Vietnam SIM Card Registration for Foreigners: The Passport Rule (2026)

A foreigner registers a SIM with a passport valid for their stay, or an electronic identity account. Register in person at a carrier point, or online for the first 3 numbers on one document, if the carrier's app can authenticate you. Unless you re-sign, non-compliant information gets notices, a one-way cut, a two-way cut and termination.

Quick pick

• Carrier: Viettel, chosen here because its official counter sits in the arrival hall of the international terminal at Da Nang airport.
• Plan: Viettel sells two tourist eSIM packages, both with 5GB a day: VND 60,000 for 7 days or VND 150,000 for 30 days, as of 5 December 2025. The package fee does not include the SIM price.
• Where to buy: at the airport counter, which sells and activates the eSIM on the spot. A carrier’s own point also registers a SIM in person. You can also buy the eSIM online before you arrive. Staff at the counter register it against your passport. Skip unofficial sellers inside the terminal: their SIMs may already be activated under someone else’s name and can be deactivated within days.
• Bring: your original passport, because Viettel does not accept digital copies or pictures. Bring an eSIM-compatible phone that is not locked to one carrier, as Viettel requires.
• Pay with: Viettel eSIM takes cash, international card, e-wallet and QR payment, among other options.
• VinaPhone: VinaPhone shops may also ask foreigners for a guarantee letter; bring one if you have it.

A Vietnamese carrier switches on your line only once your registration and its own authentication of your information are both complete.

Doanh nghiệp viễn thông chỉ được cung cấp dịch vụ viễn thông cho thuê bao di động mặt đất sau khi bảo đảm đầy đủ các nội dung sau: … Thuê bao viễn thông di động mặt đất đã hoàn thành đăng ký thông tin thuê bao theo quy định … Doanh nghiệp đã hoàn thành việc xác thực, lưu giữ thông tin thuê bao di động mặt đất đầy đủ, chính xác theo quy định.

A carrier may provide telecom service to a mobile subscriber only once that subscriber has completed information registration and the carrier has completed authenticating and storing that subscriber’s information, in full and accurately, as required.

Nghị định 163/2024/NĐ-CP, Điều 20

If a carrier’s review or a state authority’s notice finds your information doesn’t comply, the decree cuts your line in stages unless you sign the contract again. The stages are notice, one-way cut (incoming calls only), two-way cut and contract end.

Which document you use

Đối với người có quốc tịch nước ngoài: Hộ chiếu còn thời hạn sử dụng ở Việt Nam theo thị thực nhập cảnh hoặc theo thời hạn lưu trú tối đa với các nước được miễn thị thực hoặc tài khoản định danh điện tử theo quy định của pháp luật.

A foreign national registering mobile subscriber information must present a passport still valid for use in Vietnam under their entry visa, or for the maximum stay period allowed to a visa-exempt country’s nationals, or an electronic identity account as provided by law.

Nghị định 163/2024/NĐ-CP, Điều 17 khoản 1 điểm b

A carrier’s duty is to serve users whose subscriber information is complete and matches the ID document they presented when signing the contract. You must give the carrier complete, accurate information when you sign the contract. You can’t use your own passport to register a number for someone else, except where telecom law allows it.

How many numbers, and where to register

Registration happens in one of three ways, and only one of them is online.

• In person, at a point the carrier itself owns and sets up.
• In person, at a fixed-address point run by another business, under an authorization contract with the carrier.
• Online, through the carrier’s own app, but only for the first 3 numbers on one identity document, and only if the app can authenticate you; otherwise you register in person.

For those first 3 numbers, you present your documents and sign a paper or electronic subscriber-information confirmation form.

If you already hold three numbers on this passport

From the fourth number onward, you sign a standard-form service contract at a fixed-address point the carrier itself has set up. The decree’s heading for these rules says they cover prepaid numbers of each mobile network.

If your SIM isn’t registered correctly

When a carrier finds your subscriber information doesn’t comply, it must notify you at least once a day for 5 days, asking you to re-sign the contract with correct information. If you don’t re-sign, the cuts follow on a fixed schedule.

The 2026 re-verification campaign

If you are a foreign national who registered with a passport still valid for your stay, a 2026 circular sets what the carrier must do. For every number you register, it must fully apply two checks set out in the telecom decree.

The first check is a one-time code (OTP) sent to the subscriber’s previously registered SIM, when registering or activating the second SIM onward. The second is a recorded video call to collect, check and verify the customer’s identifying information during registration.

Within 60 days of the circular taking effect on 15 April 2026, carriers had to notify and re-authenticate every number a foreign national had registered with a passport.

A subscriber who wasn’t re-verified, or was re-verified incompletely or incorrectly, had outgoing service (calls and SMS to other numbers) suspended. After that 60-day period, a number still not re-verified lost two-way service, with the contract terminated 5 days later if it still wasn’t fixed.

The circular took effect from 15 April 2026, except Article 8, which took effect from 15 June 2026.

Article 8 covers a changed phone. Within 2 hours of a number turning up on a different device from before, the carrier must suspend outgoing calls and SMS. It also tells the subscriber to redo face-biometric authentication.

At the carrier shop

1. Bring a passport (still valid for your stay in Vietnam, or for the maximum stay period your visa exemption allows) or use an electronic identity account.
2. For your first 3 numbers on one passport, go to any of the carrier’s own points or an authorized fixed-address point. Online works only if the carrier’s app can authenticate you. Either way, you sign a paper or electronic confirmation form.
3. For a later number on the same network’s prepaid SIMs, sign a standard-form contract at a fixed-address point the carrier itself has set up.
4. VinaPhone: foreign buyers may also be asked for a valid guarantee letter from their embassy, or from the agency, organisation or representative office where they work. Bring one if you have it.

5. Viettel eSIM: a short-stay visitor brings a passport still valid under Vietnamese law.
6. Converting a physical SIM to a MobiFone eSIM: an original citizen ID card or an original passport.

Fines

Foreign nationals are not exempt from the telecom fines: the penalty decree applies to Vietnamese organisations, business households and individuals, and to foreign organisations and individuals. Decree 174/2026/NĐ-CP sets them and took effect on 1 July 2026. The figures below are the fine for an organisation, and an individual who commits the same violation pays half.

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Not confirmed: Whether a foreigner finishes eSIM registration fully online in a carrier's app. Whether you are fined for using a SIM someone else registered; register in your own name.

General information checked against the sources listed above, not legal advice for your situation. Rules and office practice change; confirm with the immigration office or a licensed adviser before you act. See how guides are checked.

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