In this blog, I discuss my experience on a visa run in Vietnam. This involved crossing the land border at Lao Bao from Vietnam to Laos. This blog will detail the service that I used and everything you will need to know before setting off to ensure a hassle free experience.
Visa run in Vietnam
A visa run in Vietnam are used by foreigners to extend their stay in a chosen country by leaving the country for a short period of time and then returning.
In the case of Vietnam foreigners have a variety of visa types, however the most common visa’s include the 45 day visa exemption and the 90 day e-visa.
45 day visa exemption
Although, this technically isn’t a visa the 45 day exemption covers several countries. This allows citizens to enter Vietnam as long as their passport has at least 6 months from the date of entry into Vietnam. Eligible countries include;
Japan
South Korea
Russia
Denmark
United Kingdom
Norway
Finland
Sweden
France
Belarus
Italy
Germany
Spain
For more information please visit VietJetAir for a detailed explanation of the 45 day visa.
90 day e-visa (single/multiple entry/entries)
Another popular visa is the 90 day e-visa. This visa allows foreigners to enter Vietnam for a total of 90 days. The single entry visa (meaning you can only enter the country one time) costs 25 USD and the multiple entries visa (meaning you can enter and leave the country as many times as you wish) costs 50 USD.
The process to apply for this visa is very straightforward and requires you to fill in a document with your passport information. You will also need to provide a clear photo of yourself and a photo of your passport that you will be using during your travels.
In terms of time, I have applied for the single entry 90 day visa twice. The first time the visa came through after around 5 days, however the second time the visa was sent within 3 days. I would therefore, recommend that you allocate yourself around a week during your wait for your visa.
Expedited Visa Service
I decided to choose an expedited visa run service instead of going through the personal process myself. I came to this decision after my experience spending around a week in Thailand and almost double that time in Cambodia waiting for a 90 day e-visa. Due to this, I decided that I would get the process completed in a single day instead.
You are able to hire a company, who will assist you obtaining in expedited visa, this not only avoids paying expensive plane tickets and accommodation in another country, but also takes all of the stress involved in applying for a visa off your shoulders.
Lynn Visa
I am currently living in Danang, Vietnam and the visa run service I decided to use was Lynn Visa. The process was very straightforward, I first contacted Lynn via Zalo, but you can also get in touch with the team through Whatsapp. The team swiftly responded to my enquiry providing which days that they would be running their visa run service to Laos and the cost involved.
Times / dates
Lynn’s Visa service run visa runs from Hoi An / Danang to Laos every Tuesday and Friday. The below image shows an example from March 2025.
Lynn’s visa offer a one-day trip (7:00 AM – 10:00 PM) by limousine bus.
Cost of visa run options
Here is a cost breakdown of the different options available to you when booking the visa run service
| E-visa (single entry) | 1,800,000 VND (70 USD) |
| E-visa (multiple entry | 2,500,000 VND (98 USD) |
| Laos visa | 1,170,000 VND (45 USD) |
| Bus | 1,000,000 VND (39 USD) |
What to expect during your trip
If you decide to choose Lynn’s or another service, you are more than likely going to experience a somewhat similar process and journey. In my case, our bus to Laos left around 7 AM and we made several stops on our way to the border. In total the journey to Laos took us about 5 hours and 30 minutes, including stops to eat and for bathroom breaks. At Lynn’s you will be treated to a complimentary breakfast, which was a nice touch and wasn’t really expected.
Arrival at the Lao Bao border crossing
After a long journey you will arrive at the Lao Bao border, if you have chosen to book through an expedited visa service there isn’t much to be done. In my experience, our group waited around an hour until we were told to pass through the Vietnamese border. You will have your passport checked over by Vietnamese border officials and will receive you exit stamp.
Exiting Vietnam and entering Laos
After receiving your exit stamp you will need to walk around 5 minutes up the road and enter the Laos land border. In my experience you will give your visa to the service representative who will pass it onto the Loas officials, who will start creating your visa. If you have any spare passport sized photos of yourself, I would recommend you to bring them along, as you will be charged 50,000 VND for a new photo. After a short wait, we were issued our paper work and were then directed to the Loas border officials who then stamped our visa’s. Please note, our representative warned us that occasionally the staff will request a bribe of 50,000 VND. However, in my experience this didn’t happen, but might be something to be aware of.
After this process is completed, you will now walk back down the same path that you just walked. Exiting the Loas border and re-entering Vietnam.
The final wait
After re-entering Vietnam, you will need to have your chosen visa approved by the Vietnamese border officials. This process in my case took around 40 minutes, where our group waited in a large waiting room at the border. There is a small shop that you can get a coffee while you wait.
Bus home
After everyones visa was approved, we headed back onto the bus. Fortunately, our visa’s were approved very quickly resulting in us arriving back to Da Nang ahead of schedule at 9 AM.
Awesome