No official source says how many Russians live in Vietnam year-round, so any single figure you see is an estimate. What is measured is entries: Vietnam’s tourism authority VNAT recorded 689,714 Russian arrivals in 2025 and more than one million in the first eight months of 2026. Arrivals and residents are different units, and the gap between them is roughly 70 to 170 times.
I handle visas for Russian-speaking travelers at BestBus Vietnam, and the question “how many of us are actually here” comes up constantly. I have no private database. Everything below comes from public sources, and I mark every place where I could not verify a number.
Why Can’t Anyone Give You One Number?
Because the available datasets measure different things. VNAT counts entries, so a person who leaves for a border run and comes back is counted twice for one trip. Vietnam does not publish how many foreigners of each nationality hold residence cards, and I found no consular headcount for Russians in Vietnam from the Russian embassy in Hanoi or the consulates in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang.
Visitors also differ in how long they stay. Some come for two weeks, some for a winter, some live on repeated visa-free entries, and none of these groups appears as a resident in any public statistic.
How Many Russians Enter Vietnam Each Year?
Russia ranks third among source markets in 2026, behind China and South Korea, after placing seventh in 2025. VNAT data reported by TASS puts Russian arrivals at about 1.1 million for January to September 2026, out of 17.7 million foreign visitors overall, which is roughly 6% by my own division. The first half of 2025 alone produced more Russian entries than the whole of 2024.
| Period | Russian entries | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 646,500 | VNAT |
| 2024 | 232,300 | VNAT, reported by VOV |
| First half of 2025 | about 259,850 | VNAT, reported by VOV |
| 2025 | 689,714 | VNAT, reported by VOV |
| First half of 2026 | more than 742,000 | ATOR, reported by Tuoi Tre |
| January to August 2026 | more than 1 million | VNAT, reported by VnEconomy |
| January to September 2026 | about 1.1 million | VNAT, reported by TASS |
| Full-year 2026 forecast | 1.5 million | Russian Ministry of Economic Development |
The forecast is the only row that is not a result yet. Every other row was counted by an agency or by the Association of Tour Operators of Russia.
How Many Russians Actually Live in Vietnam?
Russian-language blogs repeat an estimate of 4,000 to 10,000 permanent residents. It traces back to one commercial blog that calls it an expert guess rather than statistics, and no second independent source confirms it. Treat it as an order of magnitude at best.
Set that range next to the 2025 entry count and you get a gap of 70 to 170 times. This is why headlines about a million Russians in Vietnam tell you almost nothing about how many of them live there.
How Can a Russian Stay in Vietnam Long Term Legally?
Russian citizens get 45 days visa-free under Resolution 44/NQ-CP, valid from March 15, 2025 to March 14, 2028, according to the Embassy of Vietnam in Japan. Past that, the options are an e‑visa of up to 90 days or a temporary residence card (TRC), which is issued only to holders of certain visa categories: work, investment, study or family reunion.
Tourist visas and visa exemption are not on that list. I take the list from legal summaries, so check it against Law 47/2014/QH13 as amended by Law 23/2023/QH15 before applying. My comparison of TRC, e‑visa and the other long-stay routes goes through each route.
This is where the “I’ll stay and see” plan runs into a deadline: once the exemption ends, staying without a new basis is a violation of the stay rules. You can file an e‑visa yourself on the government portal. If you would rather not, I file e-visas end to end: I complete the form, pay the state fee with a card the portal accepts, and pick the right entry point. Message me on WhatsApp with your travel dates and I will tell you what you can still make in time.
Where Do Russians Concentrate: Nha Trang, Mui Ne or Phu Quoc?
VNAT lists Nha Trang, Mui Ne and Phu Quoc as the favorite destinations of Russian visitors in 2026. Khanh Hoa province, home of Nha Trang and Cam Ranh airport, received 279,000 Russians in January to August 2025, up 294.9% year on year, with roughly 30 flights a week from Russia.
I found no verified resident counts for any city, whether Nha Trang, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi or Phu Quoc. Blogs rank Nha Trang as the largest Russian-speaking community, followed by Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City, but none of those rankings cites a document. The one older figure I could find is a September 2021 report by the VNA agency of more than 600 Russians living and working in Khanh Hoa, a pandemic-era single source that does not describe today. In Vung Tau, the Vietsovpetro joint venture has operated since 1981, yet nobody publishes how many Russians live in the city.
If you are choosing a base, my guide to the best places to live long term in Vietnam compares the cities on cost and daily life.
Do the Agencies Even Agree With Each Other?
Not always. Russia’s side speaks of 700,000 to 800,000 Russian visitors a year in 2018 and 2019, while VNAT counted the 646,500 entries shown in the table for 2019. The same flow is counted differently depending on who does the counting and what counts as a trip.
Growth rates diverge too. For the first half of 2025, Tuoi Tre reported growth of 139% and VOV reported 239.3%. When two outlets disagree on a percentage, quote the absolute figure together with its source and period.
Bottom Line: What Can You Safely Quote?
You can quote entries: VNAT counted nearly three times as many Russian entries in 2025 as in 2024, and the 2026 figure passed one million by August. The number of permanent residents is unknown, the estimate of a few thousand is a guess, and no city-level resident counts exist. For someone planning to stay, the number that matters is the date on your own stamp.
If you are deciding between a winter and a full year in Vietnam, the choice comes down to the legal basis for your stay: visa exemption, e‑visa or TRC, each with its own length and paperwork. The rules are public and you can sort them out yourself. If you want an answer for your own case, tell me on WhatsApp how long you plan to stay and I will name the route that fits and what it needs.
Methodology: Where These Numbers Come From
Data was gathered on October 11, 2026. Entries come from VNAT as reported by VOV, Tuoi Tre, VnEconomy and TASS, first-half 2026 figures belong to ATOR, and the full-year forecast was voiced by a representative of Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development. The resident estimate comes from a single commercial blog. The 2026 numbers will keep growing, so recheck them against the source before you cite them.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a Vietnam e‑visa cost?
The state fee is $25 for a single-entry visa and $50 for multiple entry, valid up to 90 days. Check current amounts on the official portal, evisa.gov.vn.
Does leaving and re-entering give a fresh 45 days?
The resolution does not cap the number of entries, and the period runs from each entry date. Whether an officer admits you again is decided at the border, so a guaranteed period needs an e‑visa obtained in advance.
Does the visa-free stay depend on the purpose of the trip?
No, the period does not depend on why you enter. Visa exemption is not permission to work or study, though, so check those rules before you accept a job.
When do the most Russians visit Vietnam?
VNAT’s peak month for 2024 was December, with 28,520 Russian entries in a single month. One month does not prove a rule, but it shows traffic building toward the end of the year.
