Prime Minister of Vietnam made a decision about reducing visa fee for international traveler entering Vietnam by sea. Accordingly, visa fee for foreign visitors traveling on cruise ship will be $5 per pax. This fee is equivalent to the fee applying for permit for traveling Vietnam, regulated Circular 66/2009/TT-BTC issued on March 30^th 2009 by Ministry of Finance.

This change is made after a lot of disagreements from international tourists and travel agents to new immigration law took on effect on January 1^st 2015. The law said that foreign tourists entering Vietnam by sea must obtain visa with the fee up to $45 if they want to go ashore for sightseeing. With this old law, foreign travelers have to waste a lot of time to get their passport stamped and pay a high fee of applying visa. Some tourists complain that they had to spend many hours for immigration procedure though they just had one day to visit the mainland.

Therefore, Prime Minister of Vietnam quickly had a meeting with relevant agencies to handle this problem and change this regulation. That’s why while the official amendment has not promulgated yet, the fee for offering visa for foreign tourists entering Vietnam by sea is $5 for a visa, instead of $45.

Especially, Prime Minister also requested Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Culture-Sports-Tourism, border guards and the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism swiftly issue the official document on immigration law for international cruise ship passengers in order to ensure security, avoid congestion and simplify procedures.