Why I can’t leave the middle name out of Vietnam visa application?

You thought your middle name is really not important and you can leave it out when you apply for Vietnam visa. Actually, middle name is a part of your name and it is displayed on your passport thus you must fill in the visa application form with your full name instead of first name and last name only.

My customer wrote me an email when he is stuck at the JFK airport:
“Hi Alex, I am at JFK airport and they are telling me that because my middle name is missing from my visa approval letter, so that it is not valid. My middle name is James and it is listed on my passport. Please advise how I should proceed?”

I said: “You try to ask the airline officers to let you get on the plane and I will sort out the problem at arrival airport”. Finally, he was allowed to get on the plane to Hong Kong and then to Vietnam with a warning from the airline officers: “You can board the flight from JFK to HKG, but that it will be up to the ground staff at HKG as to whether they let you on the connecting flight to SGN or not”

In Monday morning, he called me to inform that he was at the HKG but they didn’t allow him to get on the plane to Vietnam. He had to cancel the flight, book a new flight from HKG to SGN and order an emergency visa to Vietnam. That’s really expensive.

So you are highly recommended to check the visa approval letter against your passport to make sure that you won’t miss your middle name, to avoid any problem with the airline and immigration officers. If you forgot to enter your middle name, please apply for new visa as soon as possible. In case you have very little time for your flight departure, you can order an emergency Vietnam visa service and we can help you get a new visa approval letter in 1 – 2 hours.