Retire in Da Nang Visa: No Retirement Visa, Real Routes

Vietnam has no retirement visa: the visa symbols in the immigration law include none for pensioners. Retirees stay on a tourist e-visa of up to 90 days, a visa-exemption stay if their passport is on the list, or a family or investor visa.

Vietnam has no retirement visa: the list of visa symbols in the immigration law has none for retirees or pensioners. The newest symbols are no way in for pensioners either: UD1 goes to high-quality digital-technology workers and other preferential cases, and UD2 to their spouses and children under 18. So if you plan to live in Da Nang on a pension, you pick one of the real routes below. Two of them, family and investment, give you a card instead of a stack of short stays.

Is there a retirement visa in Vietnam?

No, because no symbol in the law is for retirees or pensioners. UD1, the symbol people point to as “new”, reads like this in the law.

UĐ1 - Cấp cho người nước ngoài là nhân lực công nghiệp công nghệ số chất lượng cao và các trường hợp được ưu đãi theo quy định của luật, nghị quyết của Quốc hội, nghị quyết của Ủy ban Thường vụ Quốc hội.

UD1 is issued to a foreigner who is high-quality digital-technology-industry workforce, or falls under other cases entitled to preferential treatment under a law or a National Assembly resolution.

Law 118/2025/QH15, Điều 2 khoản 2 (adding khoản 22 to Điều 8 of Law 47/2014/QH13)

The law that created it has applied since 1 July 2026, apart from one clause. As a pensioner you only reach UD1 if you fit one of the preferential cases.

The ways retirees actually stay in Da Nang

The law gives a retiree five routes, but without a Vietnamese spouse, parent or child or VND 3 billion to invest, only two are yours to use: the tourist e-visa and, for 12 passports, the 45-day exemption. The VR visa covers visiting relatives or another purpose, so it needs someone in Vietnam behind your application.

Checked November 2026. The full symbol list is in Vietnam visa types, and the fees are in Vietnam immigration fees.

Tourist e-visa and re-entry

The e-visa is the easiest start: it is valid for up to 90 days, single or multiple entries, and Da Nang Airport is on the portal’s list of air border gates. Because the portal issues e-visas only to people who are outside Vietnam, every new one starts with leaving the country and applying again.

Your passport has to outlast the visa, since the e-visa must end at least 30 days before the passport expires. If your passport is from the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway or Finland, you can instead enter with 45 days of stay and no visa, as long as you meet every entry condition. US and Australian passports are not named on that list.

Extending inside Vietnam is not something you file yourself: a sponsor, meaning the organisation or person who invited or guaranteed you, files the request with the immigration authority, and the fee is US$10 each time.

A holder already in Vietnam may be able to apply for a new visa if an authority, organisation or individual in Vietnam invites or guarantees them. With nobody to do that, your next e-visa starts with a trip out of the country. For the e-visa how-to see Vietnam e-visa, and for the border-run version see visa run from Da Nang.

Family route: TT visa and card

The TT visa goes to a foreigner who is the parent, spouse or child of a Vietnamese citizen. If that is you, this is the most stable route, because the card can run up to 3 years.

A Vietnamese citizen permanently resident in Vietnam may sponsor a parent, spouse or child who is a foreigner to apply for a temporary residence card. Your sponsor files, not you, and the card costs US$145 for up to 2 years or US$155 for over 2 to 5 years. A friend cannot be your sponsor: for an extension, a Vietnamese individual must be a grandparent, parent, spouse, child or sibling and show proof. See temporary residence card in Da Nang, dependant visa and TT card and marrying a Vietnamese citizen.

Investor route: DT visa

An investment of VND 3 billion to under VND 50 billion earns the DT3 symbol, and the visa runs up to 3 years. At VND 100 billion or more you reach DT1, with a visa of up to 5 years and a card of up to 10 years.

We recommend this route only if you already planned to put money into a Vietnamese business, because the symbol follows the capital you contribute, not your age or pension. Below VND 3 billion the symbol is DT4. Thresholds, fees and the Da Nang filing are in Vietnam investor visa DT1 to DT4.

What the golden visa talk refers to

The golden visa is a proposal, not a visa you can apply for: no symbol for it is in the immigration law. Vietnam’s Tourism Advisory Board proposed a long-term visa to the Prime Minister in March 2025, valid for five to 10 years and renewable, with retirees among its targets. A June 2025 opinion piece said these options had yet to be enacted into law. Posts that describe a retiree golden visa with an age and income test are not describing a visa on the symbol list.

A separate decree gives an exemption card to listed special groups, including investors and executives from the world’s largest corporations, not retirees. The card allows multiple entries over a maximum of five years, with a 90-day stay on each entry.

Pensions and Social Security in Vietnam

If you are a US citizen, current Social Security benefits can be paid to people in Vietnam, and U.S. citizens are among them. SSA lifted its Vietnam payment restrictions after the Vietnamese government gave assurances of free access in May 2015.

SSI works differently, so do not plan to live here on it: an SSI recipient is not eligible if outside the U.S. for a full calendar month or 30 consecutive days or longer.

Health insurance after 60

Age limits decide your plan. Bao Viet An Gia accepts people up to 60 at the start of cover, extendable to 65 only if the policy is renewed continuously from age 60. So if you are past 60 and not yet insured, An Gia is closed to you and Intercare or SafetyWing are the options. Bao Viet Intercare accepts up to 69, extendable to 75 on the same condition. SafetyWing accepts sign-ups until age 64, and once enrolled your coverage is renewable indefinitely.

Bao Viet cover sold through HSBC also requires that you do not leave Vietnam for a continuous period exceeding 180 days. That matters if you split the year between countries. In the insurer’s premium table dated June 2025, the An Gia inpatient core plan for ages 51 to 65 costs VND 1,866,000 (Bronze), 2,677,000 (Silver), 4,056,000 (Gold), 5,704,000 (Platinum) or 6,972,000 (Diamond) per year. Past 60, those prices apply only to a renewal.

Compare more plans in health insurance for foreigners in Vietnam, and see Da Nang cost of living for your monthly budget.

Before you move

• Check your passport against the 12-country list before booking: a listed passport gets 45 days with no visa.
• Keep your passport valid: an e-visa must end at least 30 days before it expires.
• Plan every stay beyond a visa around a sponsor, because extensions are filed by your sponsor and cost US$10.
• Do not overstay: 16 to under 30 days is fined VND 5,000,000 to 10,000,000.
• Never give false information on a form; a false declaration to obtain an entry or residence document is a ground for refusing you entry.
• If you receive SSI, expect payments to stop after 30 consecutive days abroad.
• Buy An Gia cover before 60 if you want it, since its start-of-cover limit is 60.

↑ Contents

Not confirmed: Back-to-back e-visas: no official text we found allows or limits them, so treat each one as a fresh application. A "golden visa for retirees" with an age and income test has no law behind it that we found. Before relying on the exemption-card terms, read the decree text itself.

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.

Spotted an error? Report it.