Fair «Giáo dục Hoa Kỳ EducationUSA 2026» (U.S. Education)

   Sixty American universities and colleges will be gathered in one hall in central Hanoi, and the person behind each table is an admissions officer from that institution. You can ask on the spot what an email usually takes weeks to answer: majors, entry requirements, tuition and the odds of getting financial help.

   The fair is run by the EducationUSA office in the Cultural and Information Section of the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi. That is the State Department's official advising network, not a commercial recruitment agency. Worldwide, EducationUSA runs 425 advising centres in more than 178 countries under the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

   The afternoon splits cleanly in two. The registration desk opens at 13:45; at 14:00 a Consular Officer from the U.S. Mission walks through student visa procedures for roughly fifty minutes. After short opening remarks from a Mission representative, the exhibition floor opens at 15:05 to all comers.

   What those hours are good for:

• — community college, bachelor's, master's and doctoral programmes;
• — summer schools, certificate courses and English language study;
• — admission requirements and paperwork, answered by the institutions themselves;
• — scholarships and financial aid the institutions offer international students;
• — scholarship programmes funded by the U.S. government for Vietnamese applicants.

   The people who gain most are school leavers arriving with a parent, final-year undergraduates thinking about a further degree, and working professionals considering a return to study. Anyone still torn between a four-year university and a community college should come as well, since both models sit in the same room. And if your file is finished and only the visa stage is holding you up, the opening session was built for precisely that.

   The autumn EducationUSA fair is an annual fixture that usually tours several cities. This year the same 60 institutions work in Ho Chi Minh City two days before Hanoi. The Hanoi leg returns to last year's hotel: on 24 September 2025 the fair was held here as well, also free to enter, and it started an hour later — that hour now goes to the consular session.

   The interest runs both ways. Open Doors 2025 counted 1,177,766 international students in the United States in 2024/25, with Vietnam climbing from sixth to fifth place among sending countries after a 26% rise in a single year, its highest total on record.

   The organisers had not published the list of participating institutions when the fair was announced, so individual names will only become clear closer to the date. Advance registration is required.

   A notebook, a shortlist of subjects and a few questions drafted beforehand will turn one afternoon into something worth keeping. That way you leave with institution names, contact people and addresses rather than a general impression.