Vietnam work visa and temporary residence card

What visa does a foreign employee need to work in Vietnam?

To work legally in Vietnam a foreign national needs three things, in order: a work permit (or a confirmation that they are exempt), then an employer-sponsored LĐ labour visa, and, in most cases, a Temporary Residence Card (TRC). None of them can outlast the work permit. The work permit is the decision that someone may be employed; the visa and card are the immigration documents that let them enter and reside to do it.

The labour visa comes in two symbols — sometimes written LD1 and LD2 in English. An LĐ1 visa is issued to a foreigner who holds a work-permit exemption confirmation; an LĐ2 visa is issued to a foreigner who holds a full work permit.1 The visa is sponsored by the Vietnamese employing entity, not applied for by the individual, and it is valid for up to two years — but if the underlying work permit is valid for less than two years, the visa term is cut to match the permit.1

This page picks up after the permit is granted. The eligibility categories, the dossier and the Decree 219/2025 process live on the Vietnam work permit page, and the fifteen exemption categories on work-permit exemptions; the rest of the foreign-hiring picture sits in our Vietnam employer guides. Foreign English teachers are a common group who follow this permit, LĐ visa and residence-card chain — see employing English teachers in Vietnam.

The temporary residence card (LĐ2)

Once a foreign employee holds an LĐ visa, the sponsoring employer can apply for a Temporary Residence Card carrying the same symbol — LĐ1 or LĐ2. The card matters because it replaces the need to keep applying for entry visas: it is a multiple-entry residence document the holder uses to leave and re-enter Vietnam freely for as long as it is valid.6

Its validity is capped twice over. It cannot exceed two years, and it cannot run longer than the work permit that underpins it — whichever is shorter wins.1 Because a work permit is itself capped at two years, tied to the labour-contract term (Decree 219/2025, Art. 21),2 a first card is in practice issued for the permit's remaining term rather than a flat two years. In practice the card is issued where the employee holds a passport valid for more than a year, a current DN or LĐ visa, and a work permit with at least a year to run.5

Work permit vs visa vs TRC — how the three stack

These are three different instruments under two different laws, and they are easy to conflate. The work permit is a labour-authority decision; the visa and the residence card are immigration documents issued under the Law on Foreigners' Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence. Each later document is pinned to the one before it.

Can my family come with me?

Yes. A foreign employee's spouse and children under eighteen can accompany them on a TT visa, which the Law on Foreigners grants to the spouse and under-18 children of an LĐ1 or LĐ2 visa holder (and to the immediate family of Vietnamese citizens).1 A TT-visa dependant may reside in Vietnam but may not work: a family member who later takes a job needs their own work permit and LĐ visa in their own right, after which they move onto the worker route above.1

A TT dependant can in turn be issued a TT temporary residence card tied to the sponsoring employee's status, so family members are not left applying for fresh entry visas each time they travel. The dependant card is aligned to the employee's own card; confirm the exact term granted in each case, because it follows the sponsor rather than a fixed period.1

Renewal, and what happens when the permit ends

A work permit can be extended once, for up to two further years; after that a fresh permit must be applied for (Decree 219/2025).2 Each time the permit is renewed, the LĐ visa and the residence card are re-issued to match the new permit term — they do not roll over on their own, so the three renewals need to be sequenced together.

When the permit ends and is not renewed, the visa and card lapse with it: the right to reside is only as durable as the employment that justified it, so a clean exit means timing the final payroll, the permit cancellation and the card's return together. Two linked points matter on the way out — a departing foreign employee may be able to reclaim a one-time social-insurance lump sum (see social insurance for foreign employees), and anyone who has spent 183 days or more in Vietnam has become a Vietnamese tax resident for that year, which changes how the final pay is taxed.4

How EOR Vietnam sponsors the work visa and TRC

The LĐ visa and the residence card must be sponsored by a licensed Vietnamese employing entity, so a foreign company with no entity in Vietnam cannot sponsor them directly — the specific gap an employer of record fills. An EOR is the licensed Vietnamese company that directly employs the worker as the legal employer, which lets it carry the whole immigration chain rather than you incorporating first (setting up your own entity takes months before you can sponsor anyone).

For a foreign hire, that means EOR Vietnam files the work-permit dossier, sponsors the LĐ visa, applies for the LĐ2 residence card, and runs the foreign-employee payroll — including the compulsory social and health insurance that applies to a foreigner on a 12-month-plus contract (about 30% all-in across employer and employee, with no unemployment insurance).3 For how the employing relationship is lawful in the first place, see whether an EOR is legal in Vietnam and what an EOR is.

1. Work permit

   We assess eligibility, assemble and legalise the dossier, and obtain the work permit (or an exemption confirmation) from the provincial authority.

2. LĐ labour visa

   As the sponsoring employer we apply for the LĐ2 (or LĐ1) visa, timed to the permit so the terms line up.

3. Temporary residence card

   Once the visa is in hand we apply for the LĐ2 card, giving multiple-entry residence for the permit's term.

4. Renewal or exit

   We re-issue the visa and card on each permit extension, or sequence the cancellation, final payroll and card return on exit.

On price, EOR Vietnam's management fee for a Vietnamese national is a flat US$149 per employee per month (as of October 2026), with no setup, onboarding, offboarding, contract or payslip fees. A foreign national who needs a work permit, LĐ visa and residence card is quoted separately on request, because the immigration dossier, consular legalisation and government fees vary by nationality and role. A refundable security deposit equal to two months of the employee's employment cost (gross salary plus statutory employer contributions) is held for the engagement and returned at the end, less any unpaid amounts; salary, statutory contributions and government fees are passed through at cost.