Arriving in Vietnam: Pre-approved visas

For those taking a pre-approved Vietnam visa, I have a small piece of advice. Make sure you pay for a VIP clearance at the airport before flying in to the country.

For a small fee, a representative of the agency that handled your visa  will meet you as soon as you get off the aircraft and get your visa attached in a considerably short period of time.  The normal time for a visa is around half an hour, but can be much longer if many flights land at the same time.

It’s no fun waiting a long time for the visa sticker to be attached on your passport just after a potentially long flight.

I was in and out of the modern Saigon airport in less than 10 minutes.

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For some reason the prepaid taxi counters insist on payment in dollars or ringitt. They assume that I am a Malaysian since many people from the country visit for a shopping spree; Tamils included.

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To check into a hotel in Saigon, you need to hand over your passport. And when I say hand over, I mean for the duration of your stay as they keep the passport until you check out. As long as they take care of it, I see no problem. This is not a city where cops stop visitors for a random document check.