The most tedious part of any long-haul flight is the immigration queue at the end of it. After twelve hours of recycled air, all you want is to reach your accommodation, and every minute spent waiting to show your passport feels like an eternity.
When a friend from Luxembourg came to visit Ho Chi Minh City in 2023, what should have been a formality stretched his time in the arrivals hall of Tan Son Nhat by a rather unpleasant amount.
He landed in the late evening, joined the queue, and reached the landing visa counter — the desk where visas on arrival are stamped into passports — only to learn that no official was available at that hour to issue one. It was simply past the time at which a visa could be issued that day.
On the other side of the immigration barrier, we did what one does in Vietnam: we tried to pull strings. Calls went out to family friends who work at the airport, but there was not much to be done. The verdict came back that he should prepare himself for a night on a bench until the counter reopened.
Stuck in the airport terminal
If you have seen The Terminal, you know the premise: Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), stranded at JFK when his passport becomes worthless mid-flight, spends nine months living in the departure lounge. The film instantly came to mind, and it has fuelled jokes ever since — travelling on a “dodgy Luxembourg passport”! In reality, Luxembourg’s passport is among the strongest in the world and opens nearly every border on the planet. Nearly.
Our friend’s stay was much shorter than that of the Tom Hanks character. Without a visa he could not pass immigration, and the next chance to get one was the following morning. So after wandering around for a while and listening to the stories of a handful of other travellers in a similar situation, he found a bench to lie down on and waited out the rest of the night. The friendly airport staff provided him with water during the night and sandwiches in the morning. Early the next day, he had his visa and was on his way.
What actually went wrong
Vietnam’s “visa on arrival” is not what the name suggests. The counter at Tan Son Nhat does not issue visas on request; it stamps visas that were approved before the traveler boarded, on the basis of a pre-arranged approval letter or an e-visa. Land with an approved document and the process is routine at any hour. Land with nothing and you are relying on discretion — on whether an officer with the authority to resolve your case happens to be present. During office hours, such things can sometimes be untangled. Late at night, the person who could untangle them has gone home.
In 2023, this mattered for Luxembourg passport holders because Luxembourg was not on Vietnam’s visa exemption list. Citizens of exempt countries walk through on their passport alone; everyone else needs paper arranged before boarding.
Who is still affected
Here the story takes a happier turn, at least for Luxembourgers. Since 15 August 2025, Luxembourg has been on Vietnam’s exemption list, alongside eleven other European countries added under the government’s tourism stimulus programme — visa-free entry for up to 45 days, currently set to run until August 2028. On the same flight two years later, our friend would have walked straight through.
But the mechanism has not changed, and many travellers remain exposed to it. The United States, Canada, and Australia are absent from the exemption list, as are India, China (for ordinary tourist entry), South Africa, and most of the rest of the world. For all of them the rule is the one our friend learned on a terminal bench: the document must exist before the aircraft door closes. Vietnam’s e-visa is available to all nationalities, valid for up to 90 days — but processing is measured in working days, not minutes at a counter.
Nor is the airline check-in desk a reliable safety net. Travellers are sometimes allowed to board without complete paperwork, particularly on connecting itineraries. The immigration hall at the other end is far less flexible.
The moral of the story
Whereas The Terminal ends with Navorski finally stepping through the doors into New York, our friend’s ordeal — being teased over his mishap — continues. He will be sure to check the visa regulations more carefully before traveling, and to treat the visa as part of the ticket, rather than something that can be sorted out at the airport. I don’t like things to be staged or fussy. I think I’d go mad if I didn’t have a place to escape to. You have to stay true to your heritage, that’s what your brand is about.
