Regulations on entry and exit of foreigners in Vietnam

On July 1, 2020, the Government issued Decree 75/2020/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the 2019 Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of foreigners in Vietnam (“Decree 75”). Accordingly, Decree 75 applies to the relevant subjects including foreigners who enter, exit and reside in Vietnam, Vietnamese state management agencies, foreign and Vietnamese agencies, organizations and individuals.

Decree 75 regulates the following:

–Visa for foreigners entering border gate economic zones or coastal economic zones or other Vietnamese locations.

Decree 75 provides for a number of cases of granting visas to foreigners entering border-gate economic zones or coastal economic zones or other Vietnamese locations as follows:

-For foreigners who enter the border-gate economic zone or economic zone under visa-free status and wish to visit other Vietnamese places, they will conduct the visa application process at the immigration authority as prescribed through agencies, organizations and individuals in Vietnam that have invited or

guaranteed them.

-For citizens of countries unilaterally exempted by Vietnam from entry visas into border gate economic zones and coastal economic zones under visa-free status and wishing to travel to other Vietnamese places, the following procedures will apply:

– If the applicant has been staying for less than 15 days, the immigration control unit will stamp “expired” mark on the previous temporary residence certificate and issue a new temporary residence certificate for a period of 15 days from the date of entry.

– If you have been staying for 15 days or more, you will need to apply for a visa as prescribed.

-For foreigners entering the border gate economic zones or coastal economic zones and exempted from visas under international treaties to which Vietnam is a member, if their temporary residence duration expires and they need to go to another location in Vietnam, the issuance of visas will comply with international treaties.

Issuing visas for foreigners who enter Vietnam under international treaties to which Vietnam is a member but have no commercial presence or partners in Vietnam

Procedures and time limit for issuing visas for foreigners entering Vietnam under international treaties to which Vietnam is a member but not having a commercial presence or partners in Vietnam are as follows:

– In case a foreigner enters Vietnam under an international treaty of which Vietnam is a member but does not have a commercial presence or a partner in Vietnam, he/she will carry out the procedure for applying for a visa through the portal on immigration.

– Within 02 working days of receiving sufficient information on visa application, the immigration authority will refer dossiers to the agency in charge of implementing the treaty as assigned by the Government.

– Within 03 working days of receiving the visa application of foreigners from the immigration agency, it is responsible for determining whether foreigners fall into the category subject to any international treaty.

– Within 02 working days of receiving the visa application of foreigners, the ministry or ministerial-level agency will directly send any visa application to the immigration agency.

– Within 03 working days of receiving the visa application, the immigration agency will consider, resolve, respond to the visa requesting agency and notify foreign visa applicants at the Immigration Portal.

– After that, the foreigner requests the visa to use the electronic file code to check and print the response of the immigration agency to carry out visa obtaining procedure.

– Form of temporary residence certificate for foreigners entering Vietnam

– Immigration control unit issues temporary residence certificate for entering foreigners in one of two forms:

(i) Stamping on the passport; or

(ii) Stamping on a separate visa.

– However, if foreigners enter through automatic gate, the immigration control unit does not issue temporary residence certificate.

Decree 75 takes effect from 01 July 2020.