Beat the 90-Day Limit! Ultimate Da Nang Visa Run Guide

Beat the 90-Day Limit! Ultimate Da Nang Visa Run Guide

Living full-time or even slow traveling in Vietnam can be a really amazing experience. Now, many people like myself fall in love with the culture, the affordability, and just want to stick around a little bit longer. But the problem is you got to do a visa run. This means you got to leave the country in order to renew your visa, which can be a really big hassle. But don’t worry, we’ve recently been through the process and wanted to go over some of the best ways to handle it. We’re going to cover some of the easiest visa run options from Daong so you can stay longer in Vietnam. [Music] Hey, welcome back. I am Joel from the Wandering Hearts and today I’m going to be sharing some of the easiest, hassle-free ways that you can do a border run in order to extend your stay in Vietnam. Now, we just wrapped up five amazing months living in Daong, Vietnam. We loved it there so much that when our visas were about to expire, we decided that we wanted to stick around a little bit longer. Now, if you’re slow traveling like us or you’re an expat or want to be an expat uh and extend your time while living in Vietnam, you’re going to have to do what’s called a border run. Now, as tourists on a tourist visa, that’s basically your go-to method for staying beyond your initial visa period. Before I dive into the easiest and hassle-free ways, just a quick note, this video is not sponsored. In fact, it’s actually sponsored by you. So, if you find this video useful, uh you can consider joining our channel membership, maybe buying us a glass of wine, or even checking out our the quick start guide as a way to say thank you. And as always, subscribing to the channel or even giving the video a thumbs up really helps out a lot. We appreciate your support. So, first up, let’s go over some really quick visa information for traveling to Vietnam. Travelers get a 90-day tourist visa. You really straightforward process. you just apply online for your e visa. Now, there are a handful of countries that don’t actually have to apply. But for the rest of us, it’s really easy. You choose between a single entry visa for $25 or a multiple entry for 50 bucks. Now, once you’ve paid the fee and finished the application, uh basically your approval usually happens within 3 to 10 days. Now, of course, if you’re already in Vietnam and your visa is about to expire, like I mentioned before, you’re going to have to leave the country before you can actually apply for a new e visa. Immigration staff already scanned your passport on your entry and of course when you leave. So, you can’t really trick the system by trying to use maybe like a VPN or some other kind of workaround. Now, if you’re watching this video and you have not been to Vietnam yet, maybe you’re planning on going there and spending a, you know, a couple months or whatever and doing a visa run, um, just so you know, when you do arrive first, uh, immigration might ask for a return ticket. Uh, maybe depending on which country you’re from or where your passport’s from, uh, so you definitely want to have a return ticket ready in that case. Now, if you’re planning on extending, uh, you’re obviously probably not going to have a return ticket already. Um, in that case, uh, you can, an easy workaround is to buy like a lowcost, uh, onward ticket, which are basically like flight booking reservations. You can get them for as little as about $15. You can find the ones that we’ve used on our resource page. Now, once you have this, if they ask for it, you just simply show it. They’ll basically check the booking number and write it down, and you’ll be on your way. Now, like I said before, not everybody will be asked for this. we were not asked for it despite actually having an onward ticket already. Uh so again, it might just vary or depend on your passport. When you’re ready to reset your 90-day tourist visa uh from Dong or maybe even Hoyen, um there are two main options to do this and then we’ll go over one third option as well. All options basically get you back into Vietnam with a fresh stamp. Um but they do have some different trade-offs that you want to be aware of. So, let’s go ahead and break down each of these and figure out which one works best for you. First option is doing a same day flight visa run to Thailand. Now, this is going to be probably the most popular option for a lot of expats and even some slow travelers. Basically, you just fly to Thailand and return to Daong in the same day. Now, it’s a really efficient and of course, it lets you get back to your life in Vietnam pretty quickly. Now, typically you’re looking at costing somewhere between $150 plus or minus a few dollars for the roundtrip ticket. Um, of course, that’s going to depend partly on the time of year that you’re traveling as well. Now, the Visa and any agent express fees are going to add another $80 to $90. So, your total cost is going to come in somewhere around $230, maybe $240 US. Now, again, the whole trip from door to door is going to end up taking about 9 to 10 hours. As long as you don’t have any flight delays, you probably want to use this because it’s the quickest method to reset your visa from Daong. Um, honestly, spending a few hours in the airport is probably not the worst thing you can do. Um, it certainly beats spending a whole lot of time on a bus, which is a little which is our next option we’ll get to in a minute. Um, also, you’re not having to spend several days in a hotel somewhere, you know, waiting for your e visa to be approved. Now, of course, this method isn’t perfect. Um, as like I mentioned before, your flight can get delayed, adding hours or even an overnight delay to your plans, which could end up costing more because of getting a hotel or something like that. Um, this is more prevalent with maybe some of the lowerc cost airlines. Um, or if your flight gets delayed due or canceled even due to kind of severe weather, uh, which can happen especially like in the typhoon season. To use this option, you’re definitely going to want to use a visa agent. It’s going to make things a lot smoother. Um, their prices are pretty affordable and you can get your new e visa in the same day inside of 4 hours time. Now, our second option to renew your visa is by taking the bus to the LA border. Now, you can do this all by yourself, but the easiest and essentially the most certain way is to use a visa agent company to handle all of the logistics, including the bus and all of your visa arrangements. Honestly, it’s a really good way if you want to save some money. This is the option that we actually did. Now, it is going to cost you about $165 for a single entry, and that of course can vary a little bit due to currency fluctuations, um, as well as maybe some additional credit card fees or processing fees. Um, however, it does take a bit longer than the flying option that we talked about. Looking at spending between 13 and 15 hours um on the bus and also waiting at the border. Uh that includes a couple of stops though, so you can stretch your legs. Uh you can use the restrooms, grab some food, and of course included in that cost is the your 30-day Lao visa, which you have to have in order to cross over into Lao. The main draw here, of course, is the cost. Um but you’re going to have to weigh the cost savings against the amount of time that you’re going to spend traveling. Plus, being on the bus the whole time and waiting around at the border is also pretty boring, too. And honestly, there’s just not a lot to do on either side of now. It really does come down to how much time you’re willing to spend versus trying to save some money. Um, and also do note if you are paying with a credit card, um, or even a wire transfer, there’s going to be a small additional processing fee. We paid by a credit card and it ended up costing an additional 4% on top of the fees from the Visa agent. Um, so if you pay for wire transfer like Wise, you’re also going to be paying for that transfer fee on your end as well. Now, of course, it comes down to your budget and how much time you’ve got available. Um, if time is more important, then obviously the flight is probably going to be your better bet in this case. But if you are on a tight budget and you don’t mind a longer journey, hey, the bus, the Lao is actually a pretty solid alternative. You also get to see a little bit more of Vietnam’s countryside, which is also pretty cool. Now, our third option is definitely not a budget friendly option, uh, but it can be a really great way to turn your visa run into like a vacation or even like a long weekend. This case, you do the same thing as the first option and just book a flight to one of the cities or maybe one of the islands in a nearby country. Um, do a little exploration and maybe even some relaxation. Now, you’re typically looking at spending about $150 to $300 for the roundtrip flight to a nearby country like Thailand or maybe even Malaysia. Um, plus of course you have to factor in the cost of your hotel, transportation, and of course, all the delicious food you’re going to be eating. Uh, so it’s definitely not a budget option compared to the other two. Now, of course, this is something you can do completely on your own. um where you would basically once you land in your new country, you would apply for your e visa online and then wait till your visa is approved before you head back to Vietnam. If everything goes right, you can do this option in as little as 3 days. Now, as I mentioned, the main draw here is that you get to turn your visa into a nice little city break or mini vacation, but the main draw back, of course, is that higher cost. Also, if you try to do it yourself, uh there is the chance that your visa approval could be delayed if there was a mistake in filling out the application um or if you’re traveling across an official holiday. Again, this is where using a visa agent can also make things run a lot smoother. Uh they can take care of your visa, so you don’t have to worry about approval timing or even if making any mistakes on your application because they’re going to check that before they submit it anyways. Um, also you can even leave on a Friday and return on a Monday. Now, our friends actually did this same thing over a 3-day weekend. Um, and they used a visa agent to do like a single day processing. Visa fees and the agent fees for that were about $50 to $70 and they didn’t have to hassle with anything at all. So, it was super convenient. Now, even though a travel insurance isn’t required for Vietnam, uh, when you are traveling internationally, especially busy places like Southeast Asia, uh, things can happen unexpectedly. And that’s why we always believe in having some kind of a travel insurance. We’ve included links in the description to the ones that we’ve actually been using. Um or you can find it on our resource page by just scanning that QR code. Now, visa runs aren’t the most fun thing to do, but they are necessary part of slow traveling or living as an expat in Vietnam. Think of it basically as the price you pay for experiencing the incredible country. Now, a couple of final notes. Many people like ourselves actually do visa runs all in the same day. it’s totally doable. So, while it is a bit of a hassle, um it’s a very manageable one at that. You can even do a same day visa run on the last day your visa expires, but we definitely would not recommend that. Um especially without the assistance of a really reliable agent. When using an agent, they’re just going to need a picture of your exit stamp in order to start your new visa application. So, if you’re doing that same day flight option like we talked about, uh you would simply just send them a picture of your exit stamp once you get through immigration. Now, for the bus run, they’re going to be managing everything in person as they’re there with you the whole time and handling your passport. If you’re opting for that third option and wish to make your visa run a vacation where you’re going to be out of the country for something like maybe 4 to 7 days, maybe even more, um you really don’t need to use an agent. But there still is a chance that you might have to make an amendment to your application if something was missing or wasn’t filled out correctly. If that’s the case, it could easily delay your visa approval and add a few unplanned days to your vacation, which may or may not be a good thing. Um, if you’ve got the budget, maybe it’s not a big deal. U, but either way, it can add a lot of stress as well. It’s just something to consider um if you opt not to use a visa agent. Now, for more step-by-step details on what to expect doing a visa run by bus to Lao, then check out our next video. Be sure to like and subscribe. And if you’re interested, you can check out our Denong quick start guide before your trip. Happy wandering. [Music]

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Dreaming of living or slow traveling in Vietnam beyond your regular visa limit? In this video, we share the best hassle-free options for doing a visa (border) run from Da Nang—including same-day flights to Thailand, bus runs to Laos, and how to turn a visa run into a mini-vacation!
👉 Learn about current visa rules, the easiest ways to reset your tourist visa, estimated costs, and our personal tips from five months in Da Nang.
👉 Bonus: Travel insurance essentials, what to expect at the border, and when to use a visa agent for a stress-free renewal.
Whether you’re an expat or a traveler who loves Vietnam, this guide makes extending your adventure simple and stress-free!

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0:00 Lets get into it
1:42 Vietnam Visa Info
2:32 Vietnam Arrival Tips
3:34 Same Day Flight
5:52 Bus to Laos
8:01 Make it a Mini Vacation
9:55 Travel Insurance Requirement?
10:16 Final Notes

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