Vietnam tightens how it tracks visitors — your e-visa is fine, your paperwork matters more

2026-06-17 — Wednesday — Hanoi

Your e-visa is not affected. The 90-day e-visa and every visa-exemption list stay exactly as they are. What changes on 15 September 2026 is how strictly your address is registered while you are in Vietnam.

What the decree does

Decree 286/2026/ND-CP was signed on 17 June 2026 and takes effect on 15 September, replacing a decree from 2015. It is an administrative document about how Vietnamese government agencies share information with each other about foreign visitors.

Most of its provisions concern administration rather than entry requirements. Visa data moves into the national immigration database in real time instead of in batches, border agencies exchange information continuously about refused entries and lost documents, and the monitoring net now explicitly covers conferences and seminars attended by people who entered on an e-visa or an exemption.

None of that is something you fill in. But one piece of it does reach ordinary travellers, and it is worth knowing before September.

The bit that actually touches you

Vietnam requires whoever hosts you to register your stay with the local police. Hotels have always done this — it is why reception takes your passport at check-in. The new decree pushes agencies to work with accommodation providers to enforce those declarations far more rigorously.

In a hotel you will never notice. It matters if you are staying somewhere less formal: a private apartment, a friend's place, a small family homestay that has been relaxed about the forms.

The obligation rests with the host, but an unregistered stay can create difficulties for the visitor at a subsequent border crossing, visa extension or spot check.

How the change fits Vietnam's recent policy

Vietnam has widened access substantially in recent years: e-visas for every nationality, validity of up to 90 days, and acceptance at 83 entry points. Decree 286/2026 addresses record-keeping and inter-agency coordination rather than eligibility.

The measures described in the decree focus on employment, investment, and attendance at conferences and seminars by e-visa and visa-exempt entrants.

The requirement that most affects ordinary visitors — accommodation registration — already existed. What changes on 15 September is the level of enforcement.

Where you can enter on an e-visa

The e-visa is accepted at 83 entry points: 17 airports, 27 land borders and 39 seaports, after 41 checkpoints were added at the end of 2025.

This matters more than usual in 2026. With the Thailand–Cambodia land border shut, Vietnam's land crossings are the practical way to do an overland leg in this part of the region — the Vietnam–Cambodia crossings are open and take e-visas.

If you wanted to travel Southeast Asia by road this year, the route runs through Vietnam and Laos, not across the Thai–Cambodian frontier.

The exemption lists, which are unchanged

Twelve nationalities hold 45-day exemptions running from March 2025 to March 2028, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea.

Another twelve European countries were added on 45-day terms from August 2025 to August 2028: the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Greece and San Marino.

Decree 286/2026 moves none of these dates. Your entitlement on 15 September is what it was on 14 September.

If you are a PacificAir reader, what to do today

Apply through the official government e-visa portal and nowhere else. The commercial lookalikes charge a markup for the same form and give you nothing extra.

Print the approval and carry the paper. It costs nothing and it ends arguments at a land border.

Staying in a homestay or a private rental? Ask directly whether your stay is being registered with the local police. It is a normal question, and after 15 September it is the one that protects you.

References

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