Bringing a Foreign-Registered Motorbike Into Vietnam: Decree 30/2024 Permission Rules for Tourists

Can a tourist bring their own motorbike into Vietnam? Yes, but not the way most riders imagine. Since 1 May 2024, when Decree 30/2024/ND-CP took effect, a foreign-registered vehicle driven in for tourism has needed written approval from the Ministry of Public Security, and that approval is not something an individual rider can apply for. A licensed Vietnamese international travel agency must lodge the request on your behalf, an escort vehicle from that agency rides ahead of you, and you are limited to the routes and dates written into the approval. Since 1 January 2025 the same regime has continued under Article 32 of Decree 151/2024/ND-CP, which also changed how long the vehicle may stay. This guide explains the bring own motorbike into Vietnam permission rules as the official sources describe them, and then explains why most international visitors to Hanoi end up renting a locally registered bike instead.

What Decree 30/2024 changed on 1 May 2024

The Ministry of Public Security’s policy page on Decree 30/2024/ND-CP describes the decree as the Government’s rules on managing road motor vehicles registered abroad and brought into Vietnam by foreigners for tourism. It came into force on 1 May 2024, and from that date the Ministry of Public Security became the authority that issues the written approval allowing a Vietnamese travel business to organise a tour in which foreign tourists ride or drive their own vehicles.

The decree sets three layers of conditions: general conditions for the rider and vehicle together, conditions for the vehicle, and conditions for the rider. The ministry page also states that the ministry can refuse an application, suspend an approved trip, or require changes to its timing, route or speed when it judges that necessary for traffic safety or national security.

Who applies: the travel-agency route

The first general condition is the one that surprises independent travellers. According to the ministry announcement, the rider and vehicle must go through a Vietnamese enterprise licensed for international travel services, and that enterprise is the party that files the request for approval. The second condition is that the approval itself, a written document issued by the Ministry of Public Security, must exist before the vehicle takes part in traffic. There is no procedure in the announcement for a private individual to apply directly, and no mention of a permit being issued at the border on arrival.

In practice, this means that bringing your own motorbike is a tour product arranged with a Vietnamese travel company, not a self-organised border crossing. The company lodges the paperwork and provides the escort described later in this article.

Conditions for the motorbike itself

The vehicle conditions in the ministry’s summary of Decree 30/2024 are as follows:

• The vehicle must be a road motor vehicle of a type covered by the decree. Under the current text in Decree 151/2024, discussed below, the tourism category expressly includes two-wheeled motorcycles alongside passenger cars of up to eight seats and motorhomes.
• It must carry a valid registration certificate and the number plates issued by the competent authority of the country where it is registered.
• A valid technical safety and environmental inspection certificate, or an equivalent document from the country of registration, is required for cars. The announcement attaches this requirement to cars specifically.
• Right-hand-drive cars need a diplomatic note from an embassy, consulate or intergovernmental organisation office in Vietnam, sent to the Ministry of Public Security and stating the reason for the request. This is a car rule and does not apply to motorcycles.
• Customs formalities for temporary import and re-export must be completed at the border gate on entry and again on exit.
• Entry and exit are allowed only through international border gates, whether road, sea, inland waterway, rail or air, and only through the specific gate named in the ministry’s approval.

The Government’s policy portal adds one more document to the list in its article on the papers a foreign driver must carry in Vietnam: a certificate of compulsory civil liability insurance for the vehicle owner that is valid in Vietnam. A policy bought at home will not necessarily satisfy this, so the insurance question is one to raise with the travel agency before the application goes in.

Conditions for the rider

The rider conditions are closer to what a traveller might expect, but they still contain details worth checking against your own documents. The ministry announcement lists them as:

• The rider must be a foreign national.
• They must hold a passport or another document valid for international travel, together with a visa or a document granting residence in Vietnam, unless they qualify for a visa exemption under Vietnam’s immigration law.
• A rider entering under a unilateral visa exemption must have a passport with at least six months of validity remaining. A rider using an electronic visa must enter through one of the international border gates designated by the Government for e-visa entry.
• They must hold a driving licence issued abroad that matches the category of vehicle being ridden and is still valid.
• They must complete the normal immigration procedures on entry and exit.

The licence point deserves attention. The Decree 151/2024 wording cited by the Vietnam Road Administration, quoted in the next sections, says the licence must be valid for use within the territory of Vietnam. Whether a particular foreign licence or international permit meets that test is a separate question from the vehicle permission, and it is covered in detail in this site’s guide on whether an international driving permit can be used in Vietnam.

On the road: escort vehicle, provincial routes and papers to carry

Getting the approval is only the start. The Government portal’s explainer on Decree 30/2024 describes how the ride itself must be organised once the vehicle is inside Vietnam.

A lead vehicle rides ahead

Foreign vehicles taking part in traffic must have a vehicle travelling in front of them to guide the way. That lead vehicle is arranged by the Vietnamese travel company and must display the company’s logo or fly a flag with its emblem. The portal describes the guide vehicle as a car or a motorcycle depending on the tour. For a motorbike tourist, this means you are never simply riding alone through the countryside: an agency rider is leading the group.

Routes and dates are fixed by the approval

The portal states that the rider and vehicle may only use routes within the provincial-level administrative boundaries, and only during the period, specified in the Ministry of Public Security’s written approval. A spontaneous detour to a province that was not in the application is not covered.

Documents to produce at a checkpoint

The same portal article lists what the rider must carry and show on request: passport or international travel document and any residence papers; the foreign driving licence matching the vehicle; the inspection certificate for cars; the vehicle registration certificate; the customs declaration for the temporary import and re-export of the vehicle; and the civil liability insurance certificate valid in Vietnam. It adds that a foreign driver who breaks Vietnamese law or an international treaty to which Vietnam is a party is dealt with under the relevant law, so the normal road rules and penalties apply exactly as they would to a local rider.

How long the vehicle may stay

Under Decree 30/2024 as summarised by the Ministry of Public Security, a foreign vehicle could take part in traffic in Vietnam for a maximum of 45 days, with an extension of no more than 10 days in cases of force majeure, subject to the reporting procedure in the decree. That 45-day figure is the number most online summaries still quote.

It is no longer the current rule. The Vietnam Road Administration, answering a foreign driver’s question on the Government’s online newspaper in November 2025, quoted Article 32 of Decree 151/2024/ND-CP as the governing text. Under that article the maximum period is tied to the rider’s immigration status: the vehicle may stay no longer than the visa granted, or the visa-exemption period, counted from the date of approval. The 10-day allowance for an unforeseeable incident that cannot be fixed promptly remains, with a follow-up procedure set out in Article 33 of the same decree.

What changed with Decree 151/2024 from 1 January 2025

The Government’s official document database lists Decree 151/2024/ND-CP as issued on 15 November 2024 and in force from 1 January 2025, detailing several articles and measures for implementing the Law on Road Traffic Order and Safety. Article 32 of that decree, as quoted by the Road Administration, carries the foreign-vehicle regime forward in a slightly different shape. Readers who found this page by searching for Decree 30 should therefore treat the 2024 text as the origin of the rules and the 2025 text as the version an official would apply today. The main points of Article 32 are:

• The tourism category covers passenger cars with left- or right-hand drive carrying up to eight people excluding the driver, motorhomes, and two-wheeled motorcycles.
• A separate category covers right-hand-drive passenger cars entering for purposes other than tourism, which require a diplomatic note rather than a travel-agency application.
• For the tourism category, the application must still go through a Vietnamese international travel business, and a written approval to organise the entry of the foreign vehicle is still required.
• The vehicle still needs valid registration and plates from its home country, and cars still need a valid inspection certificate.
• The rider needs a passport, visa or valid residence document unless visa-exempt, must not fall into a category barred from entry, and must hold a driving licence that is valid for the vehicle class and valid for use within Vietnam. The six-month passport rule for unilateral visa exemptions and the e-visa border-gate rule are retained.
• Temporary import and re-export must go through the international border gates approved by the competent authority, with customs formalities completed at the gate on entry and exit.
• The maximum stay is now the visa or visa-exemption period from the date of approval, rather than a flat 45 days.

Why renting locally is usually simpler

To ride your own foreign-plated motorbike in Vietnam you need a Vietnamese travel agency willing to sponsor the application, a written approval from the Ministry of Public Security naming your border gate, an escort vehicle riding ahead of you, routes confined to the provinces named in the approval, customs temporary-import paperwork at both ends of the trip, civil liability insurance valid in Vietnam, and a licence that is valid for use in the country. All of that has to be arranged before you reach the border, and the arrangement expires with your visa.

A locally registered rental bike removes every one of those vehicle-side hurdles: no customs declaration, no border-gate restriction, no escort vehicle and no provincial route list. What remains is the rider-side question of whether your licence is accepted, which applies equally to a rented or an imported bike, plus the ordinary checks any renter should make. This site’s guide to motorbike renting requirements in Hanoi walks through the documents a shop will ask for, and the article on matching a rental bike to its registration papers explains how to confirm that the bike you are handed is the one on the registration card, which matters at any police check.

One caution runs the other way. A Vietnamese-registered rental bike is a Vietnamese vehicle, so riding it out of the country raises its own permission questions; the piece on taking a rental motorbike across a Vietnam border explains why a rental shop’s consent alone does not settle that. For a Hanoi-based trip, including the northern loops that bring many riders to the city, a local rental stays inside the simple case.

If you are weighing up a rental in Hanoi, Thuê xe máy Nguyễn Hà is at Ngõ 5 Nguyễn Văn Cừ, Bồ Đề, Long Biên, Hà Nội, open 09:00–21:00 daily, hotline 0334 699 969. Ask about the specific model you want, bring the licence you intend to ride on, and confirm the bike’s papers at pickup.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just ride my own motorbike across the border into Vietnam?

Not under the regime described by the Ministry of Public Security. A foreign-registered vehicle brought in for tourism needs a written approval obtained through a Vietnamese international travel agency, customs temporary-import formalities at an approved international border gate, and an escort vehicle once inside the country. Arriving at a crossing without those arrangements means arriving without the permission the rules require.

Does Decree 30/2024 still apply?

Decree 30/2024 is the text that set up the Ministry of Public Security approval system from 1 May 2024. Since 1 January 2025, Decree 151/2024/ND-CP has been in force, and the Vietnam Road Administration cites Article 32 of that decree, not Decree 30, when explaining the conditions today. The structure is the same, but the stay limit is now tied to your visa or visa-exemption period instead of a fixed 45 days.

Do motorcycles count, or only cars?

Two-wheeled motorcycles are expressly listed in Article 32 of Decree 151/2024 among the foreign vehicles that may be brought in for tourism, alongside passenger cars of up to eight seats and motorhomes. Some conditions, such as the inspection certificate and the diplomatic note for right-hand-drive vehicles, are written for cars and are not stated for motorcycles.

What licence do I need to ride a foreign motorbike in Vietnam?

The decree text requires a driving licence that matches the vehicle class and is valid for use within Vietnam. Which foreign licences and international permits meet that test is a separate topic from the vehicle permission; see the guide linked above on international driving permits before planning around your home licence.

Is there a fee or processing time I should budget for?

The official pages summarised here describe the conditions, documents and approval authority but do not state a fee or processing time for the agency’s application. Ask the agency that will file on your behalf.