Vietnam Evisa Application Denied! What You Need To Know Next

Vietnam Evisa Application Denied? Worse if you search through Google you are likely to see a travel agency or Visa agency asking you for money. I am sorry to hear that my friends. I have been through the same and can feel the pain.

That’s why I wrote this blog post to share my experience so that you will know what to do.

First, allow me to share my story briefly. I have been to multiple cities in Vietnam and it has been a very pleasant journey. When I first applied for the Evisa via the official channel, I got my approval within 3 working days for only 25 USD.

You should already know by now the below link is the real official channel for VN E-visa application and result checking. In case of Vietnam Evisa application denied, it will also show the reason.

Vietnam portal on Immigration/Vietnam visa – National portal on Immigration (xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn)

HOWEVER, the nightmare came during my second visit to Vietnam where I got my visa denied THREE times before I barely managed to get it approved 3 days before my departure flight.

Scary right?

If you are here, I suppose you have the same worries I had once before. So let’s go through the step-by-step guide on what you should do after your Evisa is denied.

Also in case you have not made Evisa’s payment yet, the review only starts after you make the payment.

Step 1 Understand the reason and submit the amendment

Whenever your Evisa application got denied. You will find the official denied reason on the government’s Evisa website under the search function.

On that page, you can key in your registration code, email, and DOB. Then you should see your Evisa application status.

If your application is denied, you will see the status changed to “Amended application” with the denied reason below. Then you can click amend the application and resubmit without cost.

I will list 4 common errors below for Vietnam Evisa application Denied. The last one would probably surprise you.

Also, you will also receive notification via email for the amendment required but it would be usually a day later than the search result.

Worse, each time of rejection, they will just notify you will ONE reason.

Vietnam Evisa Application Denied Reason 1: Invalid VN Visa photo

If the denied reason is showing an “Invalid portrait photo (require a photo of the applicant facing forward and looking straight at the camera without glasses”, then you will need to re-upload another photo.

Getting the photo right is not hard, just go to the app store and search “Visa photo app” Probably the top 2 apps can help you without any fee needed. I used passport photo make & editor & passport photo maker – Visa/ID both seem to be workable. You just need to select Vietnam Visa and you can easily create a passport photo in the right size, white background with a size 4 x 6 cm) or 2 x 2 inches, and you are forward-looking straight with no glasses.

Again getting the right photo with a selfie via this app is easy.

The thing you would not know if even the right photo can be declined if the system checked that the photo is the same or similar to your last application. That’s where I got my decline as I used the same file I used in my last application.

Vietnam Evisa Application Denied Reason 2: The VN Immigration thinks you are in Vietnam…

Look the Evisa is only good for foreigners outside Vietnam. I would assume most of you like me are heading to Vietnam for a vacation. Yet, you may also get denied for the following reason “ Evisa is issued for foreigners who are currently abroad, wishing to enter into Viet Nam (not foreigners who are currently temporary residents in Viet Nam).

Yes, you would think What the…. Right? That’s exactly how I felt when I got this rejected reason 2 weeks before my departure.

Look there is no official fix for this denied reason. Obviously, we are NOT in Vietnam yet, right? The only thing you could do on the amendment is

1. List out your entry and departure date information in Vietnam even if it is more than a year ago (the mandatory requirement is disclosure up to 1 year)
2. Also, fill in your permanent address in your home Country (these are optional fields)

Vietnam Evisa Application Denied Reason 3: The information filled in does not match your passport

I have never come across this issue but some of my friends did. It usually happens where your given name is more than one character. In this case, you need to verify your information is consistent and submit it again. For the given name issue, I usually put all my given names in the same field with a space in between. The sequence shall be the same as your passport.

Vietnam Evisa Application Denied Reason 4: No mistake is also a declined reason.

No kidding. Sometimes it is not your problem, it is their mistake to deny your Visa and quote the wrong reason. Remember point 2 they denied me thinking I am in Vietnam but obviously I am not? The only amendment you can make is to recheck all your information is correct, fill in some optional fields, and submit to wait for the next result.

There are things you can do in between but they may only help to expedite the process which I will show in steps 3 and 4.

Step 2 Estimate your time left.

The working hour of VN immigration is Monday to Friday each week. The usual processing time is three working days for Evisa’s application.

The three working days also apply to Elisa’s information amendment. And their system takes around half a day for the updated information to arrive (why I know check out step 3). It seems that the staff from the hotline can perform additional check on why your vietnam evisa application denied.

So in short each time of amendment would probably cause you a week until the next result is announced (approved/rejected).

If the Evisa is rejected again, they will again quote the denied reason and need you to submit the amendment again. Then that’s another three working days.

To be more explicit, if you apply for your E visa 4 weeks before your departure day. You will probably have around 3 chances for amendment. I bet you don’t want to be praying for your visa result a day before your departure flight.

So if you get your Evisa denied, you need to estimate how much time (or chances) you still have for making the amendment.

If your Evisa is still not approved, 3 working days before your departure day. Then you may need to consider using the paid service or rearrange the trip. We will cover the details in step 5.

Step 3 Call the Vietnam Immigration / Evisa Hotline

After submitting the amended application also understand how much time you have left.

You should also in parallel seek help from the hotlines. There are four hotlines you can use. You can find them on the Vietnam Immigration Department website.

The working hours for these lines seem to be from Monday to Friday and Saturday morning, except for public holidays.

Working hours:

– In the morning: 08.00 am – 11.00 am

– In the afternoon: 1.30 pm – 4.00 pm

Disclaimer ahead, it is very hard to reach the hotline but still worth a try. In my case, I successfully called the Ho Chi Minh City at +84 2839200365. Although, they mentioned that they are not responsible for my case because my entry port is with Hanoi, at least they helped me to check if the amendment had arrived in their system and had an eye-ball check to see if any information missing or the photo was right.

Also surprisingly, the staff there speak conversational English.

In very despair situation, you may also want to try out these hotlines.

Step 4 Submit a chaser email & forms

Under the “E-Visa Support” session of the official Evisa website (Vietnam Evisa support – National portal on Immigration (xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn) ). There you can submit an Eform regarding your problem.

Alternatively, the official email support address is evisa@immigration.gov.vn

I would recommend you submit a problem request and subsequent chaser (like every 2 days) via both channels.

For my case, I sent the 6^th chaser email to the support email. Although I never got a reply, I suppose it may have contributed to the Evisa approval on my 3^rd attempt.

 Step 5 Prepare your last resort

By now, you should have done whatever you can do.

FYI, walking into the local Vietnam consulate is usually useless they have terrible working hours (i.e. some are Mon- Fri 2-5 pm) and they have no access to the Evisa issue at all. Instead, they may charge you over USD 100 for another Visa application which would take even longer).

So there are two last resorts you may want to consider in advance.

Usage of paid service from that online VN Visa agent

I do not have any recommendations on this. However, I did check their service. In general, they have Evisa expedition service (shorten the Visa approval time to as fast as 4 hours) / Vietnam Visa application. If you already have an Evisa application being stuck then you will need to go for the former service. For the expedition service, it seems that the range is around 80 USD (getting approval in ½ working day) to 300 USD (getting the approval within 4 hours).

Back to my case, my original case was to resort to the expedition service 2 working days before the flight time and checked the service was 89 USD. Most service providers provide online live chat and also a 100% money guarantee if they cannot get you the Evisa approved before your flight date.

The one I used was the top 3 Google search online (my Vietnam visa)Vietnam Emergency Visa – Expedited & Urgent E Visa 2024 (24/7 Support) (myvietnamvisa.com)

Again, I have never paid for the service given I got the visa in time. So you may want to have an online live chat with them as a last resort.

Change of vacation location / rearranging the air ticket

If you feel that the visa agency cost outweighs the change of vacation cost, Then you should consider going to another Country or rearranging your air ticket beforehand. Remember each amendment on the official VN Evisa website will take 3 working days until the next result is announced.

For example, there are a lot of things to do in Bangkok Thailand as well.  

Conclusion

I hope our step-by-step guide for follow-up actions on the Denied Vietnam Evisa Application can help you. I wish someone could share the same information in my case before.

Looking back one mistake I committed in my ordeal was I thought the Vietnam E-visa application would be easy. After all, I got my visa approval in just 3 days during my first visit.

Had I chosen again, I would recommend sparing at least 2 months before dealing with all these potential back and forths.

Again I am not a Visa expert but if you have any comments or issues feel free to share them with me. If you got your Visa approved already, feel free to check out our Vietnam posts for your trip preparations.