16. How to get a last minute visa during national holiday

official Vietnam Evisa site days they are closed so no Evisa is forthcoming

Hopefully the last obstacle to our Journey home has been overcome. As a reminder, I discovered due to a fortunately meeting of some people from our 4 hour van ride from Nong Khiaw, that the Vietnam visa folks are closed for Tet so I checked to see the status of my evisa and it was still processing, which means no approval until after Feb 2 for my Jan 29 flight. I checked for "visa on arrival" and to my horror it is not just showing up at the airport when you arrive, you need a letter from an approved agency. Due to the Tet Holiday, any letter granted now is considered "extreme emergency" i.e. the most expensive option. I saw one quote online for $350 and some random places for less ($12 and $52 for 2-day) but not sure if they are open over Tet or even valid companies.

website suggesting another agency

I Whatsapped and emailed 5 places to get prices on a "Visa on Arrival" Letter, The cheap $12 place had an email that bounced back as not valid (no surprise there). The first WhatApp response was a price of $186, which was much better than the $350 I saw listed online for doing one during the Tet holiday (last minute emergency required even though I don't need it for 2 days). The next was $115, then $155 from the place that another website recommended as they were closed for Tet. The last came in at $308. I couldn't find any definitely valid reviews of the $115 place and with my trip on the line, I went with the $155 one as not only were they recommended by a competitor, they also in their response sent a link to there Tripadvisor page with tons of positive reviews. For reference they are https://vietnamevisa.com/ and have a WhatsApp number +84 92 283 38 99. The cheapest one was trustVietnamvisa and their WhatsApp is +84 399 161 166

Within minutes I had sent them the required info: picture of my passport, flight info, and email. They soon responded to confirm information and once I did that, they sent a secure payment link. That was before 10am and the letter should arrive by 10pm.

possible passport photo place but they are closed today

My next goal was to find a place to get 2 passport photos taken. If I can't find that, then I could get them taken at the airport on arrival for $5 but that will back me up even more and leave Cosmo sitting alone with the luggage longer. I found a Tripadvisor post from 6 years ago describing where to find one, but I checked every store within a block of that and saw no Kodak sign and everyone said no, they didn't do passport photos and no they didn't know who might. Dawne had seen a sign for tourist information a few blocks back so we went there but they were closed on Monday. We walked by the travel place where we bought tickets to Nong Khiaw and I asked them. They directed me down the next road, then left down the next road, but the next road had no roads to the left. I tried the one after that and ended up back on a main road and a store at the corner that seemed to do passport documents but they were closed also.

passport photo place

Dawne had things to do so we split up and I pursued a vague Facebook post from 2 years ago that said "the next street down from Dao Coffee near the round about across from the optician." I found Dao Coffee and checked near that intersection with no luck, but it was not a round about. The next intersection was a round about and I wandered about there. Sure enough there was a place with high end sunglasses (Ray-Ban) and across the street was a photography studio! They had a sign in front with passport photos at the bottom. They took my picture with multiple light panels and 10 minutes later I had my photos for about $2.

My letter came that night. Luckily in my google search of "fraud vietnam visa " and the name of various companies I was considering, I saw a post complaining about how they got a letter with a bunch of people's names and personal info (birthdate, country, passport number). I was not completely shocked when that is how mine arrived. I will just need to print out the letter hopefully from the hotel, and I will be good to go!

first page of visa approval letter

page 2 of the letter with everyone's info