text: HomeMarket StrategiesVietnam Confirms Visa Exemption to Five European Countries until 2021
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  (Photo: Hanoi- LONELY-PLANET-shutterstock_243699124.jpg
  Since 2015, Vietnam has been offering a visa exemption to five European countries -France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK- for a 14-day stay in the country. The exemption was renewed every year but now, the country confirmed that it will be valid until 2021.
  Every year, travel agencies and travellers from five western European countries were scratching their head as June was arriving. June was indeed the end of the visa exemption for France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK as the status was granted only for one year, renewable.
  In early May, Vietnam prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc finally decided to extend the visa waivers program for visitors from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain for 3 more years. This means that any citizen of those countries will be able to receive a free visa on arrival until June 30, 2021.
  Despite requests from tourism professionals to extend the validity of stay to 30 days, the government for now still grants the free visa for only 14 days. The measure is applicable to all kinds of passport and all travel purposes.
  Condition to get free Vietnam Visa for citizens of United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and Germany are the following:
  – However, foreigners holding British National Overseas (BNO) passports are not exempted from visa requiremen. Thus must have appropriate visas to visit Vietnam.
  However, it seems that the visa exemption for Czech citizens, which started in 2017 has not been renewed. Czech citizens were also benefiting of free visa on arrival for a stay not exceeding 14 days.
  According to tourism professionals in Vietnam, providing free visa on arrivals to the countries generating the most travellers (Australia, Canada, China, India, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland and USA among others) would help doubling the total number of foreign visitors by 2020.