Overview
Australia and Vietnam established diplomatic relations in 1973, and the relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership on 7 March 2024, putting Australia in the top tier of Vietnam's partners; a Plan of Action to implement it followed on 18 October 2024. Vietnamese ordinary passport holders get neither of Australia's fast e-visa routes — eVisitor and the ETA are both closed to them — so a standard Visitor visa application through Home Affairs is always required, whatever the purpose of travel.
Visa Services
Vietnamese citizens apply for the Visitor visa (subclass 600, Tourist stream) entirely online through ImmiAccount, typically granted for 3, 6, or 12 months depending on travel history and purpose. Vietnam is one of the Work and Holiday visa (subclass 462) partner countries, but — unlike most other partners, including Thailand and the US — Vietnamese applicants (along with Chinese and Indian nationals) must first go through a pre-application ballot: random selection opens the right to lodge a first-time 462 application, rather than applying directly. Selected applicants then need to be 18-30, meet a minimum education standard (broadly a bachelor's degree or 2+ years of tertiary study), show functional English, hold roughly AUD 5,000 in funds, travel without dependants, and not have held this visa before — it's granted once per person. Visa questions go through the Department of Home Affairs' online Australian Immigration Enquiry form, or its Global Service Centre (+61 2 6196 0196, Mon-Fri 9am-5pm Australian time) — the embassy's own phone line is for consular matters, not visa processing.
Consular Services
The embassy's consular and passport services (+84 24 3774 0100) cover the Australian community across northern Vietnam, with the Consulate-General in Ho Chi Minh City running the equivalent service for the south. A 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre is reachable on the same Hanoi number, plus dedicated lines for calls placed from within Australia.
Trade & Export Support
Trade and investment sit among the pillars of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership alongside political ties, education, defence and security, policing, and cooperation against transnational crime and human trafficking; the embassy's economic section and Austrade support Australian exporters navigating the Vietnamese market.
Investment Opportunities
The embassy runs a dedicated Investing in Vietnam programme for Australian businesses, part of the broader push under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to deepen economic ties alongside newer cooperation areas like climate, environment, energy, and digital transformation.
Business Support
Australian companies operating in or entering Vietnam draw on the embassy's economic and trade section and Austrade's market-entry support, working alongside the broader Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework signed in 2024.
Cultural & Educational Programs
Vietnam sends one of the largest international student cohorts to Australian universities and vocational institutions, a flow the embassy supports through its Study in Australia information channel; education sits alongside trade and defence as one of the relationship's core pillars under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
Appointment Information
For consular and passport matters: Australian Embassy, 8 Dao Tan Street, Giang Vo Ward, Hanoi; phone +84 24 3774 0100, fax +84 24 3774 0111. Visa matters go through the Australian Immigration Enquiry form or the Home Affairs Global Service Centre, not the embassy switchboard. All visa correspondence, including decisions, arrives from a "nil-reply" address that cannot be replied to.
Special Notes
Neither of Australia's free/fast e-visa routes (eVisitor, ETA) applies to Vietnamese passports — budget time for a full Visitor visa application through ImmiAccount rather than assuming a quick e-visa option exists. For the Work and Holiday visa, Vietnamese applicants face an extra ballot step that most partner-country nationals skip entirely; check the current ballot round dates before planning a departure date around it, since rounds and quotas change and aren't guaranteed to be open year-round.
Links & more info
Visaja keeps this page's contact details and visa guidance under continuous review — still, requirements can change at short notice, so confirm the essentials with the mission or the official government portal before you travel.