Hiring Foreign Employees in Vietnam: What Employers Need to Know

Hiring a foreign employee in Vietnam can look straightforward at first: arrange the immigration documents, prepare the employment paperwork, and get the employee ready to start.

The harder part is making sure those pieces actually line up.

For employers, the key question is not simply whether a foreign employee can enter Vietnam. It is whether the employee is authorized to perform the intended work under the applicable rules.

Vietnam’s Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP, effective since August 7, 2025, sets out the current framework for foreign workers working in Vietnam, including the issuance, renewal and revocation of work permits and rules for workers who are exempt from the work-permit requirement.

So, what does the process look like from an employer’s perspective?

1. Does every foreign employee need a work permit?

Not necessarily.

Vietnam’s regulations provide several categories of foreign workers who are not subject to the work-permit requirement. Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP sets out these exemption categories, including certain managers, executives, experts and technical workers working in Vietnam for a total period of less than 90 days in a year. Other exemption categories also exist.

That distinction matters because:

No work permit required ≠ no compliance requirements.

For certain exemption categories, the employer still has to notify the competent authority before the foreign worker starts working. Under Article 9 of Decree 219, certain cases must be notified at least three working days before the expected start date.

In other words, the first question should not be:

“How do we get a work permit?”

It should be:

“Does this employee need one, or does an exemption apply?”

2. If a work permit is required, when should employers start?

Timing is one of the practical points employers need to understand.

Under Decree 219, an employer can submit a work-permit application within 60 days but no fewer than 10 days before the foreign worker is expected to start working.

Once a complete application has been received, the competent authority has 10 working days to review the application and issue the work permit. If the application is rejected, the authority must provide a written explanation within three working days from receipt of the complete application.

That does not mean employers should plan around a simple “10-day process.”

The application still has to be complete, and the employer needs time to prepare the supporting documents before submission.

A useful way to think about the timeline is:

Rather than:

3. What does the employer actually need to check?

The paperwork is important, but the underlying employment arrangement matters too.

Before applying, employers should make sure they understand at least four things:

① Who is the employer?

The application needs to reflect the relevant employing entity and the applicable working arrangement.

② What position will the foreign worker hold?

The intended position matters because Vietnam’s foreign-worker framework distinguishes different types of work, including managers, executive directors, experts and technical workers.

③ What is the actual basis for the employee working in Vietnam?

A foreign worker may work in Vietnam under different forms of employment or assignment. The applicable documentation can therefore depend on how the person is coming to work in Vietnam.

④ Does the supporting documentation match the intended role?

The documents submitted should support the foreign worker’s applicable status, qualifications, experience and form of work.

This is where foreign-worker compliance starts to become more than a document checklist.

The question is not only whether the employer has collected a passport, qualification documents or other supporting paperwork.

It is whether the documents tell the same story as the job the person is actually being hired to do.

4. A visa is not the same thing as work authorization

This distinction is easy to overlook.

A foreign national’s immigration status determines whether they can enter or stay in Vietnam under the applicable immigration rules.

Work authorization addresses a different question:

Are they authorized to perform the intended work in Vietnam under the applicable foreign-worker rules?

These two areas can interact, but they should not be treated as interchangeable.

For employers, that means “the employee has a valid visa” should not automatically end the compliance review.

The more useful question is:

What is the employee authorized to do, for whom, and under what legal basis?

This distinction becomes particularly important when an employee’s role, employer, working arrangement or other material circumstances change.

5. What happens after the work permit is issued?

Getting the permit is not necessarily the end of the process.

Foreign-worker arrangements can change after an employee joins the company.

A person may start in one role and later take on different responsibilities. An employee may also move to a different working arrangement or location.

Vietnam’s current rules contain procedures dealing with changes to certain information recorded in a work permit. For example, the Government has clarified that where a foreign worker with a valid permit changes their job position or form of work stated in the permit, without changing the employer, a new work permit procedure may be required.

This is why employers may want to treat foreign-worker compliance as an ongoing alignment exercise, rather than a one-time application.

A simple internal check is:

If one of these changes materially, it may be worth reviewing whether the existing authorization and supporting documents still reflect the employee’s situation.

6. A practical employer checklist

Before a foreign employee starts working in Vietnam, employers can ask:

Check	Practical question
Work authorization	Does the employee need a work permit, or does an exemption apply?
Employer	Does the authorization reflect the correct employing entity?
Position	Is the intended position consistent with the applicable work category?
Documentation	Do the supporting documents match the employee’s status and role?
Timing	Has the application or required notification been submitted within the applicable timeframe?
Immigration status	Is the employee’s immigration status appropriate for their situation?
Ongoing changes	Could changes in role, employer or working arrangement require a new review?

The point is not to create another complicated compliance checklist.

It is to avoid treating each document as an isolated item.

7. The bigger picture

For employers hiring foreign workers in Vietnam, legal employment is better understood as a set of connected questions:

That is the practical side of foreign-worker compliance.

A work permit is important. An exemption may be appropriate in some cases. Immigration status matters too.

But none of these should be viewed in isolation.

Key takeaway

For employers, the most useful question is not simply:

“Does this foreign employee have a work permit?”

It is:

“Is this employee authorized to perform this work, for this employer, under the applicable rules — and does that remain true as the employment arrangement changes?”

Vietnam’s Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP provides the current regulatory framework for foreign workers, but compliance in practice still depends on matching the applicable authorization to the actual employment arrangement.

Sources & references
Government of Vietnam — Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP
Government Portal — Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP
Vietnam Government News — Fresh regulations on work permit issuance to foreign workers
Vietnam Government News — Guidance on work-permit procedures and exemptions

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This article provides general information and is not legal advice. Foreign-worker requirements can depend on the individual’s role, working arrangement and applicable exemption category.

Published: September 2026