Can you work remotely in Vietnam, and can you hire someone who does? Yes to both — but not through a special regime. Vietnam has no standalone telework statute and no digital-nomad visa, so remote work is treated as ordinary employment performed at an agreed location. The normal rules on working hours, occupational safety, social insurance and personal income tax all still apply. The honest headline is that “remote” changes where the work happens, not the legal category it sits in.
That matters in two directions. If you employ a Vietnamese worker who sits at home, nothing about their contract, contributions or payslip changes because of the location. If a foreign remote worker wants to live in Vietnam, there is no bespoke visa for them, and the moment they are actually employed in Vietnam the full work-permit regime applies. Hiring a remote Vietnamese team from abroad with no local entity is exactly what an employer of record in Vietnam is built for.
Is there a work-from-home law in Vietnam?
No. There is no separate law or decree on remote work — no dedicated “telework” or “work-from-home” statute. Remote working is lawful, but it runs on the ordinary rules of the 2019 Labour Code plus whatever the employer and employee agree in the contract, rather than on a special remote-work regime.1
The legal hook is simple. The 2019 Labour Code makes the place of work, alongside the job itself, a compulsory term of every labour contract (Art. 21).1 That is the basis for remote work: the employer and employee agree, in the contract or a signed appendix, that the workplace is the employee’s home or another remote location. Get it in writing — a verbal “you can work from home” is weaker and harder to enforce, and a change of workplace is normally made by a written appendix on at least three working days’ notice (Art. 33).1
Do labour rules apply to remote work in Vietnam?
They apply in full. Moving an employee off-site does not switch off the statutory protections; working-hour limits, overtime pay, occupational-safety duties and the whole payroll-and-contribution machinery are identical to an office-based employee. Remote work is a question of where, not a different pay-and-compliance category.
On hours, a remote employee is still capped at up to 8 hours a day and 48 a week, with overtime limited and paid at a premium (150% to 300%) and night work carrying its own uplift.1 The employer still has to record hours and pay overtime, wherever the laptop sits — see how working hours and overtime work in Vietnam.
On safety, the Occupational Safety and Health Law (No. 84/2015) covers all employees on a labour contract, with no exception for people working from home, so the employer’s duties — safe conditions, training, accident reporting and the compulsory occupational-accident insurance — still apply to remote staff.2 The law simply does not spell out how site-based duties map onto a private home, so employers usually address this through the remote-work policy and the contract rather than a fixed checklist. The mechanics are covered under occupational safety and health obligations.
On pay, letting staff work remotely changes nothing. A remote Vietnamese employee is still on compulsory social, health and unemployment insurance — about 10.5% withheld from the employee and roughly 23.5% carried by the employer, including the 2% trade-union fee — still has personal income tax withheld, and must be paid on time in Vietnamese dong with a payslip.34 The full breakdown sits in Vietnam payroll and employer costs.
Home-office support and allowances follow the ordinary 2026 personal-income-tax rules too — there is no special remote-work exemption. A cash meal allowance is tax-exempt up to ₫1,200,000 per person per month (meals provided in kind are fully exempt), and tools or equipment the employer supplies for the job are not treated as the employee’s taxable income. Other allowances, such as a telephone or internet stipend, are exempt only within the flat amount set in the contract or internal policy, so confirm the current treatment for each before relying on a figure.11 The detail is in tax-free allowances in Vietnam.
Does Vietnam have a digital-nomad visa?
No. As of October 2026 Vietnam has no dedicated digital-nomad visa and no remote-work visa, and nothing introduced in 2025 or 2026 created one.5 A foreigner who wants to be in Vietnam while working remotely for a company abroad has to fit into an existing visa category. In practice that means the tourist electronic visa (e-visa): open to all nationalities, valid for up to 90 days, and available as single- or multiple-entry, with a US$25 (single) or US$50 (multiple) government fee as of 2026.6
One honest caveat about that route: the e-visa is a short-stay tourist visa, so doing paid remote work for a foreign employer while on it is a tolerated grey area, not something Vietnamese immigration law expressly permits — and it is not a work permit.6 Two further points are worth knowing. From 1 July 2026 Vietnam added two new five-year visas — the UĐ1 for high-quality digital-technology professionals and the UĐ2 for their immediate family — but these are a tech-talent visa, not a digital-nomad one; UĐ1 is aimed at specialist hires sponsored through an employer or institution, not freelancers working remotely for a company overseas.7 You may also see talk of a Vietnamese “Golden Visa” for long-term stays; as of late 2026 that is still a proposal under discussion rather than a confirmed law, and even as described it is an investor or talent scheme, not a remote-work visa.
There is a clear line between working remotely for an overseas employer and being employed in Vietnam. The tourist e-visa is for the former. As soon as a foreigner is actually employed in Vietnam — including through an employer of record — the lawful route is the work-permit regime: a work permit (or a confirmed exemption), a labour (LĐ) visa and a Temporary Residence Card, each valid for up to two years.5 Short in-country stints can fall under the exemption for managers and experts present fewer than 90 cumulative days in a calendar year, but the employer must still notify the authority at least three working days before work starts.5 The detail is in Vietnam work permits, the work-permit exemptions and the work visa and residence card.
A final trap for long-stay remote workers is tax, not immigration. Spend 183 days or more in Vietnam (in a calendar year or any rolling 12 months), or keep a home here, and you become a Vietnamese tax resident — taxable in Vietnam on worldwide employment income at 5% to 35%, whatever your visa says and wherever your employer is. Below that threshold, a non-resident is taxed at a flat 20% on Vietnam-source income only.8 We unpack the test in tax residency and the 183-day rule.
There is a company-side risk as well. If a foreign company’s people work from Vietnam, or it engages staff here without a local entity, the tax authority may treat it as having a permanent establishment in Vietnam — a taxable presence that turns on the facts and any applicable double-tax treaty. Employing through a Vietnam-registered employer of record keeps the employment itself local and compliant, but it does not by itself settle that question, so take tax advice before assuming it does.
How do I hire a remote employee in Vietnam?
For a remote Vietnamese employee, you have two broad options: set up your own Vietnamese entity and run payroll yourself, or hire through an employer of record that already has one. An EOR becomes the legal employer on paper — signing the labour contract, running payroll, registering and paying social, health and unemployment insurance, withholding personal income tax and issuing payslips — while your team directs the day-to-day work. Because the EOR’s own registered entity employs the worker, you can hire a remote person in Vietnam without incorporating anything yourself, usually in days rather than the one-to-three months an entity set-up takes.
This is the common path for distributed teams: a software company hiring a remote developer in Vietnam, a startup adding one operations hire, or a scale-up testing the market before committing to its own entity. The remote element adds nothing legally special; it is ordinary Vietnamese employment that happens to be performed from home. What the EOR carries is the same contract, the roughly 23.5% statutory on-cost and the filing calendar any Vietnamese employer faces — which is why the model works equally well whether your hire sits in an office or at a kitchen table. For the full picture of what that costs, see what an EOR actually costs in Vietnam.
What about data protection for a remote HR setup?
Remote teams move employee data across borders by default, and since 1 January 2026 that is governed by the Personal Data Protection Law 91/2025/QH15 and its implementing Decree 356/2025/ND-CP, which together replace the earlier Decree 13/2023.910 Sending Vietnamese personal data abroad normally requires a cross-border-transfer impact assessment, filed with the data-protection authority (the Ministry of Public Security) within 60 days of the first transfer.9
There is an exemption that matters here: Decree 356/2025 provides relief from that assessment for transfers made to manage employees across a multinational group, in line with labour rules and agreements — relevant to EOR and HR data flows, though the exact conditions should be confirmed for each case.10 An EOR acts as a controller or processor of employee data and should map how your remote team’s records flow to any overseas parent. The HR-specific duties are set out in how the PDPL applies to HR data.
How EOR Vietnam employs your remote Vietnam team
EOR Vietnam employs your remote Vietnamese staff through a Vietnam-registered entity — our employer-of-record service in Vietnam — and handles the whole compliance stack: the labour contract with the workplace stated correctly, payroll in Vietnamese dong, social, health and unemployment insurance, personal income tax withholding, payslips and offboarding. Your team manages the work; we carry the legal-employer obligations, remote or office, across Vietnam.
One point is specific to teams spread across the country: which regional minimum wage applies is fixed by the employer’s registered place of operation, not by where the employee lives, so a home-based employee in a lower-wage province is still measured against our entity’s region. The monthly floor runs from ₫5,310,000 (Region I) down to ₫3,700,000 (Region IV) as of 1 January 2026; the figures and the region map are in the Vietnam minimum wage guide.12
Our service fee is a flat US$149 per employee per month for Vietnamese nationals — the same fee regardless of salary, seniority, role, where in Vietnam the person works or headcount, as of October 2026; it is not a percentage of payroll. Foreign hires who need a Vietnamese work permit are quoted separately, because the permit, visa and residence-card handling differs case by case. There are no setup, onboarding, offboarding, contract or payslip fees, and no hidden fees. A refundable security deposit equal to two months of the employee’s employment cost — gross salary plus the statutory employer contributions — is held for the engagement and returned at the end, less any unpaid amounts. Everything else — gross salary, the roughly 23.5% statutory contributions and any statutory or agreed employment payments — is passed through at cost. You can request a costed EOR Vietnam quote or browse the full Vietnam employer guides.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a work-from-home law in Vietnam?
No. Vietnam has no dedicated telework or work-from-home statute. Remote work is lawful but runs on the ordinary 2019 Labour Code plus what the parties agree. Because the workplace is a compulsory term of every labour contract (Art. 21), the employer and employee simply fix it as the employee’s home in the contract or a signed appendix. Get it in writing.
Does Vietnam have a digital-nomad visa?
No. As of October 2026 there is no digital-nomad or remote-work visa, and nothing in 2025 or 2026 created one. Most remote workers use the tourist e-visa (all nationalities, up to 90 days, US$25–50), but that is short-stay status, not a work permit, and remote paid work on it is a tolerated grey area rather than an expressly authorised one.
Do labour rules apply to remote workers in Vietnam?
Yes, in full. Working off-site does not switch off any statutory protection. Working-time caps (8 hours a day, 48 a week), overtime pay, occupational-safety duties, the roughly 23.5% employer insurance contributions and personal income tax all apply exactly as they would in an office. Remote work changes where the job is done, not the legal and payroll category it falls into.
How do I hire a remote employee in Vietnam?
Either set up your own Vietnamese entity, or hire through an employer of record that already has one. An EOR signs the labour contract, runs payroll and insurance, withholds tax and issues payslips while your team directs the work — so you can employ a remote Vietnamese worker with no local entity, usually in days. The remote element adds nothing special; it is ordinary Vietnamese employment performed from home.
Sources
- Labour Code No. 45/2019/QH14 — Arts. 21 and 33 (workplace as a contract term; amendment by appendix), Arts. 98, 105–107 (working time, overtime and night-work pay), Art. 95 (payslip). Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Law on Occupational Safety and Health No. 84/2015/QH13 — Art. 2 (scope covers all employees on a labour contract, with no carve-out for home-based work). Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Law on Social Insurance No. 41/2024/QH15 — compulsory social, health and unemployment insurance framework, in force 1 Jul 2025. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries — Vietnam — employer ~23.5% / employee 10.5% statutory contribution rates and caps. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Decree No. 219/2025/ND-CP — foreign workers, work permits, the under-90-days exemption, labour (LĐ) visa and Temporary Residence Card; in force 7 Aug 2025. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Vietnam Briefing — e-visa eligibility and criteria — e-visa for all nationalities, up to 90 days, single or multiple entry, US$25 / US$50 fee (Law 23/2023/QH15 and Resolution 127/NQ-CP, in force 15 Aug 2023). Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- VnExpress International — new digital-technology visas — UĐ1 / UĐ2 five-year visas under Law 118/2025/QH15, in force 1 Jul 2026 (tech talent, not digital nomads). Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Law on Personal Income Tax No. 109/2025/QH15 — tax-residency test (183 days), resident 5–35% on worldwide income, non-resident flat 20%; in force from 1 Jul 2026. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Law on Personal Data Protection No. 91/2025/QH15 (PDPL) — HR data and the cross-border-transfer impact assessment (Art. 20, within 60 days); in force 1 Jan 2026. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Decree No. 356/2025/ND-CP — PDPL implementation and the personnel-management transfer exemption; in force 1 Jan 2026. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Decree No. 253/2026/ND-CP (with Circular No. 87/2026/TT-BTC) — 2026 personal-income-tax guidance on tax-exempt allowances, including the ₫1,200,000/person/month cash meal-allowance cap; in force 1 July 2026. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.
- Decree No. 293/2025/ND-CP — regional minimum wages from 1 January 2026 (Region I ₫5,310,000 to Region IV ₫3,700,000); the applicable region follows the employer’s place of operation. Accessed 3 Oct 2026.