Who can file here from 31 August 2026
Vietnamese citizens and holders of a Vietnamese residence permit, and no one else. The rule was introduced centrally, in the e-visa form itself: an application goes to the consulate of the country you are a citizen or a permanent resident of. For everyone else this channel is closed — if you do not live in Vietnam, this is not your consulate. Which one is, you can see on the map.
The split inside the country is unchanged: Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces file here. The north and, against all geography, Phu Quoc belong to Hanoi.
How filing works
The format stayed remote: the application goes into the electronic system, the $340 fee is paid online by card, there is no interview. Decisions come out in batches once or twice a week, with pauses of up to two weeks in between; from filing to decision is about three weeks.
What 31 August added to the package:
- a police clearance certificate — from the country of citizenship or the country of filing;
- three months of bank statements with a minimum balance of 500,000 ฿ per applicant, children included; for the main applicant a sponsorship letter is the formal alternative;
- requests for further documents arrive regularly: most often about dependants and about where the income comes from.
Applications filed before the rule
Applications submitted and paid before 31 August are still being worked through: approvals are coming out and document requests arrive in the old format. Translations for them are accepted only from an official agency, with its stamp. This is the old flow being finished, not an open door: the system no longer takes new applications from non-residents.
How it worked before 31 August
Ho Chi Minh City carried the main flow of our observation base: people filed here without any tie to citizenship, and proof of income was read more broadly than at most consulates. From May 2026 the focus of the check moved from the balance on the account to where the income came from: statements were requested for two years, and the consulate wanted to see a clear chain — how the money is earned and how it reaches Thailand.
None of that knowledge went anywhere, and it still shows what exactly the consulate reads in a document package. What changed is who can use it: Vietnamese citizens and residents.
What we track here
Every batch of decisions and what happens to the pending applications. They will show how the consulate reads “permanent resident” and what it starts asking for on top in September.
A package you have assembled yourself we check before filing — the Preflight Check: $300, a written report within two working days. Full support all the way to the visa is the Solo Route and Family Route.
The state of every consulate is on the live board, and the consulate assigned to your country is on the map.