Quick Guide to Smoothly Passing Through Customs in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 🇻🇳

YY travels to and from Ho Chi Minh City multiple times a year, and today, they’re finally sharing a handy guide for those looking to breeze through the city. If you’re landing in Ho Chi Minh City and want to clear customs quickly, this guide is a must-save 🤩

Firstly, I highly recommend getting an e-visa for entering Ho Chi Minh City:
1️⃣ Apply for the e-visa well in advance, print it in color on A4 paper before your trip, and make sure to have 2 passport photos, your passport, and boarding pass ready. These four items are essential and will be checked during customs.

2️⃣ Once you land in Ho Chi Minh City, follow the crowd to customs and head to the Landing Visa window on the left to exchange for a pink Vietnamese paper visa.
Don’t get distracted by others! With an e-visa, you don’t need to fill out any additional forms (those filling out forms are for the visa on arrival).

Go straight to the window and hand over your A4 e-visa, 1 passport photo, and passport to the staff. Then, take a seat and wait. In about 10 minutes, a staff member, who may speak some broken Chinese, will call your name to pick up your new paper visa (make sure to keep it flat and undamaged).

3️⃣ After exchanging for the separate visa, the regular queue for all passports can take up to an hour, and it often moves slowly due to the large number of people.
4️⃣ Here’s the insider tip: if you want to enter quickly, skip the regular queue and go directly to the VIP lane. Place some Vietnamese dong, Hong Kong dollars, RMB, or US dollars inside your passport.

Generally, 100 RMB (recommended) or 500,000 VND (about 150 RMB) per person should do the trick.
In the past, 200,000 VND was enough, but now the amount has increased [laugh-cry emoji]. If a staff member tries to direct you to the regular queue, show them the page with the money in your passport, and they’ll likely wave you over to the VIP lane.

Hand over your passport, get it stamped, and you’re good to go!

Of course, these tips are perfect for those who don’t want to spend time queuing or are in a rush to enter 🧑‍🤝‍🧑
The last two images provide step-by-step guides [side-eye emoji]