Work Permit & Immigration

Requirements vary by job category, but typically include: a valid passport, health certificate from an approved Vietnamese clinic, criminal background check, degree certificates, and proof of professional experience. Resident Vietnam provides a personalized document checklist at the start of every engagement.

 Standard preparation runs 6 – 10 weeks and a processing time of 5 to 7 working days from the date of complete document submission. Delays in the document preparation most commonly occur at the document legalization. Resident Vietnam’s team manages this proactively through our global partner network.

Under the current legalization regime, documents issued in foreign countries that do not have bilateral agreement on legalization exemption must typically undergo multiple layers of certification, including notarization in the country of origin, authentication by the competent local authority, legalization by the Vietnamese consulate or embassy abroad. However On 31 December 2025, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam acceded to the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, also known as the Apostille Convention. This was reported by the official website of the Hague Conference on Private International Law.
The Convention will take effect starting from September 11, 2026 between Vietnam and other member states that have not filed an objection to Vietnam’s accession during the 6 months transition period. Read more about this accession to the Hague Convention.

Dependents (spouse and children under 18) can apply for dependent visas and Temporary Residence Cards. The validity of dependent visa or TRC will be the same as for the main application so in alignment with the work permit or work permit exemption certificate issued. We manage dependent immigration alongside the primary assignee application. Under Vietnam labor law, a spouse who wishes to work in Vietnam must obtain their own separate work permit sponsored by the Vietnamese entity they are working for.

 A TRC replaces the need for repeated visa renewals and is typically issued for 1 or 2 years, aligned to the work permit term. It is the standard long-stay document for employed foreign nationals in Vietnam. We strongly recommend it for any assignment longer than 12 months.

 Immigration services are delivered exclusively in-house by Resident Vietnam employees. All staff receive mandatory training on data privacy, information security responsibilities, and acceptable use policies. This training covers the proper handling of personally identifiable information (PII), phishing awareness, password security, encryption standards, and incident reporting procedures.

All client data is managed through e-Xpat, Resident Vietnam’s proprietary immigration management platform, developed in line with EU GDPR standards and secured through multi-factor authentication (MFA) and IP whitelisting.

Access to client information is strictly limited to authorized personnel and granted only when required for the processing of a specific case. The system can be accessed solely from secured office locations and only by team members with a legitimate business need to work on the file.

These measures ensure that client data remains protected, confidential, and handled in accordance with applicable data protection and information security requirements.

More FAQ available on our Resources page