Most guides cover Vietnam’s public holidays as a reason to come or avoid certain dates. For long-stay visitors and digital nomads, there’s a more urgent question: what happens to your visa when a government holiday lands on your expiry date?
The answer is uncomfortable. I’ve watched it catch out enough people to write this up.
Why Holiday Closures Are a Visa Problem, Not a Tourism Problem
Vietnam’s immigration offices (Cục Quản lý xuất nhập cảnh) operate on the government calendar. Every public holiday means a full closure — no extensions, no registrations, no new filings processed.
Your visa does not pause or auto-extend. If your 90-day e-visa expires on April 30 — Day of Reunification — and you haven’t sorted an extension or exit by April 29, you’re overstaying. The penalty runs $50–100 per day, with blacklisting risk on re-entry.
Border crossings (Lao Bao, Moc Bai, Ha Tien, Prek Chak) stay open 24/7. Immigration as a travel function? Open. Immigration as an administrative office processing your paperwork? Closed.
The April–May Triple: Three Days That Freeze Immigration Offices
The most dangerous stretch for anyone calculating a long-stay visa falls at the end of April.
Three official holidays in four days. The government routinely transfers adjacent working days to create a 4–5 day weekend. Immigration offices, district-level police registration, and work permit processing all stop for the entire block.
This cluster is particularly brutal for anyone whose visa started around January 29 or 31 — 90 days lands squarely on April 29 – May 1. If you’re on a visa run or e-visa schedule, check those dates now.
Tet 2026 on February 17: The Two-Week Bureaucracy Blackout
Tet is the official 7-day holiday. In practice, Vietnam exits its normal rhythm for closer to two weeks.
Immigration offices close for at minimum 5 working days. Online e-visa renewals officially take 5 business days to process — during Tet that translates to 2+ calendar weeks. Transport out of the country sells out weeks in advance as the entire country moves at once.
If your visa was issued in late November or early December 2025 and expires in late February 2026, you are in the Tet window. Start at least three weeks early. A Vietnam e-visa 90-day renewal is one path if you act before offices close. A visa run is another — border crossings stay open even during Tet, but buses book out fast.
The Right Way to Calculate Your Visa Deadline Around Holidays
The method that actually works:
- Note your exact expiry date.
- Check whether any public holiday falls within the 10 days before it.
- If yes, push your action deadline to 7–10 working days before the first holiday in that cluster.
- For e-visa renewal: add 5 business days processing time, then count backwards from the holiday start date.
- If the math is tight — message early, don’t wait.
For a 90-day e-visa, this often means starting the renewal conversation 3–4 weeks before expiry, not 1–2 weeks.
Visa Runs on Holidays: What Actually Stays Open
The good news: land borders operate around the clock, including all public holidays. Lao Bao (Vietnam–Laos), Moc Bai, Ha Tien, Prek Chak (Vietnam–Cambodia) — all open 24/7.
The challenge is logistics. Buses run less frequently. During Tet, overland transport to border towns is often fully booked weeks out, and prices spike 2–3×.
If you’re heading into a holiday window with an expiring visa, message me on Telegram — I’ll tell you what’s open and whether a visa run or an extension is the faster path given your specific dates.
Message on Telegram — write your visa expiry date and I’ll check what’s available.
