Vietnam, as the appealing destination that it is, still requires a visa from most of Western passport holders. And many travelers arrange for the visa in the seemingly easy way: apply for a visa letter electronically via a third party provider, get a piece of paper or an email and arrive with it to one of Vietnam’s airport where they exchange it for an actual visa in their passport. Seems right? Wrong.
When you arrive, say to Hanoi or especially Ho Chi Minh City, after a long flight the last thing you want is a hassle of getting your passport visa-stamped. And that’s exactly what is going to happen. You will fight with dozens of other travelers who received their visa letter to get your passport through one of the small windows to a completely indifferent visa clerk. Then, providing you were lucky enough to get it through in less than 20 minutes, you will wait up to another hour for your name to be called. All the time you have to be on alert not to miss anything. Then, of course, you will still have to go through the passport control, where the queue will hopefully not be long by that point. All in all, you are bound to spend minimum an hour for the process.
So if your city has a Vietnamese embassy or a consulate, do yourself a favour and apply for the actual visa in advance. It shouldn’t take long, it’s a very straightforward process, and once you are done, you will breeze through the immigration once you’ve arrived. You can even wave those suckers with “visa letters” as you pass them on your way. You are welcome.