Vietnam offers no retirement visa at all. It turns up on lists of the best places to retire in Asia, for its cost of living and its coast, but a retiree has to use the routes built for visitors and for family.
Sources, both read on 23 September 2026: Vietnam’s national e-visa site, run by the Immigration Department of the Ministry of Public Security, and the Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam, in its 2014 English translation as published by Da Nang’s investment promotion agency. The law has been amended since 2014 and we have not read the amending laws, so treat the list below as the 2014 text. The e-visa site reflects the rules in force now.
What the law lists
Article 8 of the law sets out the visa symbols, the codes that decide what a visa is for. The 2014 text has twenty:
- Delegations and diplomats: NG1 to NG4
- People working with state or social bodies: LV1, LV2
- Investors and foreign lawyers: ĐT
- People working with companies or organisations: DN, NN1 to NN3
- Students: DH
- Conferences: HN
- Journalists: PV1, PV2
- Workers: LĐ
- Tourists: DL
- Family members: TT
- Visiting relatives or “other purposes”: VR
- One further case set out elsewhere in the law: SQ
None is for retirement, and none is priced by age, savings or pension. A retiree with no family ties to Vietnam falls under the tourist and visitor categories.
The family route
The TT symbol is issued to the parents, spouse and children under 18 of certain long-term visa holders, and to the parents, spouse and children of Vietnamese citizens. If you are retiring with a Vietnamese spouse, or to join a Vietnamese son or daughter, this is the category designed for you.
The e-visa
The national e-visa site states that the Viet Nam e-Visa is valid for a maximum of 90 days, for single or multiple entries. It is open to holders of passports not covered by the law’s diplomatic and official categories, which means most readers.
- Fee: US$25 for a single-entry visa and US$50 for a multiple-entry visa, paid online. The site states the fee is not refunded if the visa is refused.
- Borders: e-visa holders must enter and leave through international border gates designated by the government, which the site lists. A land crossing that is not on the list is not available on an e-visa.
For a retiree the multiple-entry version usually matters more, because it allows a trip out of the country and back within the same visa. Our Vietnam e-visa guide covers the application.
Living here on visitor terms
A retiree without family ties lives in Vietnam on a visa of a set length, renewed by leaving and applying again or by whatever extension the immigration authorities allow at the time. Neither source this page rests on describes a way to turn that into long-term residence on the basis of age or income, and we will not describe one either.
A lease, a car, a bank relationship or a medical plan built around a life in Da Nang or Hoi An then rests on short-term permission. For a settled legal footing, the neighbours offer one: Thailand’s retirement visas, the Philippine SRRV, with its indefinite stay, Cambodia’s ER extension and Malaysia’s MM2H are all built for it.