I'm getting a 15-day visa on arrival in Vietnam as a tourist. If I plan when to fly in and when to fly out (maximizing the duration of my stay) do I have to include the date of arrival and departure in my calculation?

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    Related: Vietnam Visa - can I leave on the day of expiration?. As a general rule for visas, a "day" is any day that you are physically in the country. – Zach Lipton May 17 '16 at 18:57
  • Vietnam is just an example. This question pertains to visas in general. Thanks for clearing it up. – H3R3T1K May 17 '16 at 19:35
  • There's not a perfect answer for "visas in general" because different countries can have different rules. As an example, the US is weird: the dates on a US visa are the range you can enter the country and have nothing to do with how long you can stay. As opposed to most other countries I'm familiar with, where you must leave on or before the visa expiry date. – Zach Lipton May 17 '16 at 19:40
  • @ZachLipton - Visa validity and length of stay are frequently two different animals. The US is not alone with their rule of entering before visa expiration date, there are plenty of other countries with the same rule. – user13044 May 18 '16 at 2:30
  • @Tom I agree. My point is that there is not one answer for "visas in general" in every country. A traveler has to know the law in each country to know exactly what they can do with their visa. – Zach Lipton May 18 '16 at 3:25

A 15 day Vietnam VOA allows you to stay in the country for 15 days ... pretty simple really. The day you arrive is Day 1. The day you depart needs to be Day 15 or sooner. Like most countries the counted day starts at midnight and ends at midnight, so entering through immigration at 11:59pm still counts as Day 1. And departing at 11:59pm on Day 15 is still Day 15 (hope there are no lines if you try that ;-). I actually do not know of any countries that stamp date & time of entry then count days as 24 hour periods from that time, like car rental companies.

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