Vietnam doesn't publish a refusal rate for its eVisa, so any percentage you've seen quoted is a guess. What Vietnam Immigration does publish is the list of grounds: dishonest or mismatched information, photos or passport scans its system can't verify, an ineligible passport, applying from inside Vietnam, past violations of Vietnamese law and the entry bans in Article 21 of the immigration law.
The one hard number is volume. In 2025, Vietnam issued more than four million eVisas, which shows how many got through, not how many didn't. That's the useful thing to know about a Vietnam visa rejection: four of the six grounds come down to what you type, upload or choose before Vietnam Immigration sees anything.
Your Chances: What Vietnam Publishes and What It Doesn't
Approval rates on agency sites and refusal rates on travel forums share one flaw: neither traces back to Vietnam Immigration. The figures Vietnam releases count eVisas issued, not eVisas refused, so a quoted rejection rate has no Vietnamese number behind it, however confidently it's stated.
The honest answer to "what are my chances?" is a checklist. Hold your application up against each published ground before you submit. The decision itself stays with Vietnam Immigration, and no agency, Vietnam Visa by BDA included, can promise you the result.
Vietnam's own explanation for slow applications points the same way. In November 2024, the Immigration Department said many tourists had entered their details on unofficial websites or submitted incorrect or incomplete information, causing delays.
Denial, Amendment Required and the Border: Three Different Problems
Vietnam's National Electronic Visa system, the government site at evisa.gov.vn, never labels an application Rejected. Its status page shows Unpaid, Processing, Amendment required, Acceptance, Denial or Document canceled. Acceptance is the approval. Denial is the refusal.
Amendment required isn't a refusal. The status page adds a Reason line saying what Vietnam Immigration wants changed, plus a link "to edit and return to the reviewing agency." Change what the Reason line names and nothing else, then send it back quickly.
The third problem waits at the border. An eVisa only works at border gates on the government's list, which includes the airports at Noi Bai in Hanoi, Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, and the officer at the desk can still refuse entry. Travel advice from Britain's Foreign Office says Vietnam denies entry to travelers without a valid travel document or on a passport reported lost or stolen, and that passport damage has already cost British nationals their entry.
Honesty and History: The Grounds in the Portal's Own Words
Vietnam Immigration prints its clearest refusal ground on the form itself. You declare everything in English, and an application will be denied if Vietnam Immigration finds any dishonest information in it.
Further down, the Vietnam eVisa form asks three history questions that trip people up:
- whether you've ever entered Vietnam on another passport
- whether you hold more than one nationality or any other valid passport
- whether you've been to Vietnam in the past year
Answer them the way your travel history reads. A dual American and Irish citizen applying on the American passport still declares the Irish nationality, and anyone who entered Vietnam on an older passport says so, because that's what the passport question asks.
The form also warns that breaking Vietnamese laws or regulations on an earlier visit means your e-Visa application may be denied, and it has a field for past violations. An earlier overstay counts, since Vietnam fines it as an administrative violation under Decree 282/2025/ND-CP.
Photos and Passport Scans: When the System Can't Verify You
Software screens your two uploads the moment you add them. Vietnam's National Electronic Visa system checks the portrait and passport images automatically, fills the passport fields from your scan and blocks submission if the passport image is invalid.
Several of its warnings end with the same line, "Your application may be rejected." Learn these by sight:
- "Portrait photo was captured from another source"
- "Face not looking straight in the portrait photo"
- "The portrait and passport photos have a low match rate"
- "No MRZ detected in the passport image" (it can't read the machine-readable lines)
- "does not meet the required resolution," for either image
When an image is poor or doesn't match, Vietnam's portal asks "The profile may be rejected. Do you still want to continue?" and lets you carry on. Treat that as a no. Re-shoot or re-scan, then upload again.
⚠️ Never upload a photo of a photo. The "captured from another source" check flags a scanned print or a picture of a screen. Shoot a new portrait against a white wall and upload that file.
The portrait itself must be a recent 4x6 cm JPG or JPEG under 2 MB, front-facing, with no hat, no glasses, formal clothes and a white background. If you cover your head for religious reasons, contact Vietnam Visa by BDA before applying: the portal's rule says no hat and publishes no exception.
Your Name and the ICAO Lines: The Mismatch That Looks Like Nothing
The name field wants your full name as printed on the passport's ICAO lines, in capital letters: JANE ELIZABETH DOE if that's what the passport carries, not Jane Doe. Those are the two rows of machine-readable characters along the bottom of the photo page, so copy from them, not from a boarding pass, a bank card or your signature.
Two more rules from the form settle the edge cases. If your passport shows only one name (a surname only, or given names only), enter it as Given name. Text fields accept only Latin characters, so a name printed in Cyrillic goes in the way the ICAO lines spell it.
Then check what Vietnam's portal filled in. It reads the passport scan, completes the passport fields and tells you to double-check the information extracted from the passport. A misread digit is still your mistake once you press Submit.
⚠️ Don't tidy your name. Type it exactly as the ICAO lines show it, even when it looks odd: no nickname, no extra middle name, no airline-account spelling. Vietnam Immigration is matching you to a passport, not to how you introduce yourself.
Ineligible Passports and Places: Where the eVisa Can't Help
Some refusals come down to the document. The portal lists passport types that can't carry a Vietnamese visa: Temporary Passport, Emergency Passport, BNO Passport and a diplomatic passport used for diplomatic entry. Lose your passport in Bangkok and fly on an emergency document, and an eVisa isn't available on it. BNO holders get no fallback either: British National (Overseas) passports aren't covered by the 45-day exemption for UK citizens.
Location matters too. Vietnam Immigration issues the eVisa to people outside Vietnam, not to visitors already in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City, and Britain's Foreign Office adds that an eVisa obtained in Vietnam only starts once you leave and re-enter. If you're already in Vietnam and need more time, that's an extension: a sponsor in Vietnam applies to Vietnam Immigration for it. We don't handle extensions.
Dates matter as well. Your passport has to stay valid for at least 30 days after the eVisa ends, a rule in Vietnam's immigration law, and you pick the eVisa's end date on the form. A passport expiring on March 31, 2027, means an eVisa ending no later than March 1, 2027. Renewing between applying and flying causes its own trouble. The eVisa is tied to the passport it was issued against, and Canada's travel advice warns that Vietnamese visas in expired passports aren't valid, so the visa has to be transferred to the new passport. Vietnamese authorities also require you to enter and leave on the same passport.
The Blacklist Myth: What Article 21 Actually Says
No public Vietnam visa blacklist exists for you to look yourself up on. What exists is Article 21 of the Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners in Viet Nam, which lists the people Vietnam refuses entry to, and the Immigration Department makes staying outside the Article 21 cases a condition of getting an eVisa. Vietnam's visa policy explained covers who needs a visa at all.
The eVisa portal's summary of Article 21 includes these cases:
- using forged documents, or giving false information to get entry, exit or residence papers
- a deportation from Vietnam within the past three years
- an order to leave Vietnam within the past six months
- children under 14 traveling without a parent, guardian or authorized person
- epidemic control and natural disasters
Notice where false information turns up: in Article 21 itself, as a ground for refusing entry, not just a reason to deny one eVisa application. That's why the history questions deserve care.
An overstay is how an ordinary trip ends up on that list. Under Decree 282/2025/ND-CP, overstaying by under 16 days brings a fine of VND 500,000 to 2,000,000, and a year or more brings VND 30,000,000 to 40,000,000. From 16 days, Vietnam can add deportation, and a deportation bars you from Vietnam for three years. Britain's Foreign Office warns that the authorities can stop overstayers leaving until they pay the fine and tells travelers to check the leave-by date stamped in their passport before leaving border control.
After a Denial: What to Do Next
Rule out a false alarm first. A PAYMENT FAILED screen isn't a Denial: the portal's payment-failed page means your card transaction didn't go through. Vietnam Immigration hasn't received the fee, so its 3-working-day legal deadline hasn't started.
If it really says Denial, start with the money, because it's gone. Vietnam Immigration doesn't refund its eVisa fee when it refuses an application, and every applicant ticks a box acknowledging that before paying. A second try means a new application, a new $25 single-entry or $50 multiple-entry fee and a new wait for Vietnam Immigration's decision.
⚠️ Don't reapply with the same file. The same form, the same photo and the same answers cost a second fee and give Vietnam Immigration nothing new to look at. Fix whatever caused the problem before you pay again.
Then find the cause. The portal documents a Reason line for Amendment required, but Vietnam publishes nothing on whether a Denial comes with one, so don't wait for an explanation. The five-minute check below is the quickest way to work back through the grounds.
If the cause still isn't clear, the portal's support form is the channel Vietnam provides, with four issue types: Wrong application information, Pay failed, Don't remember registration code and Others. Don't count on your home embassy. The U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Vietnam, for one, says Vietnamese visa questions are at the sole discretion of the Vietnamese government.
If you'd like a second set of eyes on the next attempt, that's the work we do. Vietnam Visa by BDA is a private company, not affiliated with the Vietnamese government, and you can apply yourself at evisa.gov.vn for only the $25 single or $50 multiple stamp fee. Vietnam Immigration issues the visa; we prepare, check and file the application. If we spot a typo, mismatch or photo issue, we email you to fix it before submitting, at no extra cost.
Know what our refund covers before you count on it. It's a full refund in three situations: you cancel in the first 5 to 10 minutes after applying; our review catches a disqualifying problem before submission, such as an invalid passport or an ineligible nationality; or we can't help, either because we expect Vietnam Immigration to refuse the file or because we can't make your date. Once Vietnam Immigration issues the eVisa, the fee stays paid and later changes cost extra, and false details at submission void any refund. A refusal on its own isn't one of the three, and the Pricing page sets out our refund policy in full.
Mistakes to Avoid Before You Apply Online: A Five-Minute Check
Run this check before you pay, whether you file on evisa.gov.vn yourself or through Vietnam Visa by BDA:
- Passport: not temporary, emergency or BNO, and valid for at least 30 days past the eVisa's end date.
- Location: you're outside Vietnam on the day you apply.
- Name: copied from the ICAO lines, in capitals and Latin characters, with a single name entered as Given name.
- Auto-filled fields: checked against the passport itself, character by character.
- Portrait: newly taken, front-facing, white background, no hat or glasses, JPG or JPEG under 2 MB, and no warning on upload.
- Passport scan: the data page only, with no corners cut off, sharp enough that the bottom two lines read clearly.
- History: other passports, other nationalities, past visits and any past violations, all answered.
If any line gives you pause, fix it before paying, not after. Our How to Apply page lists the common mistakes we catch when we file for travelers.
A Few Parting Notes
A Denial costs most when the flight is close. Our terms recommend applying at least 1 to 2 weeks ahead, and that buffer turns a refusal into a nuisance instead of a canceled trip. Processing times are set by Vietnam Immigration. We can file, chase and correct; we can't move an approval up the line.
Before you reapply, check you need the eVisa at all. British citizens, for example, can visit Vietnam without a visa for up to 45 days, and Germany, France and Japan sit on the same exemption list. Visa-free entry needs a passport with at least 6 months left when you arrive. If your trip fits an exemption, you may not need a second application at all, though an Article 21 entry ban applies however you arrive.