How to Get a Vietnam Visa for South African Passport Holders 2026

We are a private visa service, not the Vietnamese government or an embassy. The Vietnam Immigration Department decides every visa. You can always apply for an e-visa yourself on the official portal evisa.gov.vn for the government fee only. Facts checked in November 2026.

Do South African passport holders need a visa for Vietnam?

Yes. South Africa is not on Vietnam’s visa exemption lists, so with an ordinary South African passport you need a visa for every trip to the mainland. Three things work without one: a stay on Phu Quoc island after a direct international flight, airside transit, and the five-year exemption certificate that people of Vietnamese origin and their close family can hold. Our Vietnam visa requirements for South African citizens guide explains these exceptions, the airport steps, customs and exit.

Which Vietnam visa should South African passport holders get?

There are three ways to get a Vietnam visa for South African passport holders. South African passports are in price group 3 on our form, so every option below is open to you:

For a trip of two or three weeks, a 30-day single-entry e-visa is enough. Choose a 90-day multiple-entry e-visa for a longer stay or a tour that also takes in Cambodia, Laos or Thailand.

How to apply for the Vietnam e-visa, step by step

1. Prepare your passport, a 4 × 6 cm portrait, a scan of the data page, your dates, your first address in Vietnam and a card.
2. Fill in the form on evisa.gov.vn: two images, then eight sections about you, your passport, your contacts and your trip.
3. Review and pay USD 25 (single entry) or USD 50 (multiple entry) by card, then save your e-Visa app no.
4. Wait for the result; the official target is 3 working days.
5. Check the status and print the e-visa when it is approved.

Every field, the photo rules and the portal’s warning messages are covered in our field-by-field walk-through of the evisa.gov.vn form; its status page is explained in our Vietnam e-visa status guide.

Tips for South African passport holders

• Names: put all your given names in “Middle and given name”, in the order of the ICAO lines at the bottom of your data page.
• Validity: South African passports are valid for 10 years for adults and 5 years for children (DIRCO). The e-visa must end at least 30 days before the passport expires, so check a child’s passport first.
• Children travelling with one parent: for leaving South Africa, the government’s FAQ lists a parental consent affidavit (or a court order) and a copy of the other parent’s ID or passport. It also says that children travelling on South African passports do not need to carry a birth certificate. Check the current Home Affairs rules before you fly.
• Phone number: the form wants “[country code]-[number]”, so a South African number starts with 27, followed by the number without its first 0.
• A second passport: if you also hold a British or German passport, for example, you may not need a visa for a short trip, because those passports get 45 days for any purpose under Resolution 44/NQ-CP. Pick one passport for the whole trip: the e-visa belongs to the passport number on it, so it cannot be used with your second passport.
• Entry point: what counts is the type. In practice, an e-visa for an airport works at any international airport, but not at a land border or seaport.

Checking your status

The statuses and what to do with each are in our Vietnam e-visa status guide; you can also use our e-visa status page. Note that the Embassy in Pretoria does not handle e-visa problems: its page says queries about an e-visa go to the Immigration Department.

Mistakes South African applicants can avoid

• Taking an application to the Embassy without an approval. The Embassy accepts documents only after the visa approval is done (below).
• Counting on an extension through the Embassy. Its page says visa extensions will not be accepted until further notice, so choose e-visa dates that cover the whole trip.
• Ordering too late in the day. Our cut-offs fall in the early morning in South Africa (table below).
• Forgetting the consent affidavit when a child travels with one parent.

The general form mistakes are listed in our field-by-field guide and in our guide to Vietnam e-visa mistakes.

Apply through visa-vietnam.hk

Our online form needs much less than the portal: for each traveller only the name, sex and date of birth, the passport number and its expiry, and the two images; one email covers the whole order. From the passport scan, we complete the rest of the official application. You upload your portrait and passport scan as they are. Our team adjusts the size, crop and background to the official technical specifications of the government portal. We never change your appearance.

For South African passports, the form offers an e-visa for 30 or 90 days, single or multiple entry, for tourism or business, a 15-day visa on arrival approval letter, and VIP Arrival Support at the airport. Payment is by PayPal or Alipay.

Our prices and order-by times in South African time

Below are our prices per person for a 30-day single-entry tourist e-visa, government fee included. Vietnam (UTC+7) is 5 hours ahead of South African Standard Time (UTC+2) all year, because neither country uses daylight saving time:

• In practice: order the evening before in South Africa, or by 09:00 SAST for the afternoon slot of the 4-hour service.
• Fridays: an order placed on Friday after 09:00 SAST misses that day’s last slot and starts on Monday in Vietnam.
• Weekends and Vietnamese public holidays: email our partner at info@vietnamimmigration.org. More options are on our Vietnam urgent visa service page.

Status and support. Applied through us? Email us and we will tell you the status; customer email support is 24/7.

Refund. If Vietnam Immigration refuses your e-visa, we refund 95% of your payment (the 5% PayPal transaction fee is not refundable), under our refund policy. There is no refund when the refusal is due to a past violation of Vietnamese law or an overstay.

Applying at the Vietnamese Embassy in Pretoria

The Embassy is the slowest way to get a Vietnam visa for South African passport holders, but you need it for a visa in your passport or for visa types the e-visa does not cover. The Embassy’s own consular services page (checked 13 November 2026) sets out this procedure:

• Get a visa approval first. For a 30-day tourist visa, the approval is arranged through an authorised Vietnamese travel agency; for business, work, study or investment visas, your Vietnamese sponsor or partner requests it. The Immigration Department sends the approval to the Embassy.
• Then apply. The page says the form and documents “could only be submitted to the Embassy when the visa approval is done”.
• Documents: the application form (ask the Embassy for its current visa application form) with 1 colour photo, your original passport, a copy of your passport, a copy of the visa approval or its reference number, and the visa fee.
• How: in person, or by courier or a service company.
• Processing: 3 business days after a complete application, or 24 hours for an extra fee, requested when you submit.
• Fee: the Embassy tells you the fee when you apply; it depends on the visa type and length of stay and is non-refundable. As a guide, Circular 163/2026/TT-BTC puts the consular fee at USD 25 for one entry, USD 50 for several entries within 3 months and USD 25 for children under 14. For urgent processing, ask the embassy or consulate for its official fee.

Embassy contacts and hours

Plan around South African public holidays, such as the Day of Reconciliation (16 December), Christmas Day and the Day of Goodwill, New Year’s Day and Human Rights Day (21 March 2027, observed on Monday 22 March), according to the South African Government, and around Vietnamese holidays such as Tet.

Visa on arrival approval letter

A visa on arrival is not issued on evisa.gov.vn. It needs an approval letter from the Vietnam Immigration Department, which a sponsor in Vietnam requests; our service arranges it. At the airport, seaport or land border, the officers check your passport against the approval letter and issue the visa.

Through us, South African passports can get the 15-day, single-entry tourist approval letter; you then pay the USD 25 stamping fee in cash at the counter and hand in the NA1 form. Our order-by times for the letter, in SAST:

The counter procedure is explained in our Vietnam visa on arrival guide.

Before you fly

The pre-arrival declaration is mandatory for foreign travellers at every international airport in Vietnam. Complete it for free on prearrival.immigration.gov.vn before you leave home, up to 3 days before you land, because Wi-Fi and mobile data at the arrival airport can be slow. If you travel on a visa on arrival, you complete it at the airport, after the visa counter.

Finally, for the airport steps, customs and leaving Vietnam, read our Vietnam visa requirements for South African citizens and our Vietnam entry procedure guide.

For travel agencies, tour operators and companies

Organising a group or a company trip from South Africa? Email us at info@visa-vietnam.hk with your expected number of travellers per month to receive our partner rates.

FAQ: how to get a Vietnam visa for South African passport holders

Can South Africans apply for the Vietnam e-visa?

Yes. The e-visa has been open to every nationality since 15 August 2023, for up to 90 days, single or multiple entry, on evisa.gov.vn.

Can I take my visa application straight to the Embassy in Pretoria?

Only after a visa approval has been issued. The Embassy’s page says it accepts the form and documents only “when the visa approval is done”.

How long does the Embassy take?

3 business days after a complete application, or 24 hours for an extra fee, according to the Embassy’s page.

Can the Embassy in Pretoria extend my visa?

No. Its page says visa extensions will not be accepted until further notice, so choose an e-visa that covers your whole stay.

What time should I order an urgent e-visa from South Africa?

By the evening before, or by 09:00 SAST for the afternoon 4-hour slot. Vietnam is 5 hours ahead all year.

Which email does the Embassy use for visas?

Its home page gives visa@vietnam.co.za for visas and embassy@vietnam.co.za for general questions; the visa counter is open Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 12:00.

Sources, checked on 13 November 2026: evisa.gov.vn, whose FAQ, guidance and application form we read without entering any data, the Embassy of Vietnam in Pretoria, DIRCO on South African passports, the South African Government on travelling with children, the South African Government on public holidays, VietnamPlus on the 2026–2027 holidays; for the exemptions, Resolution 44/NQ-CP; for consular fees, Circular 163/2026/TT-BTC; for the pre-arrival declaration, Official Letter 1474/CACK-TSN; for our prices, our Apply form. Rules change, so check the official sources before you travel.