Do you actually need a Vietnam visa agent?

In plain termsBefore comparing prices, settle a different question: who is legally allowed to file. For a residence card it is not you, and it is not the agent — it is your sponsor.

What the state charges, per document

These are statutory fees, published as a schedule. They are the floor of any quote you receive.

Take the quote you were given and subtract the line that matches your document. The remainder is the service fee, and that is the only number worth arguing about. The schedule itself carries no agency line (

For a residence card, the filer is your sponsor

Sponsor must file:

Two consequences follow, and neither is a price question. Without a sponsor there is no lawful residence-card filing, however the advertisement is worded. With a sponsor, what an agent sells is your sponsor’s clerical work — real labour, sometimes worth paying for, but not access to a different rule.

Extensions run through the same door

A stay extension must also be filed by the inviting or sponsoring party (

What money cannot move

• The TRC-eligible symbol list is closed: LV1, LV2, LS, ĐT1, ĐT2, ĐT3, NN1, NN2, DH, PV1, LĐ1, LĐ2, TT, UĐ1, UĐ2. ĐT4 on it:
  no

  Source Luật Nhập cảnh Điều 36 khoản 1 điểm b (ĐT4 absent from TRC list)

  Checked Aug 2026 · Band low · Status fresh

  Open primary URL

  Method: figures past 2× SLA hide. See /method · /status · /changelog.

  .
• A card or visa must stay inside your passport’s remaining life by
  30 days

  Source Luật Nhập cảnh Điều 38 khoản 1

  Checked Aug 2026 · Band low · Status fresh

  Open primary URL

  Method: figures past 2× SLA hide. See /method · /status · /changelog.

  (card) and
  30 days

  Source Luật Nhập cảnh Điều 9 khoản 8

  Checked Aug 2026 · Band low · Status fresh

  Open primary URL

  Method: figures past 2× SLA hide. See /method · /status · /changelog.

  (visa). A two-year card is not available on a passport that expires next year.
• Expiry means a new card on the full dossier, not a lighter renewal (
  yes

  Source Luật Nhập cảnh Điều 38 khoản 6

  Checked Aug 2026 · Band low · Status fresh

  Open primary URL

  Method: figures past 2× SLA hide. See /method · /status · /changelog.

  ).
• The decision window is
  5 working days

  Source Luật Nhập cảnh Điều 37 khoản 2 điểm c

  Checked Aug 2026 · Band low · Status fresh

  Open primary URL

  Method: figures past 2× SLA hide. See /method · /status · /changelog.

  from a complete dossier (Luật Nhập cảnh Điều 37 khoản 2 điểm c).

When paying is genuinely rational

What you are buying is labour, translation, and presence — not a shortcut.

1. Your sponsor has never filed one

   A small company, a new representative office, or a Vietnamese spouse doing this once in a lifetime. The dossier is theirs to submit; someone who has assembled it before genuinely saves rounds of rejection.

2. The office is not where you are

   Jurisdiction follows the sponsor. If the sponsor is registered in another province, somebody has to be there in person.

3. The paperwork is not in your language

   Forms, notarisation, and legalised translations of foreign documents are ordinary billable work.

4. You are assembling a permanent residence dossier

   The slow part sits in your own country — a criminal-record certificate and a note verbale from your mission — against a decision window of up to

   6 months

   Source Luật Nhập cảnh Điều 41 khoản 2 (4 months, extendable by no more than 2)

   Checked Aug 2026 · Band low · Status fresh

   Open primary URL

   Method: figures past 2× SLA hide. See /method · /status · /changelog.

   .

Permanent residence is the exception

Here the foreigner files in person (

Ask these five things before you pay

1. Who will be named as the inviting or sponsoring party on the Điều 37 khoản 1 điểm a letter?
2. Which immigration office — the one covering that sponsor?
3. Itemise the quote: which part is the state fee above, which part is your fee?
4. Which visa symbol are we filing, and is it on the Điều 36 khoản 1 điểm b list?
5. How long is my passport valid, and does it clear the 30-day buffer above the card term you are promising?

What this page does not do

• It publishes no agent prices. There is no verifiable primary source for them, and this site does not file numbers it cannot date.
• It ranks and recommends nobody. There is no sponsored link on this page, by design — some other pages on this site do carry one, always marked, and they are all listed on disclosure.
• It is not an e-visa how-to. The portal above is the place for that; the machine here is symbol, card, and work right.

Filed cells on this page