A guy messaged me last month after a “visa agency” asked him for a hotel booking, a return flight, and the hotel’s phone number before they’d “submit his application.” He paid, got an approval PDF two days later, and only found out at the airport that it was fake. I run e‑visa applications for Vietnam, and here’s the thing that bugs me about stories like his: none of what they asked for exists on the real form.
The 60-Second Scam Check Before You Enter Your Passport Number
Start here, before you even open the form. If a site quotes you $100-200 for a single-entry visa that costs $25 in government fees plus a modest service markup, that’s not a “premium” option - that’s the markup doing all the work. Check the domain next: the official portal only lives at evisa.gov.vn or evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn. Lookalikes like vietnamvisa.govt.vn or vietnamvisagov.com aren’t government sites no matter what their homepage claims. If a Google search shows a paid ad sitting above the official portal, click the organic result, not the ad. And if anyone asks for a hotel booking, a return flight, or documents beyond the fields below - that’s the clearest sign you’re dealing with someone padding a data request, not processing a visa.
The Six Fields the Real E‑Visa Form Actually Has
I’ve filled this form more times than I can count. Here’s the complete list of what evisa.gov.vn asks for: a scan of your passport data page, a separate portrait photo, your full name exactly as printed in your passport, date of birth, religion (NONE is a perfectly fine answer), your intended address of stay in Vietnam, entry and exit points, and an email address. That’s it. There’s no field for a hotel booking, a return ticket, or a hotel phone number - not hidden, not optional, just not there. For a done-for-you version, see our Vietnam e-visa 90 days page.
No Hotel Booking. No Return Flight. No Proof of Funds.
“Intended address of stay” is not a hotel reservation. You can put the address of any hotel listed on a booking site - reserved or not - or the address of friends you’re staying with. The portal doesn’t verify it and doesn’t ask for confirmation. So when someone tells you “send us your hotel booking, your return ticket, and the front desk’s number,” one of two things is happening: either they genuinely don’t understand the form they’re processing, or they’re collecting data they have no reason to need. A proof-of-funds statement isn’t required either - that one gets asked for just as often, just as pointlessly.
Why Some Services Charge More Than the Government Fee
If the form is this simple, why pay anyone at all? Here’s the honest math, starting from the cheapest option and working up. A no-rush turnaround takes up to 5 business days and runs $55. Two days is $100. Same-day service is $110. Full-service in 3-4 hours tops out at $120. A multiple-entry visa adds $25 on top of any of those. Now the baseline: the government fee itself is $25 for a single-entry visa, and I charge $55 - the $30 difference covers me filling out the application myself, checking every field before it goes in, and, if the portal kicks it back over a typo or a mismatch, fixing it for free instead of charging you again. One practical reason people come to a paid service in the first place: cards issued by Russian banks don’t work on the government gateway, Visa and Mastercard from Russia are blocked there, so someone has to pay in a currency the site actually accepts.
The Free Arrival Card You Still Need (It’s Not a Visa)
Since June 22, 2026, every international airport in Vietnam requires a Digital Arrival Card (the Pre-Arrival Information declaration) - filed at prearrival.immigration.gov.vn no earlier than 72 hours before you fly, and it’s free. Don’t confuse it with your visa; it doesn’t replace it, and nobody legitimately charges a fee for filling it out. For land border crossings, there’s no unified requirement announced yet - if someone tells you it’s mandatory there too, treat that as unconfirmed, not as fact.
None of this is really about naming specific bad actors. It’s about one simple habit: open evisa.gov.vn yourself, once, and look at what the form actually asks. After that, nobody can talk you into sending a hotel booking again.
If you’d rather have someone double-check the paperwork before you submit - or your application already got sent back for a fix - message me on Telegram and I’ll take it from there.