What You Need to Know

Coming up: short-term staying, long-term living, lots of colorful flags, some useful stats and links, a golden possibility that may or may not happen, and everything you need to know about visas + residency for Da Nang.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 I’m from England, but I’ve been living in Da Nang for almost a year.

So… how have I stayed here so long? Which visa(s) have I been using? Is it possible to make Da Nang your forever home? And what if I’d just wanted to visit for vacation?

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👉 Coming up, all that and more: here’s everything you need to know about residency and visas in Da Nang! 🇻🇳

A note, before we get going: obviously, all these rules and visas apply for ALL Vietnam (not just Da Nang). So if you want to visit (or move to) any other part of Vietnam, you can follow all the rules below. Simple! 🥳

Note 2: these rules may change from time to time. We wrote this guide in November 2025. If you’re reading it at a much later date, please check to make sure these rules still apply. Because, although we’ll keep this guide updated, we might not be as fast as the Vietnamese immigration!

Do I Need a Visa to Stay Short-Term in Da Nang?

If you’re only coming for vacation (or for a few weeks), there’s a good chance you don’t need a visa to enter Vietnam.

As of now, visitors from these 25 countries can enter Vietnam for 45 days with no visa:

1. Belgium 🇧🇪
2. Bulgaria 🇧🇬
3. Croatia 🇭🇷
4. Czechia 🇨🇿
5. Denmark 🇩🇰
6. Finland 🇫🇮
7. France 🇫🇷
8. Germany 🇩🇪
9. Hungary 🇭🇺
10. Italy 🇮🇹
11. Japan 🇯🇵
12. Kazakhstan 🇰🇿
13. Luxembourg 🇱🇺
14. Netherlands 🇳🇱
15. Norway 🇳🇴
16. Poland 🇵🇱
17. Romania 🇷🇴
18. Russia 🇷🇺
19. Slovakia 🇸🇰
20. Slovenia 🇸🇮
21. South Korea 🇰🇷
22. Spain 🇪🇸
23. Sweden 🇸🇪
24. Switzerland 🇨🇭
25. The UK 🇬🇧

If you’re from one of these countries, you don’t need to do anything. You simply book your flight (or bus), and arrive at the Vietnamese border. Easy.

Nationals of 11 other countries can enter for between 14 and 30 days (the specifics are different from country to country). They are:

1. Belarus 🇧🇾
2. Brunei 🇧🇳
3. Cambodia 🇰🇭
4. Indonesia 🇮🇩
5. Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬
6. Laos 🇱🇦
7. Malaysia 🇲🇾
8. Myanmar 🇲🇲
9. Philippines 🇵🇭
10. Singapore 🇸🇬
11. Thailand 🇹🇭

Again, if you’re from one of these countries, you don’t need to do anything before you enter Vietnam.

Meanwhile, people from Chile 🇨🇱 and Panama 🇵🇦 can enter Vietnam for 90 days with no visa 😱

Interestingly, the United States 🇺🇸 is NOT on the list of nationalities who can enter Vietnam without a visa. So if you’re from the US, you’ll need to apply for a visa, no matter how short your stay. These visas are valid for 90 days, and you can either get a single-entry visa (so you can only enter Vietnam once within the 90 days), or a multiple-entry visa (with which you can leave and re-enter Vietnam as many times as you want within those 90 days).

If you are from the US (or any of the other nationalities we haven’t already listed), you WILL need a visa to visit Vietnam…even if it’s only for a short stay. But the good news is this: according to the reliable e-visa portal I’ve always used, citizens of all countries and territories are eligible to apply for a Vietnam eVisa.

☝️ When you use this e-visa portal, the whole process is fast and easy, and your visa usually gets emailed to you within 3-7 days. These visas currently cost $25USD for a single-entry visa, and $50USD for a multiple-entry visa.

For more information on the figures, dates, numbers, and visa exemptions, here’s your best resource. If you want to check that any of our information is still correct (or just double-check that we know what we’re talking about!), that’s where you should go.

🇬🇧 Note 1: if you’re one of our UK readers, your best resource for finding info on visas, visa-free stays and visa exemptions is the official UK travel portal. I use it all the time. Here’s the Vietnam page, but you can find a page for every country in the world. Convenient!

🇺🇸 Note 2: if you’re one of our readers from the USA, your best resource for finding info on visas, visa-free stays and visa exemptions is the official US travel portal and here’s the Vietnam page. Again, you’ll find a page for every country in the world.

Do I Need a Visa if I’m Staying Medium-Term in Da Nang?

Staying in Da Nang medium-term is MUCH easier than people expect.

… and, conveniently, of all the cities in Vietnam, Da Nang offers the best setup for medium-term stays 🏖️

That’s for three main reasons:

1. Da Nang is Vietnam’s #1 hotspot for digital nomads*
2. The city is very close to the Laotian border
3. The existence of the famous Lynn Visa

Number 3 is the key point here:

🛂 With a company like Lynn Visa (who are the most famous people for providing the service I’m about to describe, but there are many others who do it), you can actually stay in Vietnam longer than is technically possible.

You see: as I’ve covered, the longest tourist visa anyone can currently get for Vietnam is three months 🇻🇳

… but there are MANY visa agents in Da Nang who allow you to essentially extend those visas into long-term visas.

☝️That works as follows: when your visa is a few days away from expiring, you can book a service with these agents. With this service, in one (long-but-very-convenient) day, you take a bus from Da Nang to the Laos border, you briefly enter Laos for a few minutes, and you then re-enter Vietnam on a new three-month visa. Very simple, very easy, very stress-free 🙏

Essentially, what this means for medium-term stays is this:

🇻🇳 Although you can in theory only stay in Vietnam for three months at a time, it’s very easy and very possible to stay in the nation for much longer than that. And it’s very simple to organize. As I write this, I’m currently on my fourth visa. And I know people who are on their 7th or 8th consecutive visa.

🚨 As of now, Vietnamese immigration seems to have no problem with this multiple re-application and re-entry process. It might not stay that way forever—but, for now, it’s all very relaxed and laid-back 🚨

If you don’t want to go with Lynn Visa, you can use another agent. I never have, so I can’t recommend any.

✈️ Similarly, you CAN just do your own visa runs—in which you fly to a different country, apply for a new Vietnam visa while you’re in that other country (using the portal we’ve already linked above), then re-enter Vietnam after your new visa has been accepted. That requires a bit more thought, it’s a bit more time-consuming, and there’s a slightly bigger chance you might be quizzed at the border (if you’ve entered Vietnam many times). But I know people who do this very often—so, again, it’s a very valid option 👍

*Btw, for more on being a digital nomad, here’s my list of 17 digital nomad myths (I’ve been living like this now for over 7 years, and the lifestyle is VERY different from what people expect).

🚨 Just to be clear: all citizens, from all countries, can go through the processes I’ve just outlined above for staying medium-term—including citizens of the UK and the US.

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How to Stay Long-Term in Da Nang? Including Getting Residency for Vietnam

Now, this is where things get a bit more difficult.

When most foreigners ‘live’ in Da Nang, they’re not actually truly genuinely LIVING in Da Nang:

Instead, they’re just doing what I do, and getting repeat medium-term visas, as outlined above.

🏠 I know very few foreigners who are ACTUALLY living here on an actual long-term visa.

… and you’ll probably only be able to get a long-term visa if you can fulfill one of two criteria:

1. If you have a Vietnamese spouse, Vietnamese kids, or Vietnamese heritage in this case, you can apply for a Vietnam 5-year visa, also known as ‘the Vietnam 5-year visa exemption certificate’
2. If you have a job lined up in Vietnam. Similarly, business visas also exist, but are difficult to get.

… and, again, to check the visa specifics (and any updates on those visa specifics), this site is your best option.

There’s also an unofficially-discussed option which is actually probably your simplest route. I know MANY MANY people who have done as follows:

✈️ Arrived in Vietnam on a tourist visa. Found a job in Vietnam while on that visa. And when they find that job, their new employer will ‘sponsor’ them, managing all the admin and bureaucracy of their work permit, their long-term visa, and their long-term stay. I know people who’ve done this with teaching jobs, jobs in gyms, and jobs in hotels. Although it’s not something you can find information about online, it’s basically the easiest option.

👆 But because this option relies upon holding onto a potentially-precarious job, it’s not the most reliable solution… and therefore not ideal if you have kids, or a spouse, or if you want/need the guarantee that you’ll have a very long-term life in Vietnam.

You can also get a Vietnam Investor Visa, which is for those who want to open a business in Vietnam, or invest in a business in Vietnam. Crucially, if you’re planning to open a business in Vietnam, immigration must be in agreement that your business is going to somehow contribute to Vietnam, its economy, and its people.

You can ONLY get residency in Vietnam (via a ‘TRC,’ or ‘Temporary Residence Card’), once you have a valid long-term visa. These TRCs are valid for anything between 2 years and 10 years, depending on the type of visa you have. If you qualify for your TRC via a job, your employer will usually help you get and apply for your TRC.

🌍 All of the above applies to all nationalities, including UK and US citizens.

Staying in Da Nang on the 10-year ‘Golden Visa’

This headline sounds exciting, but don’t get too excited about it.

According to recent news reports, the Vietnamese government has proposed a new 10-year ‘Golden Visa,’ which would in theory make it very easy to stay in Vietnam long-term.

But here’s the thing: Vietnam (and other Southeast Asian countries) routinely propose these types of ideas, but then they do nothing about them, and they don’t actually wind up materialising in any way.

So, no-one actually knows if this visa is ever going to happen, or what the qualification rules would be 🤷

That said, this one has been discussed a little bit more than these types of visas are usually discussed. So it does look vaguely promising (if you’re an optimist).

Da Nang Visa and Residency Guide: Final Thoughts

So, that’s everything you need to know about Da Nang visas, Da Nang long stays, and Da Nang residency. In short:

1. Many nationalities don’t need visas for short stays of up to 45 days in Vietnam
2. Getting a 90-day visa is very easy for everyone
3. Extending that 90-day visa into multiple subsequent 90-day visas is also very easy in Vietnam, especially if you’re in Da Nang
4. Getting residency is very hard for the vast majority of people, and staying long-term is usually tough. Your simplest mode of gaining residency and a long-term visa is often arriving on a tourist visa, before then finding some type of job when you land (for most people, that job is teaching English in a school)
5. ☝️ That said, if you have a valid business venture, or a valid job in Vietnam, or family ties in Vietnam, you should be able to get a long-term visa (and therefore get residency). But all options are pretty uncommon routes of entry

🇻🇳 For more on the logistics of visiting, exploring, and staying in Vietnam, here are:

… and here are the top 15 places to visit in Vietnam (featuring chaotic cities, stilted villages, unusual boat trips, a crazy house, and one of the world’s most famous mountain passes).

Thanks for reading, thanks for choosing Travelness, and we’ll see you again soon.

Bye for now! 👋 (Keep scrolling down this page!)