Vietnam Work Permit and Residence on Employment Grounds

Since Government Decree 219 took effect in August 2025, no foreigner can secure residence on employment grounds by bypassing the employer. The decree folded the case for hiring a specialist from abroad and that specialist's personal papers into one combined file. Responsibility for issuing the Vietnam work permit rests today with each provincial People's Committee (PPC), and labour clearance and migration status are obtained in sequence within a single administrative chain.

In this article I set out the route to residence on employment grounds, a path that depends on correctly pairing labour clearance with migration status. It covers the permit and the grounds for exempting a specialist from it, along with the LĐ1 and LĐ2 categories. Later sections treat temporary residence cards (TRCs), the validity of each document and the role of the employer.

How Vietnamese legislation structures residence on employment grounds

Under Vietnamese legislation, a foreigner's authorisation to work runs along two separate tracks, one for labour and one for immigration. Before securing a lawful basis to stay, a specialist seeking residence on employment grounds must establish an entitlement to occupy the post. On the labour track, clearance comes through a permit or, alternatively, through an exemption that has received official confirmation. The second track, immigration, records migration status by assigning the corresponding visa code or issuing a TRC.

In everyday conversation, Russian-speaking entrepreneurs often call this card a "work residence permit", whereas the legislation itself uses the term "temporary residence card". The card serves as the principal document for long stays, attesting resident status throughout the labour contract. Within this system a visa serves only as a means of entry; it is no substitute for registering employment status with the labour authorities.

Regulation is spread over several acts: Law 47/2014 covers border crossing, while the Labour Code sets the conditions under which foreigners may fill posts. Card issuance also follows the Ministry of Public Security's Consolidated Document No. 02/VBHN-BCA as well as Ministry of Finance regulations. Key statutory reference points are set out in the table.

Acts governing authorisation to work:

From 7 August 2025, when the decree entered into force, the procedure changed substantially. The decree scrapped the earlier two-step sequence, in which a company had to get its need for staff from abroad cleared before lodging papers for a named employee. Each filing for a permit passes through a single integrated procedure that weighs the hiring rationale alongside the candidate's own papers.

The PPCs now exercise both decision-making and issuing powers. With these powers resting with the provinces, businesses need a precise grasp of regional practice, particularly when they operate a wide network of branches. A Vietnam temporary residence card for employment is issued properly only if the host organisation takes part, acting as guarantor that the expatriate will observe local law.

Residence categories and visa codes

Classification of residence status turns directly on how the labour relationship is structured and on the candidate's qualifications. Job-linked residence falls into two principal categories, each tied to a labour activity code. LĐ1 covers foreigners whom the law releases from the standard duty to hold a permit. Large investors and heads of representative offices are also exempt from the permit requirement, although they receive their own visa codes (ĐT and NN) rather than LĐ1. LĐ2 residence covers most technical personnel, specialists and experts once they obtain the Vietnam work permit.

Extended residence is out of reach without a sponsoring organisation to sign the contract and report particulars to the supervisory bodies. Typically, an LĐ2 visa comes first, and only then is the TRC requested in-country with that visa as its basis. Visa and card alike remain in force strictly within the employment terms, and neither can run beyond two years.

Main residence categories for employment:

The validity period finally granted to the visa or card depends on several factors, which the authorities weigh:

• decision of the relevant PPC;
• remaining passport life;
• length of the contract;
• period covered by the exemption document or permit.

One fixed rule governs expiry: the passport must outlive a TRC granted for employment by thirty days or more. Where the passport has under two years left, the card receives a correspondingly shorter term. Every employment-based TRC is cancelled automatically when the employment relationship ends, whatever expiry date it shows.

Under the Code, 24 months is the ceiling for job-linked residence and the base limit for one authorisation cycle. When that period has run and the one permitted extension has been used, the specialist has to restart the procedure with a fresh set of papers. No card for residence on employment grounds can be granted until the authority in charge of labour has actually recorded the expatriate as authorised to work.

Electronic visas, which allow stays lasting no more than ninety days, are not a channel for work-related migration and confer no advantage in obtaining residence. Its longer statutory term makes a TRC a far more convenient way for a company to keep a specialist in the country than visas permitting repeated entry.

Core conditions an employee must satisfy

An employer in Vietnam hiring foreign staff needs a candidate who strictly matches both the declared post and its own corporate profile. The law sorts employees into four principal categories, and every category has its own supporting papers.

Managers and executive directors prove their status with charter documents or the board resolution appointing them. Experts must provide a university diploma or a document certifying equivalent qualifications. A trained technical worker must document a completed vocational course lasting a year or more. Under the revised rules, an expert must also document two years or more on the job in the field concerned. For technical staff, the bar is two years on the job if trained, three otherwise.

Qualification thresholds by category:

Among the candidate's own papers are a passport, colour photographs of the prescribed format and certificates of medical fitness. Medical examinations take place only at accredited facilities. The resulting medical certificate keeps its legal force for a year.

A police certificate is accepted only within a limited window: the certificate must bear a date within half a year before filing. Foreign civil-status records, educational documents and official extracts all have to undergo consular legalisation.

Every permit is bound to one particular employer entity and the post named in the contract. A foreigner may not unilaterally switch employer or line of work without going through approval again. Any hiring company that applies for a recruit's work permit in Vietnam must also provide up-to-date details of its own registration and business licences.

When the permit requirement does not apply

The legislation names several situations where a lighter regime replaces the usual procedure for a permit. Where an expatriate's activity is a priority for socio-economic development, job-linked residence is available without a conventional work permit in Vietnam.

Investors gain access to a preferential authorisation regime once their contribution to a Vietnamese enterprise's charter capital reaches VND 3bn. That threshold opens up investor residence, which rests on holding a stake or managing a JSC.

• LLC members and owners from abroad contributing VND 3bn or more;
• heads and members of governing bodies in a JSC, where investment reaches VND 3bn or more;
• foreigners in a registered marriage with a citizen of Vietnam;
• heads of projects run in Vietnam by international organisations or foreign non-governmental organisations, or those organisations' authorised representatives;
• lawyers holding a practising licence from the Ministry of Justice;
• brief assignments by technical staff and by experts.

Short assignments by managers and experts require no permit, provided their combined stays do not exceed ninety days in a single year. Every entry is included, with the total calculated from the first day of January to the final day of December. In such cases the employer must send the relevant body written notice three or more business days before the assignment actually begins.

For most exempt groups, the exemption must still be confirmed through the procedure commonly referred to as Work Permit Exemption. The host organisation must request that confirmation by the tenth day before the specialist is due to begin work.

Once a full file arrives, the competent PPC has five business days to examine it.

After confirmation of the exemption, the immigration records list the foreigner under code LĐ1, unless a separate visa code (ĐT or NN) applies. The LĐ1 code appears either in the visa documents or on the card itself. This code signals that the specialist is employed under the exemption regime.

Vietnam temporary residence card and permit: the dossiers

The authorisation file has to be assembled systematically, since the permit is merely the opening link in a longer documentary chain. Dossier contents vary with the grounds of stay and the planned role.

Labour clearance centres on a Form 03 request from the employer. Enclosed with it are the employee's passport (original) and two 4×6 cm colour photographs. The file also includes certificates and diplomas evidencing qualification and prior experience. An intra-corporate transferee needs an official statement confirming employment with the sending foreign entity throughout the twelve months before arrival.

Background screening draws on a police certificate dated no more than six months before the application. A medical certificate, with validity capped at one year, attests fitness.

For the entry invitation, the company compiles a Vietnam work visa package that includes an official request and evidence of registration as a business. Certified copies of the investment or enterprise registration certificate also belong in the package. Where services are supplied under contract, the dossier must include a copy of the Vietnamese party's agreement with its partner abroad that sets out the timing and terms of the work.

• NA6 and NA8 forms, completed by the sponsoring organisation and by the foreigner;
• form NA16, with a specimen seal impression and the specimen signature of the company head (needed when the company first registers with the system);
• original passport bearing an unexpired visa of the matching LĐ category;
• proof from the police database of online registration of the place of temporary stay;
• the original of the permit or, for staff on the exemption track, the official document confirming exempt status.

Every paper obtained abroad needs legalisation, unless the country that issued it has a bilateral treaty with Vietnam under which each side recognises the other's documents. Legalisation comes first; the papers are then rendered into Vietnamese, with a notary attesting the translation.

Stages in securing residence on employment grounds

Authorisation proceeds as a series of administrative hurdles, and each step hinges on the success of the one before. The employer and the recruit must cooperate closely before the latter has even entered the country. Under this system, no foreigner can secure status alone, without active participation from a licensed employer.

Statutory deadlines:

On average, the whole route to job-linked residence lasts from three to five weeks, assuming the legalised paperwork is complete. Issuing the visa, the bridge between permit and card, fits inside that timeframe.

Vietnam TRC fees and other costs of job-linked residence

Budgeting an employee relocation means keeping government charges separate from operating expenses. Immigration charges are governed chiefly by the 2026 Ministry of Finance circular in the table of acts above. It sets fixed rates for issuing entry documents and registering resident status.

Charges for granting permits are not uniform nationwide. Under delegated powers, fees for the work permit in Vietnam are set by the People's Council of each province, a body separate from the PPC. The amount payable therefore varies with the company's province of registration. Hanoi and HCMC, for instance, charge VND 0.4–0.6 million for an initial permit.

TRC fees are usually quoted in foreign currency, while settlement takes place in VND. Accounts staff should confirm in advance which exchange rate applies on the transaction date. USD may act as the calculation base, but money paid into the state budget must be converted into dong.

Statutory charges and mandatory payments:

Beyond direct fees, the dossier itself generates substantial ancillary costs. The necessary expenses include these items:

• legalisation of diplomas and employment records in the home jurisdiction;
• Vietnamese translations of papers from abroad, notarially certified;
• full health screening at licensed clinics;
• police certificates, local or foreign;
• professional photographs to the prescribed format;
• courier services and fees for authorised representatives who handle filings on the company's behalf.

Conclusion

The 2025 decree has completed the shift to an integrated procedure: the hiring rationale and the candidate's papers now pass through one permit filing, and migration status is handled afterwards. An enterprise seeking job-linked residence for staff from abroad has to drive the process itself, whether each hire is exempt or relies on a Vietnam work permit. It must also confirm that each specialist it hires meets strict qualification thresholds. The new rules oblige the enterprise to assemble each dossier thoroughly and keep its data consistent across the tax, labour and immigration agencies.