The top six rejection causes (across Vietnam, India, Kenya)
Across the three eVisa programmes we process every day, the causes cluster very tightly. If you see your situation below, you almost certainly know exactly what to fix.
1. Photo quality fails the specification
Background isn’t pure white, head is tilted, glasses on, headwear (other than religious), or resolution below the threshold. This is the #1 cause for Vietnam and Kenya. Re-shooting the photo against a white wall, eyes-level, neutral expression, no glasses, and re-cropping to the specified ratio resolves nearly all photo rejections.
2. Passport bio-page scan blurry or partial
The MRZ (machine-readable zone — the two long lines at the bottom of the bio-page) must be sharp enough to be parsed. Most rejections here come from phone scans taken at an angle, in poor light, or with the MRZ partly cropped off. Re-take with the passport flat under good light, all four corners visible, no glare.
3. Name mismatch with passport
The name you typed differs from what’s encoded in the MRZ. Common culprits: putting the middle name in the wrong field, dropping a hyphen, missing a diacritic, or copying the printed name (which sometimes differs from the MRZ). The MRZ is the source of truth — match it character for character.
4. Passport expiry too close
Most countries require at least six months of remaining validity from your intended date of entry. If your passport expires sooner, renewing is the only path — re-applying with the same passport will be rejected again, and the government fee is non-refundable.
5. Wrong port of entry selected
Vietnam’s eVisa is only valid at 13 international airports, 13 sea ports and 16 land border gates. India’s is valid at 34 designated airports, 18 sea ports and 4 land checkposts. Selecting a checkpoint not on the list — usually a smaller regional airport — produces an automatic rejection at the gate of entry, even if the visa itself is issued.
6. Diplomatic / official passport on a tourist channel
Holders of diplomatic, official or service passports cannot use the eVisa channel for any of the three countries we cover. You must apply through embassy / diplomatic processes instead. This is not a fixable error.
What’s recoverable vs. permanent
Photo, MRZ, name mismatch, checkpoint, and applicant-side typos are all fully recoverable — fix the underlying issue and re-apply. The government fee is lost on the original submission (non-refundable) but the second submission usually clears.
Passport expiry, diplomatic passport channel, and any prior immigration history flag are generally not recoverable through the eVisa channel — the rejection signals that you need a different visa type, a renewed passport, or in some cases a consular interview.
If you’ve already been rejected
Don’t pay the government fee a second time until you know what went wrong. Forward your rejection email to us and we’ll give you a free diagnostic — we’ll either tell you exactly what to fix or tell you straight up that the eVisa channel won’t work for your case. Embassy channels are slower and more expensive, but for some cases they are the only path.