The fine range
VND 500,000 to 2,000,000
That is the full cost of an overstay under 16 days, the lightest bracket under Decree 282/2025. Most people in this bracket settle at the airport on the day they fly out.
The dividing line
Day 16 changes everything
Cross it and the minimum fine jumps to VND 5,000,000, deportation becomes a possible sanction, and the airport counter is no longer an option. The immigration office gets involved first.
The fix
A visa run resets your stay
Exit Vietnam before the stamp expires, cross into Cambodia at Moc Bai, and re-enter on a fresh 90-day e-visa. Same day, clean record, no passport notation.
Straight talk
Nobody plans to overstay. It still happens in Saigon
A remote worker gets absorbed in a project and forgets the date. A tourist books a return flight that lands one day after the stamp expires. Someone with a 90-day e-visa assumes it can be renewed from inside the country, then finds out it cannot.
The good news: most overstays end with a fine, not a nightmare. The bad news: fines went up in December 2025, the paperwork gets heavier the longer you wait, and a passport notation can follow you for years.
The fines come from Decree 282/2025/ND-CP, which replaced the older Decree 144/2021/ND-CP on December 15, 2025. It doubled the previous maximum and added new brackets for very long overstays. If you read older articles quoting lower figures, that is why. The numbers on this page match the current schedule.
The traps
How overstays actually happen
The biggest trap in Vietnam is the e-visa. It is also the most common visa in the country, and it cannot be extended from inside Vietnam. There is no in-country renewal process for it. The moment your 90-day stay ends, you are expected to leave. Plenty of travelers learn this only after checking the date.
The other traps are quieter. The date on your visa or entry stamp is the last legal day, not the day after. If the stamp says July 15, you must exit by July 15. Leaving on July 16 is a one-day overstay, recorded in the system like any other.
The details
Validity, flights, and records
A 90-day e-visa is valid for 90 days from the day you enter Vietnam, not from the day it was issued. Check the dates on the actual document, not the application receipt. A departure booked for the final day leaves zero room for delay. If the flight is cancelled, the visa does not care.
Even a single day over is a formally recorded violation. The system is digitalized, every entry and exit is logged against your visa validity, and there is no counter where an officer quietly waves you through anymore. Not a reason to panic if you are already over. A reason to act on the day you notice.
The schedule
Vietnam overstay fines, bracket by bracket
Fines escalate in seven brackets under Article 21 of Decree 282/2025, effective December 15, 2025. The exact amount inside each bracket depends on how long you overstayed, why it happened, and how cooperative you are when you come forward.
| Days overstayed | Fine (VND) | Deportation risk |
|---|---|---|
| Under 16 days | 500,000 to 2,000,000 | No |
| 16 to under 30 days | 5,000,000 to 10,000,000 | Possible |
| 30 to under 60 days | 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 | Possible |
| 60 to under 90 days | 15,000,000 to 20,000,000 | Possible |
| 90 to under 180 days | 20,000,000 to 25,000,000 | High |
| 180 days to under 1 year | 25,000,000 to 30,000,000 | Very high |
| 1 year or more | 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 | Near certain |
For scale: the lightest bracket is roughly 20 to 80 US dollars. The heaviest runs past 1,500 dollars, and that is before deportation and a long entry ban are added. The same schedule applies to every nationality and every visa type, from tourists on e-visas to expats on work permits and temporary residence cards.
If an employer or sponsoring company is found to have let you overstay without reporting it, they face double the individual fine plus a separate penalty for failing their sponsorship duties. That is why a good workplace will chase you about your visa expiry before you chase yourself.
Within a bracket, officers weigh the circumstances. A traveler who shows up voluntarily with a clear reason, like a cancelled flight with documentation, lands at the low end. Someone caught during an inspection after a long silence lands at the high end. The honest version of your story is a measurable discount, so use it.
The number that matters
The 16-day line
Below 16 days, the violation is minor in the eyes of the law. The fine stays between VND 500,000 and 2,000,000. Deportation is not on the table. You can usually walk up to the immigration counter at the airport on the day you leave, pay, get your passport marked, and fly home.
At 16 days, everything shifts. The minimum fine jumps to VND 5,000,000, more than double the maximum for a 15-day overstay. Deportation becomes a possible additional sanction, and the immigration department can open blacklisting proceedings. You can no longer resolve the case at the airport. The immigration office gets involved first.
That jump is deliberate. The government designed day 16 as a hard dividing line between a minor infraction and a serious immigration violation, and the fine schedule makes the difference impossible to miss.
The practical takeaway: if your visa has expired and you are inside the first two weeks, sort it out today. Every day you wait moves you closer to the line. If you are already past it, do not panic, but do not delay either. The process below still works, it just costs more and takes longer.
Under 16 days
Short overstay: pay at the airport
If you are under the 16-day line, the airport is the usual place to settle things. The steps are short, and most people are through in under an hour.
- Show up for your flight as normal and go to the immigration counter.
- The officer spots the overstay in the system and calculates the fine.
- Pay on the spot. Bring Vietnamese dong in cash, because card payment is not available at every counter. Expect VND 500,000 to 2,000,000.
- Your passport gets a notation, and you are cleared to leave.
Two cautions. Do not book your exit for the last minute and hope the counter is quick. The queue at Tan Son Nhat can eat an hour you do not have. And do not try to slip through a land border or a different airport hoping the system misses it. The overstay is already in the database, and trying to dodge it turns a minor fine into a much uglier conversation.
16 days or more
The immigration office route
Past the 16-day line, do not go straight to the airport. Go to the immigration office first. Showing up at the airport without clearance at this stage can mean detention and a messier outcome, so the office visit is not optional.
In Ho Chi Minh City, that office is at 196 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, District 1. Addresses for government offices in Vietnam have moved before, so confirm the location on the day of your visit rather than trusting an old blog post.
Bring your passport, any visa documents you still have, and cash in Vietnamese dong. Be ready to explain the overstay plainly. Officers weigh honesty when they set the fine, and fabricated stories tend to surface fast in a fully digitalized system.
The process
What happens inside
- Present your passport and documents, and explain the overstay.
- Pay the fine, calculated from the bracket table above.
- For longer overstays, the office issues an exit visa that authorizes you to leave legally. Processing can take one day or several.
- Once you have clearance, you can depart through the airport or a land border.
Expect more than one trip. The fine payment and the exit visa are often handled on different days, so plan for a small window of office visits rather than a single stop.
If a serious illness or a cancelled flight caused the overstay, bring documentation from the hospital or airline. Force majeure is a recognized mitigating factor. A doctor's certificate will not wipe the fine, but it can meaningfully reduce it and lower the chance of deportation.
Beyond the fine
Blacklists, entry bans, and deportation
The fine is only half the story. The other half is what happens to your name in the system. The immigration department keeps a blacklist that blocks future visa applications. How long you land on it depends on the overstay:
Under 16 days
Resolved promptly and cooperatively, usually no formal ban, but the violation is recorded and future applications get extra scrutiny.
16 to 90 days
A ban of 1 to 3 years is common, especially if you did not self-report.
Over 90 days
Bans of 3 to 10 years, depending on the circumstances.
Extreme cases
Deliberate, repeated, or extremely long illegal stays can bring a permanent entry ban.
Deportation follows a similar logic. From 16 days onward it is a legal option for the authorities, and beyond 90 days it becomes increasingly likely. Vietnam's deportation procedures were updated in April 2026 with a new decree that digitalized the process. Two details from the new rules are worth knowing: deportees must be notified at least 48 hours in advance, and they have the right to contact their embassy, request legal representation, and use an interpreter.
The passport notation deserves its own mention because it is the most common souvenir. Even a small airport fine leaves a mark in your passport that officers in Vietnam and in some neighboring countries can see. It does not block re-entry by itself, but it invites questions and slows down processing on future trips.
None of this is meant to scare you. It is meant to explain the gradient. The system saves its harshest tools for people who stay long, stay silent, and get caught. People who notice early and walk into the immigration office with their passport and a straight answer get fined, documented, and released. Those are very different outcomes, and which one you get is mostly a function of how fast you act.
The prevention
How a Moc Bai visa run prevents it
Every overstay on this page was preventable, and the prevention is boring in the best way: leave the country before the stamp expires, come back with a fresh visa, move on with your life.
That is exactly what a visa run from Ho Chi Minh City does. You leave before sunrise from District 1, Binh Thanh, Thao Dien, Thu Duc, or Phu My Hung. The car heads west on QL22 to the Moc Bai border crossing, which pairs with Bavet on the Cambodia side. You exit Vietnam, get your exit stamp, cross into Cambodia, and come back through the same checkpoint with a new entry stamp. Door to door, the loop runs about 12 hours. Most riders are home for dinner.
The key is doing it before the expiry date, not after. Exit stamps do not care about your intentions. If you cross on the last valid day, you are legal. If you cross the day after, you are an overstay case at the very checkpoint you came to for safety.
For e-visa holders, the run solves the no-extension problem in one move. A 90-day e-visa cannot be renewed inside Vietnam, but a new one can be filed while you are out of the country. The visa desk on our runs handles that part: they submit the new e-visa application once Cambodia stamps your exit, and you re-enter Vietnam on a fresh 90-day stay. Processing tiers run from Standard at 3 to 4 days down to Rush at 4 hours, 2 hours, or 1 hour.
Keep it that way
Habits that keep the system away from you
- Check your visa expiry the day you arrive and write it somewhere visible.
- Set phone reminders at 14 days, 7 days, and 3 days out.
- Book the visa run with a few days of buffer, not on the expiry date itself. Weekend and holiday queues at Moc Bai are real, and a busy morning is a bad time to learn your buffer was zero.
- If your stay is long and open-ended, pair the run with a new e-visa application so you always return with a fresh document instead of a hope.
Cost check: the lightest overstay fine, VND 500,000, is real money thrown away. A planned visa run costs more, but it buys a clean record, no passport notation, and no future visa questions. Between the two, the run is the deal.
FAQ
Quick answers
How much is the Vietnam visa overstay fine in 2026?
Under Decree 282/2025, an overstay of under 16 days costs VND 500,000 to 2,000,000. Fines rise in seven brackets up to VND 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 for overstays of a year or more.
Can I pay a Vietnam overstay fine at the airport?
Yes, if you are under the 16-day line. Pay in Vietnamese dong cash, get your passport noted, and fly out. At 16 days or more you must visit the immigration office first.
What happens if I overstay my Vietnam e-visa?
The same fine schedule applies. The e-visa cannot be extended in-country, so after paying you must exit and apply for a new one. A same-day run to Moc Bai handles both in one trip.
Does an overstay get you banned from re-entering Vietnam?
A short overstay usually does not, but it is recorded and can slow down future applications. Overstays of 16 to 90 days can bring a 1 to 3 year ban, and longer ones can bring bans of 3 to 10 years or a permanent one.
Where is the immigration office in Ho Chi Minh City?
At 196 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, District 1. Confirm the address before visiting, since government offices have relocated before.
How does a visa run prevent an overstay fine?
You exit Vietnam and re-enter with a fresh stamp before your visa expires, resetting your legal stay. The run also lets you file a new 90-day e-visa from outside the country.
Stay legal. Stay in Saigon.
If your visa is expiring soon, a same-day run to Moc Bai is the cheapest insurance in Vietnam. Book through the home page form, or message us on WhatsApp for a quick answer. If you are already over, follow the process above and sort it out today. The longer you wait, the more it costs.