Originally Posted by SanDiego1K

We've now flown into Vietnam. Sure enough, the boarding airline needed to see a paper copy of the visa. They have no alternative way of seeing it. We flew Singapore Airlines from LAX. The agent shared that someone had attempted to check in a few days earlier headed to Ho Chi Minh. On checking his visa, the agent found it wasn't yet valid. He had to send the passenger away to wait until the visa date.

On entering Da Nang, the Visa On Arrival section is still there but is unmanned. Immigration lines were long and a lot of counters weren't staffed. It took us half an hour to enter the country.

As an aside, we were required to wear masks on the flight entering Vietnam and within the airport. Once we left the airport, we could remove out masks.