| Item | Foreign-investor requirement |
|---|---|
| Who is covered | Foreign managers, executives, experts, technicians, employees, secondees, and other foreigners performing work in Vietnam |
| Primary document | Work permit, unless a statutory exemption applies |
| Investor exemption | LLC owners or capital-contributing members, and qualifying JSC chairpersons or Board members, meeting the prescribed capital-contribution threshold |
| Short-term exemption | Managers, executives, experts, or technicians working in Vietnam for less than 90 cumulative days in a calendar year may be exempt; the employer may still need to notify the authority before work begins |
| Other common exemptions | Qualifying intra-company transferees, ODA/project personnel, foreign lawyers, accredited journalists, treaty-based personnel, certain priority-sector workers, and spouses of Vietnamese citizens |
| Typical term | Up to two years, based on the employment or assignment documentation |
| Renewal | A work permit or exemption confirmation may generally be extended once, subject to the statutory conditions |
| Responsible party | The Vietnam-based employer, sponsoring entity, or host organization |
| Timing | Start the dossier early because legalization, health, criminal-record, qualification, and translation documents often take longer than the government processing period |
| Separate immigration issue | A business visa, investor visa, temporary residence card, or exemption from a work permit does not automatically resolve every immigration or residence requirement |
The 90-day rule is calculated cumulatively from January 1 to December 31, rather than by relying only on individual visits.
Before relying on the investor exemption, confirm:
The exemption is personal. A qualifying investor does not make the company's other foreign employees exempt.
A standard application commonly includes:
The employer should not let the foreigner begin ordinary work merely because the person has entered Vietnam on a business or investor visa. Work authorization and immigration status should be checked separately, alongside the employer's broader foreign employee compliance obligations.
Confirm the work-permit category, exemption procedure, visa/TRC basis, job title, work location, and employer before the foreign national begins work in Vietnam.
One important caution: secondary summaries of the investor exemption are inconsistent, especially concerning the capital threshold and whether a confirmation or notification is required. The final decision should be based on the text and implementation of Decree 219/2025/ND-CP and the current filing practice of the competent provincial authority, not on the visa label alone.