Vietnam Visa questions (I went with Vietnam Visa Pro)

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luketolucy
luketolucy

I applied for the visa approval letter yesterday with Vietnam Visa Pro (http://vietnamvisapro.com/). I received
the three-page letter today but have I few questions on it. The service was super fast, with no problems (well,
as I obviously haven't been to Vietnam yet, I can't say that for sure) but ...

  1. The approval letter has me as part of a group of 17 people (strangers to me) from around the world. I wasn't
    really expecting my personal information (full name/birth date/nationality/ passport number) to be shared in this way. Is this common for getting one of these approval letters?

  2. The email from Vietnam Visa Pro gave me a link to download an entry/exit form necessary for going through
    immigration. This form asks for the permanent residential addresses of family members. I don't even know that! (There is no mention about family members traveling with you, so I assume they want to know regardless).
    Finally, the form asks for the following information:
    Hosting organisation/individual in Vietnam
    Name of Hosting organisation
    Address
    Hosting Individual (Full name)
    Address
    Relationship to the applicant

How do I fill that section out? I went through "Vietnam Visa Pro" but that does not appear anywhere on the
letter that I got. Instead, it says "vvp international touris co. ltd. danang branch" with no address or names given.
And I assume it's not a problem that I am not even going to danang.

Thanks for any replies to this.

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JuliaLuther
JuliaLuther

There is no problem if your name is on the 17-name list, just because sometimes they do the visa service for many individual tourists at the same time

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luketolucy
luketolucy

@JuliaLuther - Thanks for that reply, no I didn't think I might have a problem. It's kind of the other way around, I kind of have a problem with my information being shared (and I wasn't aware of it beforehand). Maybe it's my fault for not having done the research correctly or asking first.

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JuliaLuther
JuliaLuther

Don't think it's your fault. It happened to me too when I first applied for a visa to Vietnam

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cmburns
cmburns

The pre-approved visa letter (often called VOA) was originally started years ago to accommodate tour groups. So, they listed all the group members on the same approval form and they still do that. There are visa services that will give you your own individual letter for an additional fee. The information on the letter is pretty useless because it isn't tied to your home address and in most countries your passport number changes when you renew.
You can just mark the family residency and hosting fields as "NA" or leave them blank. I've used the pre-approved visa letter system many times and never had a problem.

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luketolucy
luketolucy

@cmburns - Thanks for that reply. What about the entire section asking about the "hosting organisation"
on the form? Can I leave that entire section blank as well?

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cmburns
cmburns
In response to #5

I assume you're applying for a regular TOURIST visa (30/90 days) rather than some other longer term visa. You can mark all of the "hosting" section (para/section No. 17) as NA or leave it blank.
Unless you are traveling with a family group you can mark Section No.11 as NA also.

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luketolucy
luketolucy

@cmburns - Yes, I am applying for the regular tourist visa (30 days). Thank you for your time and replies.

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tasha_nz
tasha_nz

The same thing happened to me today, I also got a letter with 17 other peoples details on it! I actually wrote back to them and asked if this was a very safe way to continue in the future as noone likes their details shared with complete strangers! (Imagine if you are on my list from today lol) I haven't had a reply but I think its a silly practice to continue with. My friend said its still a bit of a nightmare on arrival because of course this letter doesn't get you any further up the queue so its still apparently a lot of lining up and filling out more forms then waiting for your name to be called etc.

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luketolucy
luketolucy

@tasha_nz - Thanks for your reply. I knew I wasn't alone though, as I have the personal information of 16 other people now. What exactly do you mean about it being a nightmare to queue on arrival? In my email reply I received from
Vietnam Visa Pro, there was a link provided to download the necessary form needed on arrival, so I plan to do that and have it filled in beforehand (hoping it will save a bit of time). Also, Vietnam Visa Pro offers a quick service that allows you to skip the lines (supposedly someone is there to meet you when you get off your flight) but it seemed rather expensive to me. I will be arriving after 1 a.m. the morning.

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