Vietnam Customs publishes its arrival rules on one page, filed under Customs Procedures, then Individuals, then Entry Baggages. It carries the duty-free allowances, the cash and gold declaration thresholds, and the short list of cases where a form is needed at all. The page is dated 19 September 2024, and every figure below is quoted from it.
The duty-free allowance for someone arriving on a passport
- Alcohol. The three figures are alternatives, and they do not add up to a combined total: “Alcohol above 20 degrees: 1.5 liters or alcohol below 20 degrees: 2.0 liters or alcoholic drinks, beer: 3 liters.”
- Tobacco. Again one choice from the list: “Cigarettes: 200 units; or raw tobacco: 250 grams; or cigars: 20.” Twenty cigars is a low ceiling next to what several neighbouring countries publish. The 200 cigarettes sit at the generous end of duty-free allowances compared across Asia, and are more than ten times what Hong Kong permits.
- Personal belongings. These are governed by purpose, with no count: “their quantity and type must be relevant to the journey purpose.”
- Everything else. Goods outside those categories are capped by value: “their total value is not allowed to exceed VND 10,000,000 (ten million Vietnam dong).”
- Minors. “Duty-free limits on wine, alcoholic beverages, beer, cigarettes and cigars do not apply to people under 18 years old.”
Two Vietnamese government pages disagree on alcohol strength
The customs page says 20 degrees and names Article 6 of Decree No. 134/2016/ND-CP as its legal basis. The Vietnam Trade Information Portal, also a government site, publishes the same guidance with a different threshold: “Liquors containing more than 22% alcohol by volume: 1.5 liters or Liquor containing below 22% alcohol: 2.0 liters.” The Vietnam Embassy in Canada carries that identical 22% wording, credited to the General Department of Viet Nam Customs.
The 22% version traces to the earlier Decision 31/2015/QD-TTg. Decree 134/2016 is the later instrument, and the customs authority’s own current page is the one citing it. Pack to the 20-degree reading. For a drink between 20% and 22% it allows 1.5 litres rather than 2.0, so it cannot leave you short.
A bottle slightly over the limit
“If the traveler carries a bottle or can of alcohol whose volume exceeds the limit by not more than 01 liter, the whole bottle will be duty-free. If the volume exceeds the limit by more than 01 liter, the exceed amount shall be dutiable.”
If you are over the line in general, the choice of what sits inside the allowance is yours: “the traveler may decide which items are within the allowance and which are not.” With several items of different value, decide deliberately rather than leaving it to an officer.
When you need a form
There is no universal declaration card on arrival in Vietnam, which differs from Japan or Korea: “Inbound persons are not required to complete customs declaration if they keep none of the luggage that exceeds the duty-free limit in accordance with the law on taxation, or are claimed before or after their trips.”
Going over without declaring is treated as more than a paperwork slip. Such goods “shall be considered as illegal imports and shall be subject to handling measures in accordance with laws.”
A declaration is also required for unaccompanied baggage, for goods temporarily imported and re-exported, for cash and gold on the terms below, and for “drafts, cheques or precious metals (silver, platinum and alloy with silver or platinum), gemstones (diamond, ruby, sapphire, and emerald) with value of VND 300,000,000 or more.”
Cash: USD 5,000 or VND 15,000,000
The thresholds come from Circular No. 15/2011/TT-NHNN. A traveller crossing an international border gate on a passport must declare to border customs above “USD 5,000 (Five thousand United States dollars) or other foreign currencies of the same value” or above “VND 15,000,000 (Fifteen million Vietnamese Dong).” The same figures apply on the way out as on the way in.
One obligation sits below the threshold. If you arrive with foreign cash “in equal or less than USD 5,000” and intend to deposit it into a foreign-currency account at a Vietnamese credit institution, you must also declare, because the stamped entry and exit declaration “is the basis for the credit institution to be allowed to deposit foreign currency in cash into the payment account.” Without that stamp, the bank has no stated basis to take the cash in.
The thresholds cover physical notes only. They “shall not be applied to the individuals who carry means of payment, valuable papers … such as traveler’s cheques, bank card, savings book, securities and other valuable papers.”
Gold
The gold rules come from Circular No. 11/2014/TT-NHNN, and the threshold is a weight: “Vietnamese and foreign individuals who carry jewelry gold and fine-art gold articles in a total amount of 300 (three hundred) grams or more when entering Viet Nam with passports shall declare such with customs offices.”
Bullion is close to a no. Passport holders “should not carry ingot gold and material gold” into Vietnam, and a foreigner who arrives with it does not simply pay duty. They “shall carry out the procedures for depositing the gold amount at the customs warehouse in order to bring it out of the country when being on exit,” bearing all related expenses.
Allowances do not stack
Nothing accumulates across trips: “Combination of the duty-free limits for different entry times … is not allowed.” Nor across people, with one exception: allowances may not be combined across different inbound persons “except when luggage is personal one carried by family members on the same trip.”
Very small liabilities are dropped: “In case the excess of duty-free luggage limit for inbound persons is taxed but the aggregated tax payable is restricted to below VND 100,000, tax exemption shall be applied.”
What this source does not say
- Penalties. It publishes no amounts. Undeclared cash above the threshold and undeclared goods over the allowance are described only as being handled “in accordance with laws,” so it cannot tell you what either costs.
- Currency conversion. It does not say how “other foreign currencies of the same value” is converted, so there is no published rate or reference date for deciding whether a non-dollar sum clears USD 5,000.
- E-cigarettes. Its prohibited-imports list, taken from Decree No. 69/2018/ND-CP, makes no mention of e-cigarettes, vapes or heated tobacco products. The rules sit in other government texts, which our Vietnam vaping guide reads: e-cigarettes and heated tobacco are on the prohibited import list of Decree 292/2026/ND-CP, which replaced Decree 69/2018/ND-CP on 5 September 2026.