Does a Vietnam e-visa become invalid after leaving the country, and do international travelers need an onward or return ticket to enter via Da Nang?

Even if Da Nang Airport was listed in the e-visa application, entry is permitted through any Vietnamese border checkpoint that accepts e-visas; the planned entry point does not restrict the actual route.

A traveler flew to Kuala Lumpur three times and was always asked for an onward ticket from there at check-in. When self-applying for a new e-visa, processing can take about two weeks, and applications are often sent back for revision — outcomes vary by luck.

In some cases, travelers without proper documents were held in the airport's transit zone and told to fly back to the country they arrived from. However, some managed to negotiate and were allowed to enter Vietnam anyway.

One traveler flew in on a 90-day visa without an onward ticket and was not asked for one either during a transit in China or on arrival in Vietnam. He was prepared to buy any ticket at the border if needed (not necessarily back to the departure country). His visa application had listed the Laos land border crossing as the planned exit point.

Once you leave Vietnam, a single-entry e-visa is considered used and cannot be reused for another entry. If you plan to return to Da Nang after visiting another country, you normally need a new e-visa in advance or a multiple-entry visa.

You generally cannot just arrive at Da Nang Airport and get a standard entry stamp instead of arranging the proper visa first. For most tourists, the 'get stamped on arrival instead of applying for a new e-visa' approach does not work, so re-entry documents should be sorted out before flying back to Vietnam.

Even if you already have a valid visa, you may still be asked for a return or onward ticket before boarding your flight to Vietnam. In practice this is more often checked by the airline than by immigration, so it is safer to have proof that you will leave the country within your allowed stay.

If the airline is strict, an onward ticket to any third country is usually acceptable and does not have to be a flight back to your home country. What matters is proof of exit from Vietnam within your visa period, not the nationality of the destination.

In deportation cases, the foreign traveler usually has to pay for their own flight unless the authorities decide otherwise in a specific case. The route is normally coordinated with immigration and the airline: it may be the traveler’s home country or another country that will admit them based on their documents.