And in this case, they can obtain it in either of the two following ways: