Vietnamese passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online — no appointment at the Embassy of India in Hanoi or the consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. Approval typically arrives by email in 24 to 72 hours.
90 days
Maximum stay per visit
24–72 hrs
Typical processing time
Up to 5 years
Longest validity offered
Not eligible
Visa on Arrival
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
Vietnam–India travel has grown dramatically in a short space of time, driven almost entirely by a rapid expansion of direct low-cost flights. VietJet and IndiGo have built an extensive network between Vietnamese and Indian cities, and what was once a connection-only route is now served nonstop from both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to a range of Indian destinations at four to five and a half hours.
The traffic is a mix of leisure — the Golden Triangle, Kerala, Goa — Buddhist pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya and Sarnath, and a fast-growing business flow in electronics, textiles and manufacturing as both countries build out supply chains.
Every Vietnamese citizen needs a visa granted before departure. There is no visa-free entry and no visa on arrival. For tourism, business and medical travel the eVisa handles it entirely online, and Vietnamese passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes. India extends visa-free entry only to Nepal and Bhutan, and Visa on Arrival only to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Vietnamese citizens must hold an approved visa before boarding, and VietJet, IndiGo or your carrier will verify it at the gate.
Choose the category by purpose. Tourism, sightseeing, pilgrimage, visiting friends and wellness travel fall under the tourist eVisa — Buddhist pilgrimage counts as tourism. Business meetings, trade fairs, supplier visits and factory audits require the business eVisa, which is the relevant category for the growing manufacturing and electronics travel. Hospital treatment requires the medical eVisa. Employment, journalism, academic research and long-term study are outside the eVisa scheme and need a regular visa from an Indian mission.
Stay & validity
Vietnamese citizens are permitted up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. The 30-day version allows double entry, with its 30 days counted from your arrival date — usually the right product given how short and cheap the flight now is.
The one-year and five-year versions are multiple-entry, with validity starting on the date the Indian government grants the application. For business travellers on the manufacturing and electronics corridor, where trips are frequent and short, the five-year multiple-entry business eVisa is much better value than repeat applications and permits up to 180 days per visit.
The eVisa is bound to a single passport number, so a Vietnamese passport renewal during a multi-year visa's term invalidates it, with no transfer process.
The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for Vietnamese passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Vietnam
Requirements
Everything Vietnamese passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality or visa type.
Passport bio-data page — a clear colour scan or photo showing your photograph, full name, date of birth, passport number and expiry date
Recent passport-style photograph — square format, plain white background, full face visible, no shadows and no headwear other than for religious reasons
A valid credit or debit card to pay the government fee and service charge
Your return or onward ticket details, or at minimum your intended departure date
The address where you will be staying for your first night in India
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with our team checking every field before anything reaches the Indian authorities.
Enter your passport details exactly as printed, choose your visa type and duration, and upload your photo and passport data page.
Our team checks your photo dimensions, passport scan clarity, name spelling and date formats before anything is submitted.
Your application goes to the Government of India on your behalf, and we keep you posted at every status change.
Print it or keep it on your phone, and we explain exactly how to present it at your port of entry in India.
Standard processing takes 48 to 72 hours and express handling 24 to 48 hours. Both are business-day estimates, and Indian public holidays — numerous and often state-specific — extend them.
Apply at least five days before departure, and preferably a week. Vietnam–India trips are frequently booked on short-notice low-cost fares, which is exactly when the margin matters: a rejected photograph costs a day, and express processing on top of a same-week booking leaves no slack.
Separate from your eVisa, every foreign national entering India must complete the digital e-Arrival Card before boarding. It replaces the old paper disembarkation form and is required on every single visit, whatever visa you hold.
Getting there
Direct service between Vietnam and India has expanded rapidly, with VietJet and IndiGo operating an extensive nonstop network from both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Flight times are four to five and a half hours, and all Indian arrival airports on these routes are designated eVisa ports.
Best time to go
October to March is India's dry season and the best window for both the classic circuits and the Buddhist pilgrimage route. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are most comfortable from November to February, which is also the traditional pilgrimage season.
Tết, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, falls in late January or February and is the peak travel period of the year — it also lands squarely inside India's best weather, which makes it an ideal but expensive window. Book several months ahead.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C — hotter and drier than anything in Vietnam. The Indian monsoon from June to September will feel familiar but does disrupt regional flights and trains on multi-city itineraries. India is 1.5 hours behind Vietnamese time, so there is effectively no jet lag.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Vietnam — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The defining Vietnamese-specific problem. Vietnamese convention places the family name first, followed by a middle name and given name, and people are commonly addressed by their given name. The passport prints the name in labelled fields — fill the eVisa form to match that layout, with the family name in the surname field, rather than following spoken usage. Then check your airline booking matches.
Your passport's machine-readable zone strips Vietnamese diacritics — Nguyễn becomes NGUYEN, Đặng becomes DANG, Phạm becomes PHAM. Match the printed name line on the data page and keep your airline booking consistent with it.
Cheap short-notice fares on this fast-growing corridor tempt very late applications. Even express processing needs 24 to 48 hours, and a rejected photograph adds a day. If you travel this route regularly, a five-year multiple-entry visa is the real solution.
Vietnamese citizens receive 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa, not the 180 days granted to American, British, Canadian and Japanese nationals. The business eVisa does give 180 days per visit.
The Vietnam–India network has expanded fast and changes frequently as carriers add and drop routes. Verify current schedules when you book rather than relying on a route you flew last year — it affects your arrival city and therefore which designated eVisa airport you clear immigration at.
Photo rejected on technical grounds
By far the most common cause of delay. The photograph must be square, on a plain white background, with your full face visible and no shadow behind your head. Cropped selfies and phone photos taken against a cream wall are routinely bounced back.
Passport scan unreadable
Glare across the machine-readable zone, a cut-off corner, or a scan where the passport number is blurred will stall the application. Photograph the page flat, in daylight, with no flash.
Applying too close to departure
The eVisa must be granted before you fly, and airlines check it at the gate. Applications submitted the night before a flight leave no room for a document re-upload.
Conditions
These conditions are set by the Government of India and do not vary by nationality. They are worth reading before you book, because two of them — the port-of-entry rule and the restricted-areas rule — catch out a lot of otherwise well-planned trips.
Validity is measured from your date of arrival in India, not from the date you apply. You also need at least two blank pages for immigration stamps.
The India eVisa is accepted at India's designated eVisa airports and authorised seaports. It cannot be used to cross a land border, so overland arrivals from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh or Pakistan need a different visa.
Every person travelling needs their own eVisa and their own passport, including infants and children. Children cannot be added to a parent's application.
An eVisa does not grant access to Protected Areas, Restricted Areas or Cantonment Areas. Parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, Ladakh, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep require a Protected Area Permit or Restricted Area Permit in addition to your visa.
You cannot extend an eVisa from inside India or convert it into another visa category. If your plans change, you must leave and apply again.
Diplomatic, official and service passports are not eligible for the eVisa route, and neither are international travel documents or refugee travel documents.
Consular services
Neither mission is involved in an eVisa application, which is handled entirely online. They cover what the eVisa cannot: employment, journalism, research and long-term student visas, OCI cards, and consular services for Indian nationals in Vietnam.
FAQs
The questions Vietnamese passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Match your passport's field layout, not the Vietnamese spoken order — family name in the surname field, given name in the given-name field, using the Latin characters printed on the data page. Vietnamese convention puts the family name first and people are usually addressed by their given name, but the form should follow the passport. Then check your airline booking uses the same arrangement.
Up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. The 30-day version allows 30 days with double entry, which suits most trips on this corridor. The business eVisa permits up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window, and the medical eVisa 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Direct service has expanded rapidly. Hanoi has nonstop flights to Delhi and Mumbai, and Ho Chi Minh City serves Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kochi on various carriers, at four to five and a half hours. VietJet and IndiGo have both expanded aggressively here, but the network changes frequently, so verify current routes when booking.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for Vietnamese passport holders across all available options. You can compare 30-day, one-year and five-year prices side by side, and the amount shown is the full cost including our service fee.
No. Pilgrimage counts as tourism under the eVisa scheme, so a tourist eVisa covers it. Gaya is a designated eVisa airport and the gateway to Bodh Gaya — connect from Delhi or Kolkata. November to February is the most comfortable and traditional season for the circuit.
Express processing runs 24 to 48 hours, so yes — but it leaves no room if your photograph is rejected, which is the most common hitch. Allow five days if you can. Given how cheap and frequent flights on this corridor now are, if you travel regularly a five-year multiple-entry visa removes the problem entirely.
No. Indian Visa on Arrival is limited to Japanese, South Korean and Emirati nationals. Vietnamese citizens need an approved visa before boarding, and VietJet, IndiGo or your carrier will verify it at the gate.
October to March. Tết in late January or February falls squarely inside India's best weather, which makes it ideal but expensive — book several months ahead. Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C, hotter and drier than anything in Vietnam.
Your nationality is already set to Vietnam. Complete the form in under ten minutes, and our team will check every detail before it reaches the Indian authorities.
Other nationalities
Stay limits, fees and requirements differ by passport. Here are the guides for other nationalities.
