Held in Detention at Hanoi Airport with no Approved Visa
Boarded the flight pre-approved, but landed without an approved Vietnam visa
You can’t make this up. Nor would it be easy to replicate this scenario.
My sister, Maria, and I had been planning a siblings trip to Vietnam for a while. We were planning around our father’s arrival to Taiwan, and we didn’t know when that would be until a few days before what ended up being our departure date from Taipei to Hanoi.
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TLDR: I landed in Vietnam with a pre-approval letter, but by close of business in Vietnam and after I got on the plane in Taipei, my visa was left in the “pending” state, which meant that I was likely to be required to leave Vietnam immediately.
I will tell you exactly how it all went down.
Starters
We were in contact with the hotel lady, Becca, in Hanoi. We already missed our 7pm flight the day before (3/19) because we tried to board the flight without an approved visa. So the next opportunity was 3/20 at 7pm.
At 2pm on 3/20, Becca informed us that she could help us get an expedited visa while we were in Taipei. Maria and I quickly repacked our bags and headed to the airport for the 7pm flight.
Rising Action - Finally Leaving Taipei
We arrived at the airport, and Maria got her approved visa letter, but I had not yet received mime. Becca told me that she could send a “pre-approval” letter and I could show the gate agents while the Vietnam immigration agency fixes my visa as I board the flight (I had an improperly sized photo and one typo on my submission.)

We boarded the flight. The doors closed. The moment the plane started taxiing to the runway was when I got a call from Becca, and my jaw drops.
Becca tells me the Vietnam immigration office was unable to process my visa before close of business, and I was going to land in Hanoi without an approved visa.
Rising Action - Landing at Hanoi Airport Knowing I was F*ked
Ok… Shit.
So either way I was going to have an interesting night, and I was expecting the worst. Maria was (half) jokingly saying “hey, maybe you could stall and just hide in a corner until your visa gets approved in the morning.”
Psh, yeah, right, you don’t f*k with immigration.
Becca was begging me not to throw her under the bus because she could get in trouble with authorities. So I did not. We immediately went to the visa processing counter. I told them my situation and said that Maria and I submitted visas at the same time, so that’s why the airline let us board.
Initially, two Vietnam officials said I needed to leave Vietnam immediately with no exceptions. But moments later, one flight agent, Charlie, from the same airline company comes and tells me I have two options:
1) Stay at “Detention” at the Hanoi airport for a $249 USD penalty with an “opportunity” for my visa to be approved in the morning. Yes, this meant that I could pay the fine with zero guarantee I would be able to enter Vietnam
2) Leave Vietnam immediately and be escorted to my gate at Hanoi Airport
At this point, Maria was already asked to go through immigration, so we were separated at this point. I called her and told her which option I should choose. She said “f**k it, don’t you want to see Ha Long Bay?”
So I chose to stay in “Detention”.
Detention at Hanoi Airport
I was absolutely expecting the worst. Handcuffs? Mandatory curfew? Will I be able to pee? I’ll just plan on brushing my teeth in the morning. My phone’s at 20% and that’s already giving me anxiety. Will I ever get my passport back? I skipped dinner because we were rushing through nasty traffic on the way to Taipei airport, so do they have food at Detention? Water?
It ended up being a really chill experience. It was simply a private area at the airport with individual rooms inside. They had wifi and a water machine. Ofc I could charge my phone lol.



The outside doors were never locked (like I was expecting) so I could go in and out whenever I wanted to and eat at restaurants at the terminal. So I had an insanely delicious pho meal at 11pm for dinner.
The Next Day - Entering Vietnam, Chasing the Ha Long Bay Tour
I woke up, grabbed a Bahn Mi for breakfast, brushed my teeth, and received a notification that my visa was approved at 8:30am. “Enjoy Vietnam”, said Charlie.
A wise man once said “we ain’t finished yet, folks" after a major accomplishment. And this certainly applied here - the next all-out effort was chasing after the Ha Long Bay tour, because I was already late.
They already picked up Maria, and the pickup point was 45 minutes from the airport. I had been in contact with the tour guide, and he told me the last opportunity to meet at was the last stop around 9:15am. I would barely miss it, so the tour guide asked me to hand the phone to the taxi driver, and we all agreed we would “chase” the bus and I would be dropped off at the first break point. The taxi ride ended up being over an hour.
I was reunited with Maria, and the incredible tour of Ha Long Bay ensued.




Lessons Learned
The way we handled applying for our e-visas could appear to be really silly where someone could say “um, duh. That’s called common sense” but I don’t consider myself a rookie traveler (see: my travel blog wfhnomad.com). I casually applied for the e-visa on my phone because I am a last-minute / spontaneous traveler. Little did I know, it takes 72 hours to process Vietnam e-visas. And these visas turned out to be very strict (portrait photos had to be done in a particular way, full name ICAO line, etc).
The lessons learned is that I need to treat all visas as seriously and deliberate as I treated my previous visas for China.
India is on my list, and I have heard that e-visa is arguably harder to obtain than the Vietnam visa, so I will plan accordingly.
Anyway…
Fwiw - the hotel staff was telling me that I was not just famous, I was “really famous” because of the situation. Any publicity is good publicity, I suppose.
But it didn’t matter what roadblocks got in the way. It didn’t matter whether it was unclear timelines, missed flights, poor visa planning, or detention at the Hanoi airport, the siblings international trip to Vietnam was a success ✌️
And we saw our father in Taipei a few days afterwards.
And on to the next thrilling adventure in Asia.