Vietnam work permits for foreign employees (2026)

Who needs a Vietnam work permit?

Most foreign nationals working in Vietnam need a work permit. Decree 219/2025/ND-CP, in force since 7 August 2025, is the controlling instrument and recognises four categories of permitted foreign worker — manager, executive director, expert and technical worker. A permit is issued only where the person fits one of those categories.1

Decree 219/2025 replaced the older Decree 152/2020 regime (as amended by Decree 70/2023), which most online guides still describe, so earlier checklists are out of date. The headline change for employers is that the eligibility thresholds were relaxed: the old “five years and no degree” expert route was removed and the experience bars were lowered, so foreign specialists, including senior engineers, now clear the expert test more readily — see hiring developers and foreign specialists in Vietnam. A foreign English teacher is normally permitted in the same expert category, on a recognised degree plus a teaching certificate; see hiring English teachers in Vietnam through an EOR. The current thresholds are set out below.1

How long is a work permit valid?

A Vietnam work permit is valid for up to two years, matching the term of the labour contract or assignment it supports (Decree 219/2025, Art. 21). It can be extended once, for up to another two years; after that the employer must apply for a fresh permit rather than extend again (Decree 219/2025).1

Because the permit is tied to the contract term and to a named employer and workplace, it is not portable: if the worker changes employer or role, a new or re-issued permit is generally required. That link between permit and contract is also why the fixed-term and renewal rules in Vietnam’s employment-contract rules matter when you plan a foreign hire — the two documents have to line up. The table below gathers the timings an employer needs most.

How do you apply for a Vietnam work permit, and how long does it take?

You apply to the provincial People’s Committee under Decree 219/2025, which merged the old demand-justification step into one work-permit application. The permit is issued within 10 working days of a complete dossier, any refusal reasoned within three working days, and the dossier is filed between 60 and 10 days before the intended start date.12

Decree 219/2025 also dropped the periodic foreign-employment reports.1 Two timing details still catch employers out. Where a local-recruitment posting applies — only for specific hire categories, not every application — it must run at least five days before the demand-justification part of the dossier is submitted, shortened from the previous 15 days. And the employer must notify the relevant local labour authority at least three working days before the worker starts at each work location.12 The practical effect is that the paperwork has to be built into the hiring timeline rather than left to the last week.

What documents are required?

A Vietnam work-permit dossier includes a valid passport, a health certificate issued within the last 12 months, a criminal-record (judicial-record) certificate issued within the last six months, and proof of the worker’s qualifications and experience, together with evidence of the employment arrangement (Decree 219/2025).1

Two practical points reduce the paper chase. The physical health certificate can be waived where the results are linked to the national health database, and the criminal-record certificate can be obtained through the National Public Service Portal. Documents issued abroad, however, still carry a formality cost: they must be consular-legalised, then translated into Vietnamese and notarised, unless a treaty or a reciprocity arrangement exempts them (Decree 219/2025, Art. 5).1 Legalisation of a degree or a home-country police check is often the slowest link in the chain, which is why the 60-day front edge of the application window is useful rather than generous.

Who is exempt from a work permit?

Decree 219/2025 sets out 15 categories of foreign worker who are exempt from a Vietnam work permit — most usefully the short-stay rule for managers, executives, experts and technical workers present in Vietnam for fewer than 90 cumulative days in a calendar year — but an exemption is not the same as no paperwork: the employer must still notify the authority at least three working days before work starts.1 For the full 15 categories, the cumulative-90-day change and the notification duty, see work-permit exemptions in Vietnam.

Do work-permit holders get a visa and residence card?

With a work permit, a foreign employee is sponsored for a labour (LĐ) visa and can apply for a Temporary Residence Card valid for up to two years, but never longer than the work permit itself (Law on Foreigners’ Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence 47/2014, as amended).3 For how the LĐ visa and the Temporary Residence Card (symbol LD2) stack on the permit, dependants and renewal, see the Vietnam work visa and residence card.

Do foreign employees pay tax and social insurance in Vietnam?

A foreign employee on a Vietnamese labour contract of 12 months or more pays compulsory social and health insurance but is exempt from unemployment insurance. The combined load is roughly 9.5% from the employee and 20.5% from the employer — about 30% in total, against 32% for Vietnamese staff — under the Social Insurance Law 41/2024, in force from 1 July 2025.4 See social insurance for foreign employees for the exemptions, the bilateral social-security agreements and the one-time lump-sum claim on leaving Vietnam.

A 2% trade-union contribution applies on top of that on the employer side; the full breakdown, with the contribution cap, is on employer payroll and social-insurance costs in Vietnam. Whether the person is taxed as a resident or a non-resident turns on the 183-day residency test: a tax resident is taxed on worldwide employment income at progressive rates of 5% to 35%, while a non-resident pays a flat 20% on Vietnam-source employment income, under the Personal Income Tax Law 109/2025 (in force from July 2026).5 See how personal income tax applies to foreign employees for the bands, deductions and filing calendar. One narrower point to confirm case by case: an intra-corporate-transfer position can change whether compulsory insurance applies, so check the worker’s status against Decree 219/2025 before assuming either way.1

How EOR Vietnam handles work permits

An employer of record sponsors and manages the work permit as the legal employer. Because a Vietnam work permit is tied to a specific registered employer and workplace, you cannot sponsor one without a Vietnamese entity — and an EOR provides that entity, so a foreign company can place a worker in Vietnam without incorporating.

In practice EOR Vietnam’s Vietnamese entity prepares and files the dossier, arranges the consular legalisation and Vietnamese translation of foreign documents, tracks the 10-working-day issue and the two-year validity, and applies for the LĐ visa and Temporary Residence Card. It keeps the permit aligned with the labour contract and payroll, handles the extension before expiry, and manages the cancellation and notification steps at offboarding. Every written quote names the specific Vietnamese entity that will employ the worker and states which of these duties it assumes, so you can see where responsibility sits. Because a foreign hire adds the work-permit, visa and residence-card process on top of ordinary employment, the fee for foreign nationals is quoted separately rather than at the flat per-employee rate for Vietnamese staff.

For how that employing entity is structured lawfully, see whether an EOR is legal in Vietnam and what an employer of record does; for the all-in figures, see what an EOR in Vietnam costs. For the wider picture, see the EOR Vietnam overview and our Vietnam employer guides.