How to Apply Tourist Visa in Ho Chi Minh City

We went to Taipei last month and as Indonesian we need a visa to get there. We didn’t want to use the visa service from tour, so I had to go to Taiwanese Consulate by myself. We tried to look for requirement needed to apply for visa on internet, but it was not really helpful. So I just went there with whatever documents we could find and it was not complete. We were lacking some documents. The good thing was the visa officer lady was really helpful and kind! I was really happy to get her help.

These are the complete requirements (these are for Indonesian, for other countries please check with them again) :

– passport original and copy
– residence card original and copy
– photo 2 x 2 inch 2 pcs
– visa application form (you can learn how to download and fill in here )
– hotel booking
– flight details
– bank statement
– marriage certificate original and copy
– work permit original and copy
– leave application from company
– confirmation letter from company original (stating you are the employee of that company)

Their service hours for Consular service：Monday~Friday 08:00~11:30 (Receiving time), 13:30~16:00 (Dispatching and Receiving time).

On the entrance inside, there will be a guy who will ask you for what business you have there. For Visa, you need to queue on the left-hand counter. If the capacity for that day is full, they will give a new date and time to come again. They will give stamp on the document, mentioning the date and time we need to go back.

If we come at the destined date and time, guarantee to get ticket with number. Go to inner area and look for the counter, and sit while waiting until our number showed on screen.

They were really good and helpful. If you’re missing some documents, they will inform you and give you time to submit it. When that happened, you don’t have to queue anymore, but can go right away to the counter and hand in the missing documents to the person when the counter is empty. Remember which person served you on first day.

There are 2 types of visa processing. The normal one, which is taking 5 working days to finish, and the express service one, which is only 2 days. I picked express service to make sure we already received our passport back before our trip to Indonesia which is 1 week after I submitted the document. The normal service cost is USD $50, and the express one is USD $75.

After you mentioned which type of visa you want, they will give you a small paper then you will need to go to another counter to pay for the visa. After finished, you keep the small paper (now stamped with paid) and bring it to get you passport back on the date stated on paper.

It’s actually very simple, if only I’ve known it from the first visit. I ended up visited that place 4 times! Maybe 1 more and I can be good friend with the officer lol.

You can visit their website for Saigon here.