- Digital nomad visa
- No
Overall4/10Harder visas than about 75% of cities
Good to know
Good to Know
- If your passport isn't on the 45-day exemption list (this includes the US, Canada, and Australia), you'll need Vietnam's e-visa rather than visa-free entry — don't assume you qualify just because you're headed to a beach town like Hoi An.
- British National (Overseas) passport holders are specifically excluded from visa exemption and must get a visa even though standard UK passport holders qualify for 45 days.
- Hoi An itself has no international airport; most visa-free and e-visa travelers arrive via Da Nang International Airport, about 30–45 minutes away.
- A popular local visa-run route from the Hoi An/Da Nang area is the Lao Bao land border, used by nomads to reset a 45-day exemption without flying.
- Because visa-exempt stays can't be extended in-country, plan your onward travel or visa-run dates before your permitted days run out to avoid overstay fines.
- Vietnam has no digital nomad visa — nearly all remote workers in Hoi An operate on a 90-day e-visa combined with periodic 'visa run' exits, which is administratively simple but requires ongoing border-crossing logistics.
- Working online for foreign clients while on a tourist e-visa is technically outside what the visa authorizes, though enforcement targets unauthorized local employment rather than remote income from abroad — it's a widely used but legally grey approach, not a bulletproof one.
- If you stay under 183 days in any rolling 12-month period and don't take out a long-term lease that counts as 'permanent residence,' you generally avoid becoming a Vietnamese tax resident and the worldwide-income tax exposure that comes with it.
- A long-term furnished rental lease in Hoi An can itself trigger Vietnamese tax residency regardless of day count, so nomads renting apartments for many months should be aware of this separate trigger.
- A proposed 10-year 'Golden Visa' and investor visa have been discussed since April 2025 but have no confirmed launch date — don't plan a Vietnam stay around it materializing soon.
Visa Free Entry
- Process
- No advance application or paperwork is required for eligible nationalities. Travelers simply present a valid passport at immigration on arrival, an officer stamps the passport, and entry is free of charge — typically taking under a minute at the counter.
- Overview
- Vietnam has no single Schengen-style universal visa waiver. Instead, entry without a visa is granted nationality-by-nationality, with permitted stays ranging from 14 to 90 days depending on passport. Citizens of major nomad-source countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia are NOT on the visa-exempt list and must use Vietnam's e-visa system instead (covered separately).
- Officer Discretion
- Entry under visa exemption is a policy right, not an unconditional guarantee — the immigration officer at the port of entry has final authority and can deny entry without giving a specific reason, most commonly over doubts about onward travel or sufficient funds.
- Extension And Reentry
- Stays under visa exemption cannot be extended from inside Vietnam. To stay longer, the standard workaround is a 'visa run': exit to a neighboring country (commonly Cambodia, Laos, or Thailand) and re-enter, which restarts a fresh exemption period. Since a 2020 legal change there is no mandatory waiting period between consecutive visa-exempt entries, though immigration officers retain discretion to question frequent border-hoppers.
- Official Government Link
- https://evisa.gov.vn
- Official Source Note
- Vietnam's immigration authority (Ministry of Public Security) publishes visa and exemption rules via its national e-visa/immigration portal.
Entry Requirements
- Passport valid for at least 6 months from the date of arrival in Vietnam
- At least 2 blank pages in the passport for stamps
- Entry must be through a designated international checkpoint (airport, land border, or seaport)
- Entry purpose generally limited to tourism, business, or short-term visits — not paid work or study
Not Exempt Examples
- United States
- Canada
- Australia
- India
- China
- New Zealand
- Ireland
- Portugal
- Austria
- Greece
Qualifying Nationalities
- Duration Days
- 45
- Notes
- The original 12 countries were extended and 12 more European countries were added under Resolution 229/NQ-CP, effective August 15, 2025 through August 14, 2028.
Countries
- Germany
- France
- Italy
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- Russia
- Japan
- South Korea
- Denmark
- Sweden
- Norway
- Finland
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Switzerland
- Luxembourg
- Hungary
- Netherlands
- Poland
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Duration Days
- 30
- Notes
- Mostly ASEAN bilateral reciprocal agreements plus a small number of other bilateral deals.
Countries
- Cambodia
- Indonesia
- Laos
- Malaysia
- Myanmar
- Singapore
- Thailand
- Mongolia
- Kazakhstan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Duration Days
- 21
Countries
- Philippines
- Duration Days
- 14
Countries
- Brunei
Multiple entry, based on a 2014 bilateral agreement.
- Duration Days
- 90
Countries
- Chile
Digital Nomad Visa And Tax
- Summary
- Vietnam has no standalone digital nomad or remote-work visa. Nomads in Hoi An rely on the tourist e-visa (with periodic visa runs), a visa-exemption entry, a business (DN) visa, or — for a narrow group of highly credentialed applicants — the new 5-year Talent Visa. None of these are designed for remote work; e-visas and visa exemptions technically prohibit any 'labour activity' in-country, and working online for foreign clients sits in a legal grey zone that is tolerated in practice but not authorized in law.
- Renewal Path
- E-visas and visa exemptions cannot be extended or renewed from inside Vietnam — the traveler must exit the country and apply for a fresh e-visa or new entry. The business (DN) visa can sometimes be extended in-country through a sponsor/agent. The Talent Visa allows re-entry over its 5-year window but caps each individual stay at 90 days.
- Visa Ease Tier
- low
- Income Requirements
- No income proof is required for the e-visa or visa-exemption routes. The Talent Visa has no published minimum income threshold — eligibility instead hinges on professional/academic credentials and institutional nomination.
- Golden Visa Proposal
- A broader 10-year 'Golden Visa' and 10-year Investor Visa have been proposed by Vietnam's Tourism Advisory Board (alongside the Talent Visa) but remain in draft/proposal stage with no legislative timeline, application portal, or confirmed rules as of mid-2026.
- Visa Ease Tier Rationale
- Vietnam has no dedicated digital-nomad visa and relies on 90-day e-visas or short visa-exemptions requiring exit-and-reentry visa runs for any long-term stay, with online work technically unauthorized under these tourist statuses.
- Has Dedicated Digital Nomad Visa
- No
Tax Notes
- Practical Nomad Strategy
- Most short-stay remote workers using e-visas and visa runs deliberately stay under 183 cumulative days per 12-month period specifically to remain a non-resident and avoid worldwide income taxation.
- Day Counting
- Both arrival and departure days count as full days present, and short exits for regional travel do not reset or interrupt the cumulative day count.
- Filing Deadline
- Annual PIT finalization is due by the end of the fourth month after year-end (around 30 April for calendar-year filers); those leaving Vietnam permanently as tax residents must finalize within 45 days of departure.
- Personal Allowance
- ₫15,500,000
- Dependent Allowance
- ₫6,200,000
- Double Tax Treaties
- Vietnam has signed 80+ double taxation avoidance agreements, which may reduce or eliminate double taxation on cross-border income for residents of treaty countries, though relief is not automatic and requires a notification filing with Vietnamese tax authorities.
- Tax Residency Trigger
- An individual becomes a Vietnamese tax resident if present in Vietnam 183 days or more within a calendar year OR within any rolling 12-month period, or if they maintain a registered/leased permanent residence in Vietnam — either condition alone triggers residency.
- Resident Tax Treatment
- Tax residents are taxed on worldwide income at progressive rates of 5% up to a top rate of 35%, applied across income brackets (the bracket structure is being streamlined from 7 to 5 tiers starting 1 January 2026, keeping the 35% top rate but raising the threshold for it).
- Non Resident Tax Treatment
- Non-residents (under 183 days, no permanent residence) are taxed at a flat 20% rate but only on Vietnam-sourced income; foreign-sourced remote income for clients/employers outside Vietnam is generally not taxed for non-residents.
- Personal Allowance Note
- Monthly personal deduction for tax residents, rising from VND 11,000,000/month in 2025 to VND 15,500,000/month from 1 January 2026.
- Dependent Allowance Note
- Monthly deduction per qualified dependent from 1 January 2026 (up from VND 4,400,000/month in 2025).
Entry Options
E-visa (Single Entry)
- Cost
- ₫657,500
- Status
- tourist visa only — no legal work authorization
- Duration
- up to 90 days
- Notes
- Cannot be extended or renewed from inside Vietnam; holder must exit and re-apply.
E-visa (Multiple Entry)
- Cost
- ₫1,315,000
- Status
- tourist visa only — no legal work authorization
- Duration
- up to 90 days, multiple entries within validity
- Notes
- The most commonly used option for nomads doing repeated visa runs; single-entry e-visas cannot be extended in-country.
Visa Exemption (Visa-free Entry)
- Cost
- ₫0
- Status
- tourist entry only
- Duration
- 14–45 days depending on nationality
- Notes
- Cannot be extended; must exit before expiry.
Business (DN) Visa
- Cost
- ₫1,000,000
- Status
- administrative/business visa, more structured but still not a remote-work visa
- Duration
- up to 12 months, potentially extendable
- Notes
- Requires a Vietnamese sponsoring entity or agent; the closest thing to a long-term option most nomads without local employment can access, but requires paperwork through an agent/sponsor.
5-Year Talent Visa (Special Visa-exemption Card for Skilled Professionals)
- Cost
- ₫1,315,000
- Status
- fully legal and regulated but not designed for typical remote freelancers
- Duration
- up to 5 years, but max 90 days present per single stay before an exit/re-entry is needed
- Notes
- Targets academics, scientists, executives, and invited experts nominated by a Vietnamese institution — not a general-purpose remote-worker visa, and full eligibility/documentation rules are still being clarified.
Documents Required E Visa
- Passport valid 6+ months beyond entry with blank pages
- Digital passport photo
- Passport data page scan
- Online application fee payment
- Approval typically issued within a few business days via the official evisa.gov.vn portal
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
Sources cited for this category
These are the sources cited in this visas research for this city. Individual figures may not each trace to one of them.
More About Hoi An
Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.