TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF THE IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT OF VIETNAM
The Immigration Department of Vietnam under the Ministry of Public Security has temporarily suspended operations and have stopped receiving documents from Vietnamese, foreign agencies, organisations and individuals for 15 days beginning 00:00 hours, 1 April 2020 (except for emergency cases).
- However, according to a source from the Immigration Department, foreigners who need to renew their visas should not be concerned. If a foreigners’ visa expires while the Immigration Department offices are closed, the person will not be penalised and the visa can be renewed once the offices are back in operation.
- For foreign nationals who have entered the country on visa-free entry or tourist entry visas (including e-visas) and have expired their terms of stay but possess no guarantee by any agencies or organisations, and cannot exit due to concrete reasons i.e because airlines have suspended flights, destination country or transit country have closed borders, their Embassy or Consulate-General are allowed to act as sponsor to their citizens on the following conditions:
- The citizen does not have any sponsoring entity and cannot exit Vietnam due to concrete reasons;
- The Embassy or Consulate-General bears the responsibility to oversee their own nationals who are under their sponsorship during their time in Vietnam and, upon request, in coordination with the relevant Vietnamese authorities to resolve matters regarding the citizen; and
- Implementation time of this regulation is from 30 March until 30 April 2020.
- For Malaysians who had entered Vietnam for business, work, labour, personal/tourism/leisure visits or other purposes, you may reach out to the Embassy of Malaysia in Hanoi or the Consulate-General of Malaysia in Ho Chi Minh City if you may require the Embassy or the Consulate-General to be your sponsor in accordance with the latest Law on Entry, Exit, Transit, and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam.
- Malaysians who have stayed beyond their terms of stay for less than 10 days due to a force majeure situation (and are able to produce documentary evidence) can be considered for administrative penalty waivers by the Vietnamese side.