Passport control after midnight counts as the next day, so a late flight on your last legal day is already an overstay. UK, German, French, and Russian passports get 45 days visa-free in Vietnam, Thai and Malaysian passports get 30, and travelers from the US, Australia, or India need an e-visa that ends on a date chosen in the application.
The day you land already counts, and so does every minute after midnight.
Pick your passport and entry type below to see your last legal day, the days you have left, and the fine an overstay would bring under the rules in force since December 2025.
Copy both dates from your e-visa PDF. Your stay ends on "valid to," whenever you land.
No departure date yet? Leave it empty to check against today.
Stamp date and passport check
Already in Vietnam? Copy the date from the stamp. It overrides the calculation.
Used for the 6-month rule check. Nothing leaves your browser.
Staying longer? Compare visa-free and e-visa
Who can enter Vietnam visa-free
| Days | Passports |
|---|
Everyone else needs an e-visa: up to 90 days, $25 single entry or $50 multiple entry, issued only at evisa.gov.vn.
Overstay fines in Vietnam
| Days over | Fine, VND | Deportation |
|---|
Decree 282/2025/ND-CP, Article 21, in force since December 15, 2025. The fine usually lands in the middle of the range.
Thông tin tạm trúStay details in Vietnam
Chỉ mang tính tham khảo. Căn cứ chính thức là dấu nhập cảnh trong hộ chiếu.
For reference only. The entry stamp in the passport is the official record.
How to Use the Vietnam Visa Calculator
- Start typing your passport country. The hint under the field tells you right away whether you get visa-free days, and how many.
- Choose how you enter: visa-free, e-visa, Phu Quoc visa-free, an embassy visa, or a long-stay document such as a residence card. For an e-visa, copy the “valid from” and “valid to” dates from the PDF.
- Add your entry date. A departure date is optional: add it to check a booked flight, or leave it empty to check against today.
- Already in Vietnam? Open “Stamp date and passport check” and type in the “permitted to stay until” date from your entry stamp. The stamp is what border control goes by, so it overrides the calculation.
Green means you’re fine, yellow means a week or less is left, and red means your departure date is an overstay. In the red case you’ll see the fine in dong and in your currency, what happens next, and what to do. You can also save calendar reminders, copy a link to your calculation, or open a screen in English and Vietnamese to show at the border.
How Long Can You Stay in Vietnam Without a Visa?
Vietnam lets 39 nationalities in without a visa. The length of the stay depends on the passport:
| Days | Passports | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| 90 | Chile, Panama | Bilateral agreement |
| 45 | Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom | Any purpose of trip, until March 14, 2028 (Resolution 44/NQ-CP) |
| 45 | Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland | Tourism only, until August 14, 2028 (Resolution 229/NQ-CP) |
| 30 | Belarus, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan*, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand | Bilateral agreements. Kazakhstan: 90 days in any 180. Belarus: 90 days a year |
| 21 | Philippines | Return or onward ticket required |
| 14 | Brunei, Indonesia* | Indonesia: cut from 30 days on July 15, 2026, tourism and family visits only |
* Only one source confirms these rules. Check with a Vietnamese embassy before you fly.
Everyone else needs an e-visa, including travelers from the US, Canada, Australia, India, China, Ukraine, Ireland, Portugal, and Greece. Your passport has to be valid for at least six months on arrival. An onward ticket isn’t a legal requirement for the 45-day countries, but airlines often ask for one at check-in.
Belarus left the 45-day list on January 30, 2025, when a bilateral agreement for 30 days took over. Timor-Leste signed a 30-day agreement in June 2026, and it isn’t in force yet.
Phu Quoc: 30 Days Visa-Free for Any Passport
Any nationality can spend 30 days on Phu Quoc (Phú Quốc) without a visa. You have to arrive straight from abroad, or change planes at another Vietnamese airport without leaving the transit area. The exemption ends at the shoreline: to fly on to Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang, or anywhere else in Vietnam, you need a visa.
How Vietnam Counts Your Days
The day you land is day 1, even at 11pm. Enter visa-free for 45 days on January 1, and your last legal day is February 14. Leave on a 00:30 flight on February 15, and you’ve overstayed by one day.
What counts in the end is the date the officer stamps next to “permitted to stay until” (được phép tạm trú đến). The calculator works the date out from the rules, and once you type in your stamp date, it switches to the stamp.
My advice: don’t plan to fly out on your last legal day at all. Book the flight a day earlier, and a canceled or rescheduled flight won’t turn into an overstay.
How Long Is a Vietnam E-Visa Valid?
An e-visa costs $25 for single entry or $50 for multiple entry (as of October 2026). It lasts up to 90 days and is issued only at evisa.gov.vn, usually within three working days. You choose the “valid from” and “valid to” dates in the application yourself.
Your stay ends on the “valid to” date, whenever you arrive. Most online calculators count 90 days from arrival, and that’s wrong. Say your e-visa runs from January 1 to March 31 and you land on January 10: you lose nine days, and your last legal day is still March 31. Entering before “valid from” isn’t possible either.
With a multiple-entry e-visa you can leave and come back as often as you like, and the end date stays put. A single-entry e-visa is used up the moment you leave, so a weekend in Cambodia means applying for a new one. In practice, e-visas aren’t extended inside Vietnam.
Paper Tourist Visa: the 30-Day Rule
A tourist (DL) visa from an embassy, or a visa on arrival, works differently. If a DL visa is valid for more than 30 days, the law gives you a 30-day stamp, and the rest needs an extension through a sponsor. Business, work, study, and family visas let you stay until the visa expires.
Vietnam Overstay Fines in 2026
Decree 282/2025/ND-CP came into force on December 15, 2025, and roughly doubled the fines. There’s no grace period: one day past the stamp is already a violation.
| Days over | Fine | In USD | Deportation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–15 | 500,000–2,000,000 VND | $19–76 | No |
| 16–29 | 5,000,000–10,000,000 VND | $191–382 | Possible |
| 30–59 | 10,000,000–15,000,000 VND | $382–572 | Possible |
| 60–89 | 15,000,000–20,000,000 VND | $572–763 | Possible |
| 90–179 | 20,000,000–25,000,000 VND | $763–954 | Possible |
| 180–364 | 25,000,000–30,000,000 VND | $954–1,145 | Possible |
| 365 or more | 30,000,000–40,000,000 VND | $1,145–1,526 | Possible |
Fines as of October 2026. USD amounts use the 2026 average rate of 26,212 VND per dollar.
By law, the standard fine is the middle of the range. Owning up brings it down toward the minimum, and aggravating circumstances push it to the maximum. In August 2026, six foreigners in Khanh Hoa (Khánh Hòa) province who had overstayed for more than a year were fined 35,000,000 VND ($1,335) each, exactly the middle of the top tier, and deported.
Plenty of visa agency sites still quote the 2021 fines or a “500,000 VND per day” rate. The law has no daily rate. Your fine depends on the tier you fall into.
What Happens If You Overstay Your Visa in Vietnam
A Few Days Over
Short overstays are usually settled at passport control at the airport. You pay the fine in cash, in dong, and fly out. The officer decides, though, and can send you to the immigration office instead. Get to the airport 3–4 hours before your flight and carry enough dong for the top of the range. Under 16 days, deportation is off the table.
Sixteen Days or More
Don’t head straight to the airport. Go to the immigration office (Phòng Quản lý xuất nhập cảnh) of the province you’re staying in, pay the fine, and get a short extension or exit visa through a sponsor. Allow up to five working days, and book your flight only once the paperwork is done. Border control can stop you from leaving until the fine is paid.
Deportation and Entry Bans
From 16 days over, deportation is possible as an extra penalty. You receive the decision at least 48 hours ahead and wait for your flight at a Ministry of Public Security facility, at your own expense. After deportation, Vietnam is closed to you for three years. A forced-exit order without deportation brings a six-month ban.
Pay the fine and leave on your own, and the law sets no automatic ban. The violation stays on record, though, and an officer can still refuse you entry on a later trip.
Criminal Charges
Overstaying again after you’ve already been fined for it is a crime under Article 347 of the Penal Code. The penalty is 5,000,000–50,000,000 VND ($191–1,908) or six months to three years in prison.
Hotels and Insurance During an Overstay
Hotels and homestays have to check your stamp and register you with the police. They’re fined for housing someone illegally, so many will turn you away. Travel insurance often excludes anything that happens during an illegal stay.
How to Extend Your Stay in Vietnam
An extension needs a sponsor: a company, a licensed international tour operator, or a Vietnamese family member. The sponsor files at the immigration office before your current stay ends. Processing takes five working days, and the government fee is $10 (as of October 2026). Visa-free stays can be extended this way if the officer agrees. E-visas, in practice, can’t.
Stuck in a hospital, or your flight got canceled? Contact immigration before your last day and keep every document. Force majeure can cancel the fine, but it’s on you to prove it.
Visa Runs From Vietnam: Rules and Limits
Vietnam scrapped the 30-day gap between visa-free entries in 2020. In 2024 the Ministry of Public Security confirmed there’s no limit on how many times you can enter visa-free.
A same-day run, for example by bus from Ho Chi Minh City to the Moc Bai (Mộc Bài) border with Cambodia, is legal and starts a fresh stay. Kazakhstan (90 days in any 180) and Belarus (90 days a year) are the exceptions.
Officers can still refuse entry, and travelers report questions after three or four runs in six months. Staying longer than 45 days? A 90-day e-visa is usually simpler. Open “Compare visa-free and e-visa” in the calculator to count the border runs and fees for your trip length.
For any stay longer than two months, I’d pick the 90-day e-visa over a chain of visa runs: one $25 fee and one application instead of a border day every six weeks.
Check Your Entry Stamp at the Airport
Officers sometimes stamp the wrong date, 15 days instead of 45, for example. Check it at the counter, before you walk away. Once you’ve left the airport, a correction gets much harder, and on the way out the stamp is all that counts. The “Show at the border” button in the calculator lays out your entry date and allowed stay in English and Vietnamese, so you can point to it.
Since April 15, 2026, Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat (Tân Sơn Nhất) airport also requires an online pre-arrival declaration. Fill it in at prearrival.immigration.gov.vn 24–72 hours before you land and keep the QR code on your phone.
FAQ
How Many Days Can I Stay in Vietnam Without a Visa?
It depends on your passport: 45 days for 24 countries (including the UK, most of the EU, Russia, Japan, and South Korea), 90 days for Chile and Panama, 30 days for most ASEAN countries, 21 for the Philippines, and 14 for Brunei and Indonesia. Everyone else needs an e-visa.
Does the Day of Arrival Count in Vietnam?
Yes, the arrival day is day 1. Enter on January 1 with 45 days visa-free, and your last legal day is February 14.
Can I Stay 90 Days in Vietnam on an E-Visa?
Only if your e-visa covers 90 days and you arrive on the “valid from” date. Your stay always ends on the “valid to” date, so arriving later shortens it.
What Is the Fine for Overstaying in Vietnam?
Under Decree 282/2025, an overstay of up to 15 days costs 500,000–2,000,000 VND ($19–76), and a year or more costs 30,000,000–40,000,000 VND ($1,145–1,526). From 16 days, deportation is possible.
Can I Do a Visa Run From Vietnam on the Same Day?
Yes. There’s no minimum gap between visa-free entries, so you can leave and come back the same day, for example via Moc Bai to Cambodia. Check whether you need a visa for the country you cross into.
Sources
- Resolution 44/NQ-CP on visa exemption for 12 countries
- Resolution 229/NQ-CP on visa exemption for 12 more countries
- Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs: visa exemption agreements
- Law on Entry, Exit, Transit, and Residence of Foreigners, consolidated text 2026
- Decree 282/2025/ND-CP on administrative fines
- VnExpress International: Vietnam doubles visa overstay penalties
- GOV.UK: Vietnam entry requirements
- Official Vietnam e-visa portal
This page and the calculator are a guide, not legal advice. I checked the rules on October 6, 2026, and they can change. Your entry stamp and the immigration officer have the final word.
Check the stamp before you step away from the passport counter, type the date into the calculator, and save the reminders. If the date looks wrong, get it fixed right there at the counter.