2026
Phu Quoc airport joined the declaration system
Submission window
Not earlier. The portal rejects older dates
Cost
No fee at prearrival.immigration.gov.vn
Forms for a ferry run
Land re-entry at Xa Xia is outside the system
What it is
Vietnam's digital arrival card, and why Phu Quoc got it in June
The pre-arrival declaration is Vietnam's replacement for the paper arrival slip. You fill it in online, it produces a QR code, and that code is scanned when you reach the immigration counter. Nothing about it is a visa. It does not grant entry, it does not extend a stay, and it does not change what you are allowed to do on the island. It only tells the immigration system who is on the aircraft before the aircraft lands.
The system started as a pilot at Tan Son Nhat on 15 April 2026. Phu Quoc International Airport was added on 1 June 2026, Hanoi and Da Nang followed on 15 June, and Cam Ranh came in later the same month. The portal now shows Phu Quoc flights in its arrival list, and, more usefully for anyone arriving under the island's own exemption, it offers Phu Quoc Visa Exemption as a selectable entry type. That option is the single most important detail on this page.
If you live on the island and are reading this before a ferry run to Ha Tien, you can stop here. Land crossings are not part of the system. The rest of this page is for arrivals by air, and for the one case where a flight to Phu Quoc comes with a paperwork question you may not expect.
Yes, you file it
Landing at Phu Quoc by air
Every foreign passport arriving at PQC is in scope, whatever the entry basis. That includes the island's 30-day exemption, a 90-day e-visa, a sticker visa from an embassy, and a visa on arrival approval. Visa-free does not mean form-free: the declaration sits on top of your visa status rather than replacing it.
Children and infants each need a separate declaration and a separate QR code. A family of four flies in with four codes, one per phone or one printed sheet each.
It also applies to overseas Vietnamese travelling on a foreign passport. The only passport that skips the whole thing is a Vietnamese one.
No, you don't
- Arriving by ferry at Bai Vong. A visa run that crosses out and back at the Ha Tien (Xa Xia) gate involves no declaration at all. Land crossings are outside the system, and the ferry terminal has no check-in desk asking for a QR code.
- Staying airside in transit. If you never clear Vietnamese immigration at the transit airport, there is nothing to declare.
- Traveling on a Vietnamese passport, and official delegations.
The awkward case
Flying to Phu Quoc through Ho Chi Minh City
Most visitors reach the island on an SGN connection, and this is where the guidance gets slippery. The Tan Son Nhat requirement was written for foreign nationals entering on a visa or an e-visa. The Phu Quoc requirement covers every foreign passport landing at PQC.
Vietnam Airlines' published travel advice adds a specific carve-out: the regulation does not apply to passengers who are eligible for visa exemption, enter Vietnam via Tan Son Nhat and then board a connecting flight to Phu Quoc. Not every carrier words it that way. Some list the blanket rule for all SGN arrivals and stop there.
The rule that survives the inconsistency: file a declaration for the airport where you hand your passport to a Vietnamese officer. If that is Tan Son Nhat, do it for SGN. If you stay airside and your first stamp happens at Phu Quoc, the PQC declaration is the one that matters. When in doubt, the form is free and takes ten minutes. Send us your itinerary on WhatsApp and we will tell you which airport to put in the arrival field.
Step by step
Filling in the form
Wait for the 72-hour window
The portal only accepts a declaration within three days of your scheduled landing. Try a week out and the arrival-date selector will not offer the date. Filing on the day you fly is fine, and so is filing while you sit in the departure lounge.
Open prearrival.immigration.gov.vn
That is the only official address. Pick your language, tap the button to create a declaration, and clear the captcha. Several lookalike sites charge a fee for the same form, so check the domain before you type a passport number into it.
Type your passport details exactly
Full name as printed, passport number, nationality, date of birth, sex, and a contact email you will still be able to open when you land. Middle names are the usual culprit when a record fails to match.
Pick the right entry type
Arriving under the island's 30-day exemption? Choose Phu Quoc Visa Exemption from the list. Holding an e-visa? Choose the e-visa option and copy the e-visa number off your PDF. Choosing the wrong type is the second most common reason a declaration is queried at the counter.
Enter the flight number from the operating carrier
This is where most submissions fail. On a codeshare, the number printed on a travel agent's itinerary is not always the number on the operating airline's own booking record, and the portal matches against the airline's version. Copy the flight number from the operating carrier's confirmation email, not from a screenshot of your itinerary.
Add your Phu Quoc address and submit
The accommodation field wants the hotel, resort or villa where you are staying on the island, not a mainland address. Review the summary, submit, and wait for the confirmation screen. The whole form is free; if a page asks for a card, you are in the wrong place.
Save the QR code twice
Screenshot it and download the PDF, then keep one printed copy in your passport. Officers scan the code on arrival, and a dead phone battery at the counter turns a 30-second check into a 20-minute conversation. Every traveler gets their own code, so keep the family's set together.
Read the small print
Mandatory, or just recommended?
The honest answer is that official documents do not agree with each other, and anyone telling you it is settled is guessing. The Immigration Department's early notices described the Tan Son Nhat pilot as voluntary for air passengers. The US Embassy's notice of June 2026 describes Vietnam as expanding a mandatory declaration for all non-Vietnamese passport holders arriving by air. Airlines flying into Phu Quoc, Vietjet among them, now list it as required for the island.
What we can tell you is what happens in practice. No fine for a missing declaration has been published, and we have not seen a documented case of someone refused entry over it alone. The consequence on record is slower processing: instead of a scan at the counter, your entry is resolved manually. Airlines have started asking for the QR code at check-in on some routes, and a check-in agent is the one person you cannot argue with at 05:00.
Worth knowing
- It is a declaration, not a visa. A PAI confirmation does not authorise anything on its own, and it does not extend your stay.
- It is not the health declaration. They are separate systems, and Vietnam has said the health one is not required of all travelers.
- If your flight changes, file again. A new number, date or airport makes the old code inaccurate, and re-filing costs nothing.
Where this meets a visa run
The ferry run needs nothing. A flight home does.
The usual exit from Phu Quoc is the fast ferry out of Bai Vong to Ha Tien, then the short drive to the Ha Tien (Xa Xia) gate and a walk across to Prek Chak. That corridor is entirely outside the pre-arrival system. You leave by boat, get an exit stamp, cross into Cambodia on a visa on arrival, come back the same day on whatever visa your case requires, and ride the afternoon ferry to Bai Vong. No QR code appears anywhere in that chain, and the officers at the gate do not ask for one.
The declaration bites when you fly instead. If you leave the island for Phnom Penh or Siem Reap and fly back into Vietnam, that air arrival needs its own declaration, filed inside 72 hours of the flight with that flight number. A code from last month is worthless: the record is tied to one arrival.
One more thing worth stating plainly, because island guides get it wrong. Phu Quoc runs its own 30-day exemption, separate from the mainland's 45-day rule, and it applies to arrivals by air or sea at the island. A land entry at Xa Xia is not covered by it, which is why a visa run back over that gate has to be planned around a real visa rather than the island's free window. Our exemption page walks through that distinction, and the Xa Xia route guide covers the crossing hour by hour.
Arrival questions
Phu Quoc pre-arrival declaration: quick answers
Is the pre-arrival declaration mandatory for Phu Quoc?+
Authorities describe it as strongly recommended, airlines flying into the island list it as required, and the notices do not all use the same word. There is no published fine and no confirmed case of entry refused over it alone. What is certain: without the QR code your entry is processed manually instead of scanned, and some carriers ask for it at check-in.
Do I need it if I am entering Vietnam visa-free?+
Yes, if you land at an airport. Visa-free status excuses the visa, not the declaration. Travelers using Phu Quoc's own 30-day island exemption should select Phu Quoc Visa Exemption as the entry type in the form.
How early can I submit the form?+
Up to 72 hours before your scheduled landing, and not earlier. The portal refuses dates further out, so filing the week before simply does not work. You can also complete the same declaration after landing, by QR code or on a paper form at the airport.
Do I need it when I come back from a visa run to Ha Tien?+
No. The declaration covers airport arrivals. A run that exits and re-enters Vietnam by land at the Ha Tien (Xa Xia) gate and returns to the island by ferry involves no pre-arrival declaration at either end. You would only need one if you fly back into Vietnam afterwards, on any later trip.
My submission was rejected. What went wrong?+
Nine times out of ten it is the flight number. The portal matches your entry against the operating airline's booking record, so a codeshare number copied off a travel agent's itinerary fails. Retry with the number on the operating carrier's own confirmation. Re-submitting is free and unlimited, and the new code replaces the old one.
Does each family member need their own form?+
Yes, including infants. Every passenger on a non-Vietnamese passport needs a separate declaration and a separate QR code. Vietnamese passport holders are exempt, and so are passengers who stay airside in transit without clearing immigration.
Keep reading
Sort the rest before the flight
Declaration aside, the island run is a ferry business. Times, fares and operators are on the ferry page, and the cost page breaks the whole chain down with the Cambodia fees separated from our handling charge. If you are leaving Phu Quoc behind for good, the mainland corridors work differently: Saigon uses Moc Bai, and Nha Trang runs its own sleeper bus version. The network hub at visarun.vn compares every corridor side by side.
Vietnamese immigration rules and airline requirements change without much warning. Everything here was checked in 2026, and the declaration guidance in particular is worth a second look before you fly. Treat it as the picture today rather than a promise for next season.