Foreign employees working in Vietnam, depending on their job position and form of employment, must complete the procedures for obtaining a Work Permit (WP) or a Certificate of Work Permit Exemption (CWPE) prior to commencing work; in certain specific cases, it is only necessary to make a notification to the competent authority, without applying for a WP or CWPE. Incorrectly determining the applicable category, submitting an incomplete dossier, or submitting a dossier that is invalid in form are common causes of dossiers being rejected or of prolonged processing times.
Job positions of foreign employees
Manager: A enterprise manager as defined in Clause 24, Article 4 of the Law on Enterprises; or the head or deputy head of an agency or organization as prescribed by law.
Executive Director: The head of a branch, representative office, or business location of an enterprise; or a person who heads and directly manages a field of operation of an agency, organization, or enterprise, with at least 3 years of experience relevant to the intended position.
Expert: A person holding a university degree or higher (or equivalent) with at least 2 years of relevant experience; or a person holding a university degree or higher in the relevant major with at least 1 year of experience, applicable to the fields of finance, science, technology, innovation, national digital transformation, or other priority socio-economic development fields as certified by the relevant Ministry or the Provincial People’s Committee.
Technical Worker: A person who has undergone at least 1 year of training and has at least 2 years of relevant experience; or a person who has at least 3 years of work experience relevant to the intended position.
Forms of employment of foreign employees
- Performing an employment contract;
- Intra-corporate transfer;
- Performing contracts or agreements in the economic, social, or other fields;
- Contractual service supplier;
- Offering services;
- Volunteer;
- Person responsible for establishing a commercial presence;
- Being seconded from a foreign agency, organization, or enterprise to work in Vietnam (except for cases of intra-corporate transfer);
- Participating in the implementation of bids or projects in Vietnam;
- Family member of a member of a foreign representative mission in Vietnam who is permitted to work under an international treaty;
- Chairperson or member of the Board of Directors of a joint stock company, or owner or member of a limited liability company, with a capital contribution value of less than VND 3 billion;
- Performing an employment contract with a foreign diplomatic mission or foreign organization in Vietnam.
Procedures for applying for a work permit
| Process | Detailed Description |
| Step 1 | Notice of Recruitment of Vietnamese Employees for the Intended Position to be Held by a Foreign Employee (applicable to certain specific forms of employment as prescribed in Decree No. 219/2025/ND-CP). |
| Step 2 | Prepare the application dossier for a Work Permit and submit it no earlier than 60 days and no later than 10 days before the date on which the foreign employee is expected to commence work.
Method of submission: online, via the National Public Service Portal of the locality where the foreign employee is expected to work. |
| Step 3 | The competent authority shall appraise the dossier and issue the Work Permit within 10 working days from the date of receiving a complete and valid dossier.
In case of refusal, the competent authority shall issue a written response stating the reasons within 03 working days. |
Notes: The work permit is valid for a term according to one of the grounds specified in Article 21 of Decree No. 219/2025/ND-CP but not more than 02 years.
List of dossier documents
Dossier for application for a new work permit
- A written report by the employer explaining the need to employ a foreign employee and requesting the issuance of a Work Permit;
- A health certificate issued by a duly qualified medical facility, valid for 12 months from the date on which the health conclusion was signed until the date of dossier submission;
- A valid passport;
- A judicial record certificate, or a written confirmation that the person is not serving a criminal sentence, has no unexpunged criminal record, and is not being subject to criminal prosecution (issued no more than 06 months before the date of dossier submission);
- A 4 cm x 6 cm color photograph with a white background, taken from a front-facing view, bareheaded, without glasses;
- Documents proving the form of employment (corresponding to each case as prescribed by law);
- Documents proving that the person is a manager, executive director, expert, or technical worker;
- A written notice of recruitment of Vietnamese employees together with the notice of recruitment results (applicable to certain specific forms of employment prescribed in Article 2 of Decree No. 219/2025/ND-CP);
- A power of attorney for submitting the dossier (if any).
Important notes when preparing the dossier
- Documents in the dossier for the issuance, re-issuance, or extension of a work permit, and for the certificate of work permit exemption, for foreign employees, if issued by a foreign country, must be consularly legalized, except where they are exempt from consular legalization under an international treaty to which both the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the relevant foreign country are parties, on the principle of reciprocity, or as provided by law;
- Documents that have been consularly legalized must be translated into Vietnamese and notarized or authenticated in accordance with law. Where a document is a copy, it must be certified as a true copy of the original before being translated into Vietnamese and notarized or authenticated in accordance with law;
- When submitting online, all dossier documents must be digitally signed, except for the 4 cm x 6 cm color photograph of the foreign employee.
