Which cases are exempted from fees for procedures for visa issuance at the Immigration Department at the border gate of Vietnam?
- Which cases are exempted from fees for procedures for visa issuance at the Immigration Department at the border gate of Vietnam?
- Who is exempted from procedures for visa issuance at overseas representative missions of Vietnam?
- In case fee payers have paid fees but are ineligible for being issued with visas, can the fees be returned?
Which cases are exempted from fees for procedures for visa issuance at the Immigration Department at the border gate of Vietnam?
In case of carrying out procedures for visa issuance at the Immigration Department at the border gate of Vietnam, the fee shall be paid according to the provisions of Circular No. 25/2021/TT-BTC regulating the collection of fees and charges in immigration, transit and residence in Vietnam. According to that, Article 5 of Circular No. 25/2021/TT-BTC stipulates as follows:
Cases of fee exemption
1. Cases where fees are exempted
a) Guests (including spouse, children) of the Communist Party, the Government, the National Assembly or heads thereof invited personally.
b) Officials and employees of diplomatic missions, foreign consular missions and representative missions of international organizations in Vietnam and their family members (spouse and children under 18 years of age), regardless of passport type, that are not Vietnamese nationals and not residing in Vietnam are not required to submit fees on the basis of reciprocity.
c) Cases of exemption as per international agreement to which Vietnam is a signatory or reciprocity basis.
d) Cases of exemption as per international agreement to which Vietnam is a signatory or reciprocity basis.
e) Foreigners enter Vietnam to provide assistance or provide humanitarian support for Vietnamese organizations and individuals.
dd) Cases where visas and/or temporary residence is issued for foreigners in Vietnam violating the law and facing penalties without being financially capable and representative missions of home countries of the foreigners refuse to incur the fees or representative missions of home countries of the foreigners are not available in Vietnam.
Fee collectors shall decide whether the violating foreigners are eligible for exemption or not in this case and be legally responsible.
2. Exempt passport issuance fee for: Overseas Vietnamese who are subject to deportation decisions issued by competent agencies in host countries without possessing passports; overseas Vietnamese who must repatriate under international agreements on receiving citizens without passports and cases for humanitarian purposes.
Thus, subjects in one of the above cases will be free of charge when carrying out the procedures for visa issuance at Vietnam border gates.
Which cases are exempted from fees for procedures for visa issuance at the Immigration Department at the border gate of Vietnam?
Who is exempted from procedures for visa issuance at overseas representative missions of Vietnam?
In case of carrying out procedures for visa issuance at overseas representative missions of Vietnam, pay fees as prescribed in Article 5 of Circular No. 264/2016/TT-BTC providing for diplomatic service fees and charges collected by overseas representative missions of Vietnam as follows:
Fee and charge exemption or reduction
1. The following entities are eligible for exemption from fees and charges:
a) Foreign guests (including their accompanying spouses, natural parents, parents-in-law and children) invited in their personal capacity by the Communist Party, the National Assembly, the State or the Government, or by leaders of the Communist Party, the National Assembly, the State or the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam;
b) Public employees or technical coordinators of foreign diplomatic missions, foreign consular missions or representative missions of international organizations in Vietnam and their family members (including their spouses, natural parents, parents-in-law and minor children) on the principle of reciprocity;
c) Foreign holders of diplomatic passports, official passports, ordinary passports or travel papers used as passport substitutes issued by foreign competent authorities, who are eligible for visa fee exemption under treaties to which Vietnam is a signatory, in accordance with the law of Vietnam, or on the principle of reciprocity;
d) Foreigners entering Vietnam to provide humanitarian relief or aid for Vietnamese organizations and individuals;
dd) Foreigners entering Vietnam at the invitation for exchanges of Ministries, regulatory bodies, provincial or city-level governments on the principle of reciprocity;
e) Persons who are accredited with significant contribution to the revolution and the fatherland; persons who have considerable achievements in community affairs or have made practical and useful contributions to overseas representative missions of Vietnam.
g) Cases as required by external relations or humanitarian activities or Vietnamese citizens facing severely disadvantaged circumstances or risks.
h) Persons who apply for visa but are eligible for visa fee exemption in accordance with regulations of the Vietnam’s Government, under treaties to which Vietnam is a signatory or under bilateral agreements.
Overseas representative missions of Vietnam should, pursuant to the said regulations, consider fee and charge exemption for each case.
2. Vietnamese people permanently residing in China, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia or countries facing war or epidemics are eligible to receive reduction of diplomatic service fees and charges as prescribed in the Schedules of diplomatic service fees and charges enclosed herein.
Thus, the subjects in one of the above cases will be free of charge when carrying out procedures for visa issuance at overseas representative missions of Vietnam.
In case fee payers have paid fees but are ineligible for being issued with visas, can the fees be returned?
Pursuant to the provisions of Clause 3, Article 6 of Circular No. 25/2021/TT-BTC on refund of fees when carrying out procedures for visa issuance at the Immigration Department at the border gate of Vietnam.
Declaration, fee submission and return
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3. In case fee payers have paid fees but are ineligible for being issued with passports, laissez-passers or AB stamps, fee collectors shall return all collected fees when informing the fee payers; in case of rejecting application results, fee collectors shall not return collected fees.
Pursuant to the provisions of Clause 5, Article 6 of Circular No. 264/2016/TT-BTC on refund of fees when carrying out procedures for visa issuance at overseas Vietnamese representative missions:
Declaration and fee submission
…
5. Cases where Vietnamese organizations and individuals and foreign organizations and individuals have paid fees and charges in the field of diplomacy as prescribed in this Circular but are not eligible to be granted consular documents or to refuse to receive the result of processing dossiers, the fee collector shall not refund the collected fees and charges.
Thus, in case fee payers have paid fees but are ineligible for being issued with visas, fee collectors shall not return collected fees.
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