Originally Posted by
magicbob
I hear what you're saying and I would not be worried about the VOA in the least if it weren't for the fact that Vietnam changed the rules the end of August when US citizens could not use a VOA - only a regular visa. Now - I am making an assumption here - and my mind will be at rest if this is clarified:
The change the end of Aug for US citizens was an increase in price to $135 for a 1 yr visa - 30 day visas weren't being issued.
In Sept, when I called the NY Embassy who issue visas, they stated no to VOA's, also in early Dec; even today they said that. HOWEVER, today this person added a clarification that others there had not - that the US embassies do NOT issue VOA's - so perhaps in Aug when Nam increased the cost VOA's were still being issued for US citizens and I made an assumption - so does anyone here know this answer: VOA's were still available even in Aug/Sept 2016 for US citizens but only issued by the Vietnam agencies that do that?
As been noted they only changed the type of Visa (length of time and entry) and the price. You can have all your ducks lined up in a row correctly and then bingo before you get there they change something, no way to preplan for that, eg ask those who got the VOA letter for a 1 time 30 day entry where it was suppose to be $25 for the Visa stamp at the VOA counter at the airport, only to be told its $135 and we dont care when you applied for your VOA letter and the Visa is good for multiple entrys for 1 year. either pay the $135 or you werent allowed in. = theres no way to be 100% sure that things will be at arrival as they are today, thats simply the nature of the beast of traveling.
Today we dont need a Visa to visit X country and bingo tomorrow they say we do and my flight is on Sat = no time to get the Visa before the flight = not being allowed to fly on my 1st flight if its all part of 1 tkt, could be worse more then 1 tkt so the carrier of the 1st tkt wont refund it since theres no problems flying bet say the NY & LA its the 2nd flight on a different tkt from LA to Country X on a different carrier where the problem lies. So carrier 2 may refund or issuer a voucher for their tkt and either I now stay in LA or write the NY-LA tkt off.
You really need to relax and stop trying to come up with the 1 offs where there may be a problem when they dont exist today