This is just a rumor but it is coming from a lot of different angles and many of us that live here in Vietnam are hopeful that there is some truth to it. When Covid shut down the world as well as Vietnam the long-standing 3-month and even 1-year tourist visas - the latter of which was only offered to Americans - were suspended in January of 2022 and the only tourist visa option was single month visas. For people that want to live here on a tourist visa, this is not a very viable option because it incorporates a lot of travel in and out of the country. For most of the people that I know this meant they had to spend around $200 a person to travel to Thailand on a flight, get there, then immediately get on another flight coming back.
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This has always seemed very stupid to me that the country doesn't just have some sort of program where you can pay to stay longer because it's not like you are pulling a fast one on Vietnamese Immigration. They are very aware of the fact that you are leaving the country for an hour and just coming straight back. They also do not have any apparent limit on how many times a person can do this.
Many people have tired of the every 30 days needing to get out of the country for an hour or two and have left as a consequence. Others have just decided to massively overstay their visas. I know quite a few people that are in both camps.
The rumor right now is that after Tet or Vietnamese Lunar New Year that the Immigration department is intending to bring back the 3-month tourist visas and this would make a lot of people very happy. I presume it would even bring back people who have already left here for countries with better visa options such as Thailand or Malaysia.
I suppose it remains to be seen though because it hasn't been confirmed in any sort of official capacity. It could just be a FB rumor that got out of hand for all we know. It is Tet right now though and we will likely find out if there is any truth to this rumor by the 1st of February.
I hope that it does happen because it would make life a lot easier for a ton of people that are living here now.