Dear Ms. Gwen1997, Vietnam visa approval letter is issued by the Immigration Department and is valid at the international airport only. You need to apply online through either the visa website or your travel agent. When applying for the Visa on arrival, you or your travel agent will be asked the following: 1. Your full name shown on your passport 2. Gender: male or female 3. Present nationality shown on your passport 4. Date of birth 5. Passport number along with passport expiry date 6. Proposed arrival date in Vietnam. 7. Your arrival airport name 8. Your purpose of visiting Vietnam 9. Type of Vietnam visa you want to apply for: One month or three month single entry visa, or one month or three month multiple entry visa 10. If accompanied by children, they also are required to apply with their own passports and pay the same fees. Notes: When applying for a Vietnam visa, you need to make sure that your passport has at least six months validity remaining from the arrival date to Vietnam. Actually, travel agents don’t need to send your passport copies to the Immigration Department but exact information as above. However, It has been noted that there are many customers providing false passport informations, which leads to that they had trouble entering Vietnam. Therefore, to ensure that the informations requested are most accurate, travel companies often ask customers to send them passport copies so that they can send them to the Immigration Department with the purpose of checking all informations carefully to avoid any confusion. They do it to help customers and help themselves avoid unexpected problems related to the process of getting the visa on arrival. Considering the confidentiality of passport information of customers, licensed travel companies in Vietnam are not allowed to disclose customer information to third parties except to the Immigration Department of Vietnam. More specifically, they themselves will do everything they can to keep their customers’ information confidential, which will bring them income. In general, it is perfectly normal for travel agents in Vietnam to ask customers to show their passport copies to apply Vietnam visa approval letter. You can definitely trust them in protecting your personal information.

Hi Elaine , I hope I am going to be able to help in some way . My family and I did not do Sapa as it was not well recommended at our time of travel. We went in January and besides the weather being cold, we will not be able to see the yellow fields if that is what you are planning to see . According to some travelers whom we met , Sapa is developing rapidly so you may miss the rural aspect of it and because of the development it gets dirty and muddy during the December to January period. We spent most of our time in Hanoi except for 2 days on Azalea Cruise which cruises along Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay. The cost of cruise was on a high side roughly USD 500 per night for the 3 of us however the services on board were impeccable. Hanoi itself is pretty interesting if you stay at the Old Quater . Hanoi hotels on an average , a 3 star boutique hotel is around USD 80 and food is roughly USD 4-5 depending on where you eat . As we were more interested in eating alongside the locals, the cost was pretty reasonable. Hanoi Is busy but very charming . As you are travelling with really young ones , you may want to consider a slower pace to enjoy the food and the culture of Hanoi and its people.

Hi Kazzalevi, yes , holidays Vietnam do arrange all internal flights, with airport transfers as well and it was all very well organized we had no problems at all, also if you are interested they will arrange a fast track when you arrive at airport in Vietnam where they will meet you and get your visa stamped for you so you don't have to line up in large queues. Hope this helps.