There has been a really massive change in the way that tourist visas are issued in Vietnam in the past few years. Not long ago this part of the world was considered one of the best places for digital nomads to call home because 3 month tourist visas were easy to get, almost everyone got approved, and they were $25. Americans were entitled to 1-year tourist visas with a 90 day exit requirement (go out, come straight back in on the same visa) and this was $100.
Now the only visa available for anyone without a work permit is a mere 30 days. This costs $25.
Although there was some talk of reinstating the 3-month visa earlier this year, it never came to fruition and may have simply been a rumor all along. I don't really know because I normally am pessimistic whenever there is any talk of changing visa rules in any way that would benefit normal people.
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There are a lot of reasons why a 30 day visa is not a very good option if you are trying to live in a place. The main one being that a month goes by a lot quicker than you think it is going to and at the moment this is resulting (at least in Da Nang) in people needing to make a flight to somewhere like Thailand and then come straight back. These prices fluctuate but if you are able to find a round-trip one for under $100, you are getting very lucky.
Another problem is that the Vietnam visa that is issued takes up an entire page of your passport and depending on what option you chose when you got your passport in the first place, this can result in it filling up rather rapidly. There are only a few countries that qualify for visas on arrival and one of them is the United Kingdom. Don't get excited about this though because this visa is for a mere 15 days.
The talk about extending the standard tourist visa to 45 days isn't a huge step but it is better than what we are dealing with right now. While I can only speculate as to why this seemingly arbitrary 15 day extension to the existing visa was suggested I think it is because Thailand is absolutely booming with tourism right now and this is due, at least in part, to the fact that they changed their standard tourist visa from 30 days to 45 days.
Vietnam has never been the tourism powerhouse that Thailand is, but I would be willing to bet that there is some pressure from the areas such as Da Nang that would benefit greatly from having longer tourist visas.
One major problem about trying to be a digital nomad in Vietnam is that there are no long-term visas available for anyone that isn't employed with a work permit or people who are married to Vietnamese people. This brings out another rising trend in that people are getting "fake married" in order to get a long-term visa. I know a few of these people and all they do is pay some Vietnamese woman a certain amount of money and then they get legally married. They don't live together or anything and of the two people I am referring to they don't even have anything remotely resembling a romantic relationship. I'll save that topic for another day though, because it is a strange and interesting one in my opinion.
The good news is that there is serious talk in the ranks of the government about changing visa policy to benefit the tourism industry which is what us digital nomads actually are, we just don't stay at resorts. There is a thriving condo industry in this city that I live in and a majority of it is occupied by people just like me who work online and are simply looking for an inexpensive place to live.
If we can get this extra 15 days on each visa, it would make a sizeable difference in terms of quality of life and overall expenses. Let's just hope it isn't only a rumor this time around though.