Working in Vietnam
Work permit, LD2 visa and temporary residence card
Three documents, in one order that cannot be rearranged: the work permit first, then the LD2 visa it entitles you to, then the temporary residence card. Each one is the condition of the next. Most of the delays and most of the failed applications we see come from someone trying to start in the middle.
The chain, and why the shortcut does not exist
A foreign national who is going to be paid by a Vietnamese entity needs a work permit (giấy phép lao động) issued by the provincial authority, applied for by the employer. That permit is what opens the LD2 visa — the working visa — and the LD2 visa is what opens the temporary residence card (TRC), which replaces the visa for the rest of the stay.
A DN visa lets you come and do business; it does not authorise salaried employment and it gives no right to a temporary residence card. An invitation letter under DN can complement a work permit file — it never replaces it. Any proposal to bring someone in on a DN visa alone should be set aside: it does not answer the objective and it puts the whole position at risk.
The framework in force is Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP, applicable since 7 August 2025. Among the qualifying categories, the “expert” route is the one that fits a commercial or business-development role: it rests on the applicant's qualifications and on documented professional experience, which has to be evidenced by the previous employer — often a company outside Vietnam.
Who produces what
| Item | Produced by |
|---|---|
| Degree, criminal record certificates, medical certificate, photographs, Vietnamese language certificate where relevant | The applicant |
| Company registration certificate, articles, job description, form justifying the need to recruit a foreign worker, signed employment contract, immigration forms (visa, corporate guarantee, TRC) | The Vietnamese employer |
| Evidence of professional experience — certificate of incumbency, written resolution of appointment, latest annual return, a letter of attestation signed by a director on letterhead | The overseas group company |
| Filing of the work permit, the visa approval letter and the TRC application; sworn translations and notarisation in Vietnam | The Vietnamese employer |
The applicant's own file
- Degree certificate — original plus certified copy, apostilled or legalised.
- Home-country criminal record certificate, less than six months old at the date of filing, apostilled or legalised.
- Vietnamese criminal record certificate (phiếu lý lịch tư pháp số 1), less than six months old.
- Medical certificate from an approved hospital — valid twelve months.
- Passport with at least thirteen months of validity, plus a copy of the identity page.
- Six to ten photographs, 4×6 cm, white background, bare-headed, less than six months old.
- Curriculum vitae, and a covering letter consistent with the post applied for.
Since 11 September 2026 (Decree 293/2026/ND-CP) a degree or a criminal record from a contracting state needs only an apostille. For states outside the Convention, and those that objected to Vietnam’s accession — Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic among them — the consular route remains and must be complete: its two equivalent circuits must not be mixed within one document — through the applicant's embassy in Hanoi and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or through the consulate general in Ho Chi Minh City and the provincial foreign affairs office. Certified copies must be done in person; the legalisation step before the Vietnamese authority can be delegated.
The sequence and the realistic timeline
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Before anything | The employer confirms the hire in writing — an offer or a contract with a condition precedent — and states that it bears the official costs. The applicant commits no expense before that written confirmation. |
| Weeks 1–4 | The applicant gathers criminal records, certified copies, photographs, medical examination; the employer assembles its corporate documents and drafts the employment contract; the overseas company prepares the experience evidence and its legalisation chain. |
| Weeks 5–6 | Sworn translations and notarisation in Vietnam; the job is advertised on the employer's public channels for at least five days; the work permit file is lodged with the provincial People's Committee. |
| Weeks 7–8 | Instruction of the file — around ten working days — then issue of the work permit; the employer then requests the visa approval letter, naming the embassy where the visa will be collected. |
| Weeks 8–10 | The applicant collects the LD2 visa at the Vietnamese embassy abroad, returns, registers temporary residence at the local police station, and the TRC application is lodged with the provincial immigration office. |
Eight to ten weeks from start to residence card is the realistic span. The work permit and the LD2 visa are the milestone that matters; the card itself often follows a few weeks later, and a delay at the card stage does not stop the person working.
Ask for the visa approval letter only once the work permit has actually been issued — asking earlier produces a letter that lapses if the permit slips. And obtain the two criminal record certificates as close as possible to the filing date: both have a six-month life, and a file that waits burns that life before it is read.
Costs, and who bears them
Under the decree, the official costs of the work permit fall on the employer. In practice the employer also advances the sworn translations and the notarisation, and is reimbursed on production of receipts. The applicant's personal costs — medical examination, embassy fees, photographs, certified copies, criminal records — are normally settled by the applicant directly. What matters is that nothing undocumented passes through the applicant's hands: every disbursement should have a receipt and a line in the file.
Being an employee in Vietnam
Once the permit is issued, the person is an ordinary employee of a Vietnamese company, with the tax and social security consequences that follow. Two points shape the net position.
Personal income tax
Past 183 days of presence — or with a residence leased for the year — the person is a Vietnamese tax resident, taxable on worldwide income under a progressive scale. Tax is withheld monthly by the employer, with an annual reconciliation due by 31 March. The scale is in transition during 2026, moving from seven brackets to a shorter one; confirm the rates and the personal allowance applicable to the actual start date.
Social insurance
A contract of twelve months or more triggers compulsory affiliation to social and health insurance. Employee and employer contributions are both due, calculated on a capped salary base. Foreign employees do not contribute to unemployment insurance. Cover extends to sickness, maternity, occupational accident, pension and death.
Where the person is recruited directly by the Vietnamese entity rather than seconded from abroad, the ordinary employee regime applies in full: the exemption available for intra-group transfers does not come into play. Where a double tax treaty exists between the home state and Vietnam, it protects against double taxation but does not change the local affiliation.
The written procedure is one thing; its execution is another. The result depends as much on local practice as on the rules — on the efficiency of the provincial administration, on the completeness of the file, and above all on the relations and standing of the employer that carries it. Official timelines are indicative. The best position for an applicant is an irreproachable file and a conservative personal conduct, with the delicate parts handled by counsel on the ground.
How we help
Lo On Shing acts on two fronts. Where the applicant's professional experience comes from a Hong Kong company, we produce that evidence — certificate of incumbency, written resolution, annual return and a signed attestation — notarised and apostilled in Hong Kong. Where the employer is a Vietnamese entity we have helped incorporate, we prepare the corporate side of the file with our local partner and keep the sequence on the rails. Before the heaviest part of the legalisation, we check with the receiving province what evidence it actually asks for: the maximal chain is expensive, and often more than the file needs.