Vietnam has no retirement visa. Most foreign retirees who live there do it on tourist e-visas or visa exemptions, leaving the country every few months and coming back on a new one. This is the border run, or visa run.
It works, and many people have lived this way for years. But it's a tourist arrangement used for residence, and that has consequences for how secure your stay is, what it costs, and what you should have ready if the rules change. This article explains how it works in practice.
The two ways in: e-visa or visa exemption
Every nationality can get a 90-day e-visa. Some European passports can also enter without a visa for 45 days.
| E-visa | Visa exemption | |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Every nationality | UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, plus Japan and South Korea (any purpose, until March 14, 2028). Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland (tourism, until August 14, 2028) |
| Length | Up to 90 days, single or multiple entry | 45 days |
| Cost | $25 single entry, $50 multiple entry | Free |
| Extension | Not possible | Only through a Vietnamese sponsor, such as a company or family member |
| Runs a year | Four | Eight |
The US, Canada, Australia and Austria have no exemption, so their citizens use the e-visa. The government sets each exemption list for a fixed period and decides whether to renew it.
Apply for e-visas only on the official portal, evisa.gov.vn. Look-alike sites charge more, and some are fraudulent. The application asks for a port of entry, but approved e-visas no longer show one, and what matters is that you cross at one of the 83 airports, land borders and seaports on the government's e-visa list. Moc Bai, Lao Bao and Ha Tien are all on it.
How a border run works
There are three ways to do a run. They differ in cost, in how long you're away, and in who deals with it if the new e-visa is slow.
Flying out on your own
- Fly to another city. Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok are the usual choices, with Phnom Penh and Taipei next. The table below compares them.
- Apply for a new e-visa once you've left. An application made from inside Vietnam can be refused. Once you're out, you can apply even if your current e-visa still has time left.
- Wait for approval. The law allows three working days from a complete application, but it can take up to five. If the application is sent back for any reason, such as a photo, a passport scan or a missing address in Vietnam, the count starts again once you resubmit. Processing is often slower around Tết. Book a hotel for most of a week and a return flight you can change.
- Fly back once the e-visa is approved.
| City | Flight from Ho Chi Minh City | Typical budget round trip | Entry for US, UK, Canadian and Australian passports |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kuala Lumpur | About 2 hours | About $100 to $160 | Visa-free |
| Bangkok | About 1.5 hours | About $115 to $200 | Visa-free for 30 days |
| Phnom Penh | About 1 hour | About $100 to $250 | Visa on arrival, about $30 |
| Taipei | About 3.5 hours | About $150 to $230 | Visa-free |
Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok usually have the cheapest fares, and Kuala Lumpur is often slightly cheaper on budget airlines. Phnom Penh is the shortest flight, but fares are often higher and you pay for a Cambodian visa, so from Ho Chi Minh City the land border is cheaper. Fares from Da Nang and Hanoi to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur are similar, at about $100 to $200.
Thailand has been changing its immigration rules this year and checking visitors more closely. Since September 15, 2026, visa-free stays are 30 days instead of 60, they're for tourism only, and visa-free entries by land are limited to two a year. Entries by air have no annual limit, but each one is at the officer's discretion. Four short visits a year by air isn't the kind of activity these changes have targeted, but the rules have changed and more changes may follow. Have a confirmed flight out, and consider using Kuala Lumpur for some of your runs.
To shorten the wait, you can pay an agent to expedite the e-visa once you've left, typically about $100 to $160 in total for a result within a working day. In theory, that lets you fly back the next day. Booking a same-day return is risky: if approval comes late, you miss the flight.
On top of the flight, add the $25 e-visa, food, and either the agent's fee or three to five nights in a hotel while you wait on the standard timeline.
Since you have to wait a few days anyway, many retirees make the run a short holiday. A week in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Taipei, or a few days at Angkor or in Luang Prabang, lets you see more of the region while the new e-visa is processed. Over a few years of runs, that adds up to a lot of travel you might not otherwise have done.
Crossing a land border on your own
The steps are the same, by bus to a border such as Moc Bai (Cambodia) or Lao Bao (Laos), with two differences:
- You pay for the neighboring country's visa at the border, about $30 to $45 for Cambodia and $40 to $50 for Laos.
- Your exit can take several days to register. After a land-border exit, it can be days before your exit reaches the immigration system. If you apply for the new e-visa before it does, the application may be refused because the records still show you in Vietnam. Plan to stay across the border for a week or more and apply from there.
The bus and visas come to about $75 to $105 a run, the lowest of the three methods. But add a week or more of hotel nights and food across the border, and the total can easily pass the cost of a run service, which gets you back the same day.
Using a run service
A run service handles everything: transport to the border, the exit, entry to Cambodia or Laos including its visa, and the new e-visa. Because the service files the e-visa on the day you exit, the exit-record problem doesn't arise. Approval usually comes within about four working hours, and you're back the same day. Services work on weekdays only, and if approval is late, the return moves to the next day.
Here's what the day looks like with one Da Nang company's bus run to Lao Bao:
- Departure: 7:00 AM from Da Nang, with optional pickup from Hoi An. This departure includes expedited processing of a new 90-day e-visa.
- Return: around 9:00 PM the same day.
- Included: a limousine bus, English-speaking staff, help at every step of the border, help with the Laos visa, and breakfast, coffee and water.
- Schedule: Tuesdays and Fridays only, with no service at Tết or on holidays.
- Earlier option: a 6:00 AM departure, back around 7:00 PM, for people who already have an approved e-visa or need a new exemption stamp.
One customer's review describes about 14 hours door to door, with a meal stop and a bathroom break each way. Across services, a Da Nang to Lao Bao run with a new e-visa and the Laos visa typically costs about $150 to $190.
After every run
- Check your entry stamp before you leave the counter. The date you're allowed to stay until should match your new e-visa, or 45 days from entry on an exemption. If the officer has written the wrong date, ask for it to be corrected there and then, while you're still at the counter.
- Register your new stay. Your landlord or hotel must declare it with the police within 12 hours of your arrival, and a host who doesn't can be fined about $110 to $190. Ask for a photo of the stamped form or a screenshot of the online entry.
- Check the e-visa against your passport. The name has to match exactly, including middle names.
- Re-register your bank account. A Vietnamese account is suspended when the visa it was opened on expires, until you register the new visa at a branch.
- Watch your passport's expiry. A visa ends at least 30 days before the passport expires, so renew it well ahead.
Common routes and what they cost
With a run service, one run costs roughly $150 to $210, including both visas. On your own it can be under $100, plus the hotel nights while you wait for the new e-visa.
| Route | How | Cost per run |
|---|---|---|
| Ho Chi Minh City to Moc Bai | Run service: car, new 90-day e-visa and Cambodian visa | About $160 to $210 per person, less if you share the car |
| Ho Chi Minh City to Moc Bai | On your own by bus | About $75 to $80: bus about $20 round trip, e-visa $25, Cambodian visa $30 to $36. Plus hotel nights |
| Da Nang to Lao Bao | Run service: seat on a shared bus or van, new e-visa and Laos visa | About $150 to $190 |
| Da Nang to Lao Bao | On your own by sleeper bus | About $95 to $105: bus about $28 round trip, e-visa $25, Laos visa $40 to $50. Plus hotel nights |
| Da Nang to Bangkok | On your own by air | Flights about $110 to $200 round trip, plus the $25 e-visa and either hotel nights or an expedited e-visa |
Over a year of four runs, a run service costs about $600 to $840. Doing it yourself over land costs about $300 to $420 before hotel nights, and a week abroad after each land-border exit can easily double that. On 45-day exemptions you make eight runs a year, though you don't pay for an e-visa.
How many border runs can you do?
There's currently no limit. No law caps the number of entries, and no case has been reported of a retiree turned away for repeated runs alone. That's why most foreign retirees in Vietnam live this way, and some have done it for years without a problem.
What nobody can promise is that it will stay that way. The rules have changed before, sometimes with little notice:
- From 2015 to 2020, a visa-exempt traveler had to spend 30 days outside Vietnam before entering again without a visa.
- Exemptions stopped entirely during COVID-19 and only resumed in March 2022.
- The 90-day e-visa, which makes four runs a year possible, only began in August 2023. Before that, e-visas lasted 30 days.
Is a change coming?
There's no sign of a limit on runs, and no draft law or decree proposes one. But the mood has shifted in 2026, and the signs point both ways:
- Closer checks. Arrivals hit a record of more than 22.8 million in 2025, and a series of incidents involving misbehaving foreign visitors drew wide public criticism this year. In May 2026 the Ministry of Public Security said it would tighten its management of foreigners living and traveling in Vietnam, with commune and ward police taking a larger role, while keeping visa policy relatively open. From September 15, Decree 286 connects government agencies' data on foreigners more closely. Thailand cut its visa-free stays and capped land entries the same month. A proposal for compulsory travel insurance for tourists was dropped from Vietnam's tourism bill in October 2026, but it remains in a Party resolution and could return.
- Longer stays. In 2024 the Prime Minister asked the Ministry of Public Security to study multiple-entry visas of 12 to 36 months for high-spending tourists and retirees. A tourism advisory board has since proposed a 5- to 10-year golden visa, and a Politburo resolution calls for a long-stay pilot. None of these has a draft decree, rules or a start date.
There is speculation that Vietnam could eventually follow Thailand and Indonesia, which have tried to discourage lower-spending visitors while courting those who spend more and stay longer. Vietnam has said it wants "quality tourists" and is watching Thailand's experience closely. Following that path could mean tighter rules on tourist visas alongside new long-stay visas for affluent individuals and retirees. Tighter tourist-visa rules are only speculation, and none have been proposed.
Changes in Vietnam usually come with some notice. Recent laws have taken effect between about ten weeks and seven months after they were adopted. Follow the news, and treat any announced change as uncertain until it has a date it takes effect.
That's the tension for anyone who wants to settle, and it's one of the main things to weigh when deciding whether Vietnam is right for you.
A home means a long lease, furniture, a bank account, friends and a routine. Border runs give you 90 days at a time, and years of them count for nothing toward residence. If the rules tightened, you could have to leave on short notice, or switch to a route that needs an investment, a business or a family tie. Retirees who live on runs do best when they accept that uncertainty, keep their commitments in Vietnam easy to unwind, and have a plan for where they'd go next.
The risks
Each run also carries a few practical risks.
- Refusal at the border. Officers have legal grounds to refuse entry. The refusals that do happen are usually over paperwork, such as a name that doesn't match the passport or a crossing that isn't on the e-visa list.
- Overstays. Overstaying is fined up to about $1,500, and an overstay of 16 days or more can lead to expulsion. If a run is delayed, leave before your stay ends, even if it means changing your plans.
- Each e-visa is a new application. It covers 90 days at most and can be refused.
Living without a residence card also makes some things harder. You can't exchange your driving license for a Vietnamese one, your bank account is suspended at every run until you register the new visa, and buying property and signing some contracts are harder.
The runs get harder with age too. A run every 90 days has to fit around medical treatment, and planned surgery and recovery need to fit inside one stay. Keeping track of dates and paperwork every few months gets harder for anyone whose memory is starting to slip.
Who this suits
Border runs suit a retiree with no Vietnamese family or business who is comfortable leaving every few months and can accept that the rules might change.
The other ways to stay longer in Vietnam need an investment, a business of your own or a Vietnamese family tie. If leaving every few months doesn't appeal and none of those apply, Thailand, the Philippines and Cambodia all have retirement visas.
Before you commit
If you plan to live in Vietnam on border runs, have these in place:
- A passport with years of validity left.
- A calendar of your stay end dates, with each run booked on a weekday well before the last day.
- A run service, or enough money and time for a week abroad.
- A landlord who registers each stay with the police.
- A plan for what you'd do if the rules tightened: another country, or one of the longer routes above.
Our Vietnam guide covers all seven ways to live in Vietnam in detail, including the investor, company and family routes, and keeps a companion page updated as the rules change.