Laos Visa for Tourists in 2024: A Comprehensive Guide

Laos, a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, has a simple visa policy similar to its neighbors and ASEAN partners.

Whereas few nationalities are offered a visa exemption, most of the world can benefit from a visa on arrival or an eVisa. Few countries must obtain a visa from a Laos embassy prior to travel.

This article answers all questions such as:

Who is visa-exempt and for how long?
Who can get a visa on arrival and at which ports of entry?
Who can get an eVisa and which ports of entry is it valid at?
How to obtain a Laos visa from the embassy?
What requirements are there for either type of visa?

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Visa Policy

Nationals of 15 countries are visa-exempt for Laos. Of those, 9 are their partners in ASEAN and 6 are countries they have bilateral agreements with.

These 15 together with 148 more are eligible for an eVisa valid for 30 days. This is only usable at certain ports of entry. The eVisa is extendable up to an additional 60 days, which is the reason why some visa-exempt nationalities might opt to get a visa anyway.

The same nationalities are also eligible for a visa on arrival. The VOA is also only valid at certain checkpoints (more information below) and is also extendable.

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Visa Types

The different ways to travel to Laos as a tourist are:

Visa Exemption: Enter visa-exempt if you’re one of the 15 eligible countries
eVisa: Obtain an eVisa online for select border checkpoints
Visa on Arrival (VOA): Get a visa on arrival at eligible checkpoints
Tourist Visa: Apply for a visa at a Laos embassy abroad.

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Visa Requirements

The following requirements apply to all Laos visitors.

Passport validity required

All incoming travelers to Laos must have a passport valid for at least 6 months (180 days) from the date of arrival.

Return or onward ticket requirement

There is no official requirement to present proof of return or onward flight when getting a visa or entering Laos.

In reality, border officials do sometimes ask to see some proof. It is more likely to happen if you fly in than if you cross a land border.

You may say that you will be crossing overland, perhaps via one of the Friendship bridges with Thailand, and this will likely be accepted.

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Visa Exemption

Laos Entry-Exit Stamps in Passport | © Visa Traveler

The following 15 countries are visa-exempt to travel to Laos. Unless otherwise specified, the maximum duration of stay is 30 days.

Brunei
Cambodia
Indonesia
Japan (15 days)
Luxembourg (15 days)
Malaysia
Mongolia
Myanmar (14 days)
Philippines
Russia
Singapore
South Korea
Switzerland (15 days)
Thailand
Vietnam

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Visa on Arrival

Valid checkpoints

Visa on arrival is obtainable ONLY at the following checkpoints:

International Airports in Laos

Wattay International Airport (Vientiane)
Luang Prabang International Airport
Pakse International Airport

Thailand – Laos borders

Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge I (Nong Khai-Vientiane)
Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge II (Mukdahan – Savannakhet)
Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge III (Nakhon Phanom – Thakek)
Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge IV (Chiangkhong – Houixay)
Thanaleng Train Station, Vientiane
Chongmek – Vangtao, Ubol Ratchathani to Champasack Province

Cambodia – Laos borders

Nong Nok Khiene– Veun Kham

China – Laos borders

Mohan – Boten (only if traveling overland; if traveling by Lao-China Railway, then you must hold an eVisa or embassy visa)

Vietnam – Laos borders

Laobao – Dansavan

Eligible countries

The following nationalities are eligible for a visa on arrival to Laos:

Albania
Andorra
Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovian
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Cambodia
Canada
Cape Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Colombia
Comoros
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czechia
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras
Hongkong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Myanmar
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
North Korea
Norway
Oman
Palau
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Seychelles
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Timor-Leste
Togo
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States of America
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen

Visa on arrival fee

The Laos visa on arrival costs 40 USD regardless of the place of entry.

An additional 1 USD overtime surcharge is levied on weekends, public holidays, before 8 AM and after 4 PM.

An additional 1 USD fee is payable if you don’t have a photo and need to have one taken on the spot.

The visa fee is always listed in USD. At international airports, you may pay in other currencies at a relatively unfavorable rate. At overland borders, it’s possible to pay in the bordering country’s currency, for example in Thai Baht at any of the Friendship bridges.

Procedure at the border

At borders where visa on arrival is possible, there will be a corridor separate from the one for immigration. If you don’t have a visa already, make sure you queue at the visa-on-arrival window. It’s usually right next to the immigration channel.

Take an application form and fill it out.
Submit the application form together with a passport-sized photo at an available window.
Pay for the visa. The visa fee is always in US dollars but is payable in Laotian Kip, Thai Baht, or Vietnamese Dong (though the exchange rate is bad). Paying by card is not possible.
Sit down and wait until your name is called. Depending on the border and the amount of people, this step takes between 5 and 20 minutes.

If you don’t have a photo on you, inform the border official to whom you give the application form. For a fee of 1 USD, you will get your photo taken right there and then.

The photo needs to be passport size but they’re not too strict about it. A few millimeters each way won’t get it rejected.

Read the Laos Visa on Arrival (VOA) article for more in-depth information on requirements, the process of obtaining VOA and extending the visa from within Laos.

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eVisa

The Laotian government introduced the eVisa in 2019. It is simple to obtain the visa online at the official Lao eVisa website. Use only the official website for the Laos eVisa – all other sources are either middlemen charging extra or outright scams.

The Laos eVisa:

Is valid for 30 days
Is extendable inside Laos
Costs $51.75 USD
Takes up to 3 business days to issue

The same countries eligible for the visa on arrival are also eligible for the eVisa. Consult with the list above.

Read the Laos eVisa article for details on visa validity, processing time, documents, photo requirements and application tracking.

Valid checkpoints

The Laos eVisa is valid ONLY at these 8 checkpoints:

Wattay International Airport (Vientiane)
Luang Prabang International Airport
Pakse International Airport
Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge I (Nong Khai-Vientiane)
Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge II (Mukdahan – Savannakhet)
Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge IV (Chiangkhong – Houixay)
Mohan – Boten
Boten Railway Station (Lao-China Railway)

How to apply for Laos eVisa

Apply for Laos eVisa only on the official website. The eVisa application takes about 15 minutes to fill out. You must then review and pay for your eVisa. Processing takes 3 working days. Once approved, you can download your eVisa from the official website.

Follow this step-by-step guide on Laos eVisa to fill out your form and apply for eVisa. There are instructions and screenshots, simply follow the steps in this guide and you will be able to submit your application in 15 minutes.

Procedure at the border

If you have an eVisa you don’t need to queue anywhere before you go to the immigration desks. There will be one or more immigration desks designated to accept eVisas. There will be an eVisa sign on the immigration desk.

At the immigration desk, present your eVisa letter, get your passport stamped, and proceed to baggage reclaim.

You must print the eVisa Approval Letter and bring at least 1 copy with you at the border. This can be in black and white.

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Tourist Visa from the Embassy

For the countries that are not eligible for one of the other visa options, pre-obtaining a visa from a Laos embassy abroad remains the only possibility.

Additionally, it may make sense to get a visa from the embassy if you’re planning to cross through a checkpoint that does not accept the eVisa and does not issue a visa on arrival. Some notable such checkpoints are the ones in northern Vietnam.

The requirements for the visa are fairly simple. Some embassies have a downloadable form you have to fill in. Even if you don’t find it online (which is likely, given that Laos embassies rarely have up-to-date websites), you will just fill it in when you arrive at the embassy.

Apart from that, you need to bring a passport photo, your passport must have 6 months of validity and a blank page, and you must pay the visa fee. In some embassies they require payment upfront, in others it’s when you pick up the visa.

The visa fee depends on your nationality. It is generally between 35 and 45$. The last verifiable information is from the Laos Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, where a visa for an American citizen costs 1,000,000 VND (around 40$).

The visa is usually ready in 3 business days. This can be expedited down to 1 day for a fee, usually 5$.

Read the detailed Laos Tourist Visa article for more information on requirements, documentation, fees, and application process at Lao PDR consulates.

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Visa Extension

Visa extension is definitely possible for eVisas and visas on arrival. If you have obtained your visa from the embassy, consult with it first about the possibility of extending it inside Laos – it may or may not be possible.

To extend your visa, you can visit one of the Immigration offices in bigger cities. This is the location in Luang Prabang and this is the office in Vientiane.

Make sure you bring these with you:

Your passport
Your current Laos visa (unless it’s just a stamp in your passport)
Two passport photos (yes, again!)
Cash in USD or LAK (Lao Kip)

Once at the office, follow the instructions of the staff. Usually, extensions are done in 1 day but they keep your passport overnight.

You can extend it twice up to 30 additional days each time. This means you can stay in Laos for up to 90 days.

The visa extension costs 2$ per day to extend. If you for some reason overstay your initial visa and go to extend after it’s already expired, it will cost you 10$ per day.

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Entry and Exit Formalities

Assuming you already have a visa for Laos or are visa-exempt, the entry and exit procedure is pretty much the same as in any other country. If you’re looking for the visa-on-arrival procedure, see the section above.

One thing to note is that you will be given arrival and departure cards when you land. You fill out the arrival card and present it to the immigration officer. You’re told to keep the empty departure card safe with you for the duration of your stay. In practice, there are spare departure cards at any border so even if you lose it, you can get a new one and fill it out when you leave.

Laos officials rarely ask for proof of onward travel but this may depend on your nationality. If you’re from a “rich country”, i.e. USA, Canada, EU, Australia or New Zealand, it’s highly unlikely that they will ask for a ticket out of Laos. Unfortunately, if you’re from elsewhere, you may be subject to more scrutiny. Be prepared – book an onward ticket before you go.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Do Thai nationals need a visa for Laos?

No, travelers holding a Thai passport don’t need a visa and are visa-exempt for up to 30 days.

Do UK citizens need a visa for Laos?

Yes, UK citizens need a visa for Laos. They are eligible for an eVisa, visa on arrival or a visa from a Laos embassy.

Can you pay Laos visa on arrival in Thai Baht?

Yes, it is possible to pay for the Laos visa on arrival in Thai Baht. You will be charged at a poor exchange rate though, up to 20% more than if you pay in USD.

Do you need to print Laos eVisa?

Yes, you must print the eVisa Approval Letter and present a paper copy on arrival. It can be in black and white.

Do I need to enter Laos at the exact port of entry as in the application?

The short answer is no. However, you must enter at one of the eVisa-designated border crossings.

Can you extend a Laos visa?

This depends on the visa you have but generally speaking, you can extend the eVisa and the visa on arrival twice for up to 30 days, allowing a total stay of up to 90 days in Laos.

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