Travelling To Vietnam on a South African Passport

If you’ve ever had to travel anywhere on a South African passport (known disparagingly as the green mamba), you’ll be well aware that there is a reason it’s known as one of the least useful passports around. The vast majority of countries require South African passport holders to complete complicated visa applications, often weeks in advance and at great expense. The good news is that Vietnam visas for South African passport holders are relatively pain free!

This guide is intended for South African passport holders who are resident in the United Kingdom and travelling to Vietnam. South Africans looking to apply for a Vietnamese visa from South Africa should do so with the Embassy of Vietnam in Pretoria, either in person or via the post.

The definitive visa guide for South African passport holders travelling to Vietnam

Any South African knows that finding visa information is confusing and frustrating and the visa rules are frequently changing. So we’re here to tell you to forget the outdated travel blog posts from years ago, the articles online written by travellers who don’t understand the vagabonding way of life or convoluted, expensive and (often fraudulent) visa application services.

The good news is that, while you do need a visa for travel to Vietnam, it is one of the quickest and easiest countries to get a visa for when you’re travelling with your humble South African passport.

south-africa-passport — Vietnamese visa applications for South Africans living in the UK are simple and affordable.

How do I apply for the visa?

The first thing you’re going to want to do is steer clear of the visa application services. They’re overpriced and, in some cases, fraudulent. What makes it difficult for visa applicants is that the official channels for visa applications are never well optimised for the search engines, so Google rarely features them on the top of their rankings.

So your best bet is heading straight to the source by visiting the official embassy of Vietnam website, which they state on the home page is “the SOLE AUTHORITY issuing Vietnamese visa in the UK and Ireland.”

From there, you’re able to choose from one of four options to apply for a tourist visa:

You can apply in person, between 09:30 and 12:30 at the embassy in London (12-14 Victoria Road, London W8 5RD) and no appointment is needed.
You can apply by post.
You can apply online and collect the visa in person (this has a helpful next-day service).
You can apply online and have the visa posted to you (which also offers a next-day service).

Apply for Vietnam Visa Online

vietnam-halong-bay — The iconic Halong Bay is one of the many reasons for South Africans to travel to Vietnam

How much does the Vietnam visa cost?

Rather unhelpfully, the Vietnamese Embassy website is seriously thin on details when it comes to the cost of visas. They have a single paragraph that invites you to email them and enquire about fees.

Visa fees vary according to the type of visa and length of stay. Please email: consular@vietnamembassy.org.uk (subject: “Visa fee enquiry – Your name & Nationality – UK” for quick reply)

Luckily, we’ve already gone through that ridiculous rigmarole and the visa fees we were quoted were XXXXXXXX

If you’re opting to get your passport posted back to you, there is an additional postage fee of £5 – £8, depending on how many passports are being included in the envelope. They advise that you should allow 5 days for passports to be returned by post.