A foreigner working in Vietnam needs a work permit unless an exemption applies. Permits are issued only for four positions — manager, executive director, expert or technical worker — for up to 2 years, and can be extended once for up to 2 more. The employer files between 10 working days and 60 days before the start date; the provincial authority decides within 10 working days of a complete file. Because criminal records and degrees from abroad must be legalized first, plan on 4–8 weeks in total. On 5 December 2026, Decree 393/2026/ND-CP replaces Decree 219/2025/ND-CP: some experience thresholds drop, renewals get faster, and leasing foreign workers to another company is expressly banned.
Which case are you?
| Situation | What you need | Decided in |
|---|---|---|
| A foreigner signs a labor contract with an employer in Vietnam (including through an EOR) | Work permit | 10 working days |
| Investor with ₫3 billion+ capital; spouse of a Vietnamese citizen; under 90 days a year in total and not hired or paid by a Vietnamese company; offering services for under 3 months | Notification only, at least 3 working days ahead | Nothing to wait for |
| Intra-company transfer in the 11 WTO service sectors; STEM master's teaching; strategic-technology expert; confirmed by a ministry or province | Certificate of exemption | 5 working days |
1. Who needs a work permit
A work permit (giấy phép lao động) is issued by the Vietnamese state to let one foreign national work for one employer, in one position, for a fixed term. The employer applies — not the worker. Under Article 151 of the 2019 Labor Code, the foreigner must be at least 18, have the qualifications and experience the job requires, be in good health, have no sentence being served or unspent conviction in Vietnam or abroad, and hold a permit unless exempt.
The employer has its own test (Article 152): foreigners may be hired only as managers, executive directors, experts or technical workers, and only for roles Vietnamese workers cannot yet fill — a need you explain in the application itself. The permit belongs to that employment: a foreigner who moves to another company needs a new permit, even for the same job.
Practice note: the labor contract may not run longer than the work permit (Article 151(2)), but with a foreign employee you may sign successive fixed-term contracts. Match the contract's end date to the permit and put the renewal in the calendar the day the permit arrives.
2. What changes on 5 December 2026
Decree 219/2025/ND-CP has governed foreign workers since 7 August 2025, replacing Decrees 152/2020 and 70/2023. It merged the old two-step process (labor-demand approval, then the permit) into one 10-working-day procedure and moved decisions to provincial People's Committees. On 20 October 2026 the government issued Decree 393/2026/ND-CP, effective 5 December 2026, which replaces Decree 219:
| Topic | Decree 219/2025 (to 4 Dec 2026) | Decree 393/2026 (from 5 Dec 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Executive director running a business area | 3 years' relevant experience | 2 years |
| Expert | Degree + 2 years; or degree + 1 year in finance, science and technology, innovation, digital transformation or a priority sector | Degree + 2 years; or a degree in a strategic-technology field; a top-500-university honours degree in science or technology + 1 year; culture, arts and sports specialists; qualified educators; or 5 years' relevant experience |
| Health certificate issued abroad | Only from countries with a mutual-recognition agreement | From any competent foreign medical facility, issued within 12 months |
| Renewal | File 10–45 days before expiry; decision in 10 working days | File 10 working days to 90 days before expiry; decision in 5 working days; no health certificate or criminal record |
| Exempt categories | 15 | 18 — adds special visa-exemption card holders, strategic-technology experts and their families, and the national AI talent programme |
| Employer reporting | — | Report on foreign staff before 5 June and 5 December each year |
| Leasing foreign workers to another company | No specific rule | Prohibited |
Transition (Decree 393, Article 35): permits and exemption certificates already issued stay valid until they expire; applications filed before 5 December 2026 are decided under Decree 219; renewals filed under Government Resolution 24/2026/NQ-CP before that date stay under the resolution.
3. Requirements by position
The four positions as defined by Decree 393/2026 (Article 4), with the proof the authority expects (Article 20):
| Position | Who qualifies | Proof in the file |
|---|---|---|
| Manager | An enterprise manager under the Law on Enterprises (e.g. general director, chair or board member), or the head or deputy head of an agency or organization | Company charter and appointment decision |
| Executive director | Head of a branch, representative office or business location; or the person heading and directly running one area of the business with 2 years' relevant experience (3 years until 4 December 2026) | Branch or office registration certificate; or charter/organization chart plus a letter confirming experience |
| Expert | Bachelor's degree or higher + 2 years' relevant experience — or one of the new routes listed in section 2 | Degree plus a former employer's letter confirming years of experience |
| Technical worker | At least 1 year of training + 2 years' experience, or 3 years' relevant experience | Training certificate and/or employer letter confirming experience |
Experience gained in Vietnam under an earlier permit counts, and the old permit or the national foreign-worker database can prove it.
Why files come back: the degree's field does not match the job title, or the experience letter is generic ("worked with us 2019–2024") without the role. Write the letter around the position you are filing for — title, duties, dates, signatory, letterhead — and make the job title on Form 03 say the same thing.
4. Who is exempt
An exemption removes the permit, not the paperwork. There are two routes:
Notification only, at least 3 working days ahead
- Owners or members of a limited liability company, and chairs or members of a joint-stock company's board, with ₫3 billion or more in capital contribution.
- Foreigners married to a Vietnamese citizen and living in Vietnam.
- Managers, executive directors, experts and technical workers working no more than 90 days in total per calendar year. If a Vietnamese company hires and pays them, a permit is required instead.
- Entering for under 3 months to offer services, or to fix a complex technical incident local specialists cannot.
- Foreign lawyers licensed in Vietnam; PhDs, professors and associate professors teaching or researching.
- From 5 December 2026: holders of a special visa-exemption card under Decree 221/2025.
Certificate of exemption — 5 working days
- Intra-company transferees in the 11 service sectors of Vietnam's WTO commitments (valid up to 3 years under Decree 393).
- Master's graduates in STEM, finance, economics or business teaching at an education institution.
- Foreigners confirmed by a ministry or provincial People's Committee (up to 2 years).
- From 5 December 2026: experts in strategic-technology fields and their families; people recruited under the national AI talent programme.
A certificate application is filed 10 working days to 60 days before the start date, at the same place as a work permit.
5. Documents for the application
The file for a new permit (Decree 393/2026, Article 19):
- Form 03 — the employer's report explaining why a foreigner is needed and requesting the permit. For hires under a labor contract it confirms that the job was advertised to Vietnamese candidates at least 5 working days before filing (on the national job exchange, through an employment service, in the media or on your own website), unless the foreigner is the general director or director named on the business registration.
- Health certificate issued within the last 12 months.
- Passport — copy of the valid personal-data page.
- Criminal record certificate from Vietnam or abroad, issued within the last 6 months. Not needed when you file online and the authority can retrieve the data from Vietnam's criminal-record database.
- Two colour photos, 4 × 6 cm, white background, no glasses.
- Proof of position — degree or training certificate plus a letter confirming years of relevant experience; for managers, the charter and appointment decision.
Foreign documents other than the passport must be consularly legalized (unless a treaty or reciprocity exempts them), translated into Vietnamese and certified. Start there: a home-country criminal record plus legalization is usually the slowest step of the whole file.
6. Process and timeline
| When | Step |
|---|---|
| Weeks 1–4 | Collect documents abroad — criminal record, degree, experience letters — then legalize and translate them. Run the health check in parallel. |
| At least 5 working days before filing | Advertise the role to Vietnamese candidates (hires under a labor contract). |
| 10 working days to 60 days before the start date | File at the provincial Public Administrative Service Centre where the person will work, or online on the National Public Service Portal. |
| Within 10 working days of a complete file | The authority approves the need for a foreign worker and issues the permit — or explains a refusal in writing within 3 working days. |
| Before day one | Sign the written labor contract matching the permit, then apply for the work visa or temporary residence card. |
Realistic total: 4–8 weeks from the day documents start moving, most of it before filing. The authority's 10 days count only from a complete file. The competent authority is the provincial People's Committee where the person works (or the agency it delegates to); if one employer uses the same person in several provinces, the province of the head office decides.
7. Validity, renewal and changes
- Validity: the term of the planned labor contract (or assignment letter), up to 2 years.
- Renewal: once only, for up to 2 years. From 5 December 2026, file 10 working days to 90 days before expiry; the decision comes within 5 working days, and the file is Form 03, passport, photos and the current permit.
- After the one renewal: apply for a new permit 10 working days to 60 days before the renewed permit expires.
- Re-issue within 3 working days: permit lost or damaged; change of name, nationality or passport number; employer renamed with the same tax code; or the employer's office moves.
- New permit needed: changing employer, position, field or form of work. Moving to a new employer in the same position and field takes a lighter file — no new health check, criminal record or degree.
- The permit ends when it expires, the labor contract ends, the person works outside its terms, the employer closes, or it is revoked (Labor Code, Article 156). The employer collects it and returns it to the authority within 10 working days.
8. Cost and fines
The state fee is set by each province's People's Council — commonly ₫400,000–600,000 for a new permit — and some provinces reduce or waive it for online filings. Most of the real cost sits around it: the health check, the home-country criminal record, consular legalization, certified translations and the provider's handling. With Eor.vn, government fees and third-party costs pass through at cost, and the handling fee for a foreign hire is quoted per case — see pricing.
Working or employing without a permit is fined under Decree 283/2026/ND-CP, in force since 10 September 2026:
| Violation | Fine |
|---|---|
| Foreigner working without a permit or exemption certificate (deportation may follow) | ₫15–25 million |
| Employer using foreigners without a permit — 1 to 10 people | ₫30–45 million |
| — 11 to 20 people | ₫45–60 million |
| — 21 people or more | ₫60–75 million |
9. What the employer must do
- Advertise the role to Vietnamese candidates at least 5 working days before filing, and recruit the foreigner on terms no lower than the advert.
- Sign a written labor contract after the permit is issued and before work starts; its term may not exceed the permit's.
- Register social and health insurance for foreign employees on contracts of 12 months or more, and withhold personal income tax.
- Notify the authority at least 3 working days before the person starts at a new or additional work location.
- From 5 December 2026: report on foreign staff before 5 June and 5 December each year, and never lease a foreign worker to another company — the hire must meet the employer's own needs.
- Return the permit within 10 working days after it ends.
10. Work visa and temporary residence card
A work permit lets someone work; it does not let them stay. Permit holders use an LĐ2 work visa (exempt workers with a certificate use LĐ1), sponsored by the employer, and can then apply for a temporary residence card — both for up to 2 years, normally aligned with the permit. Renew the permit and the residence card together: a valid permit with an expired card still leaves the person unable to stay.
11. How Eor.vn handles it
When Eor.vn employs a foreign national for you, we are the employer on the permit and the labor contract, and we run the chain end to end:
- Before we quote: check the position category, the degree–job match, the experience proof and any exemption route.
- A document checklist for the person's nationality, with legalization and translation organised.
- The Vietnamese job advertisement, Form 03 and the filing, in our name.
- A bilingual labor contract matched to the permit, then the LĐ2 visa and temporary residence card.
- Expat payroll, social and health insurance and PIT — and a renewal reminder 90 days before expiry.
One rule we apply to every foreign hire: from 5 December 2026, Decree 393 bars leasing foreign workers to another company and requires the employer to hire them for its own needs. Before we take a foreign-national file, we agree in writing how the role is set up — employed through Eor.vn, sponsored by your own Vietnamese entity, or under an exemption — so the permit matches how the person will actually work.
Hiring Vietnamese staff as well? Our EOR service onboards them in 3–5 working days, and the hiring guide covers contracts, insurance and tax.
Legal basis
- Labor Code No. 45/2019/QH14, Articles 151–157.
- Decree 219/2025/ND-CP of 7 August 2025 on foreign workers in Vietnam — in force 7 August 2025 to 4 December 2026.
- Decree 393/2026/ND-CP of 20 October 2026 on foreign workers in Vietnam — in force from 5 December 2026, replacing Decree 219/2025.
- Decree 283/2026/ND-CP on administrative penalties in the labour field — in force from 10 September 2026, replacing Decree 12/2022.
- Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners No. 47/2014/QH13, as amended — LĐ1/LĐ2 visas and temporary residence cards.
This guide reflects the rules as of 1 November 2026 and will be reviewed again when Decree 393/2026 takes effect on 5 December 2026. It is general information, not legal advice for a specific case.