One less thing between Australia and a bowl of phở: the health declaration widely tipped to become compulsory for entering Vietnam on 1 July 2026 is not being rolled out across the board. Hanoi's Ministry of Health clarified on 30 June that Decree 165/2026/ND-CP only authorises a border health form — it gets switched on solely when officials judge that active infectious diseases abroad could plausibly arrive via travellers.
For Australian passport holders the entry kit is unchanged: the eVisa remains the standard route, joined by the Vietnam Arrival Card at airports where that separate immigration step operates. If the health declaration is ever activated, it will accept electronic or paper submissions in English or Vietnamese, filed within seven days of crossing — and it will run on an official system yet to be announced, not on the unofficial website already circulating, which the ministry explicitly disowns.