Work permit for foreign nationals in specialist positions: Is a university degree required?
Article 172 of the 2012 Labor Code stipulates that foreign citizens working in Vietnam do not fall under the category requiring a work permit when:
They are members contributing capital or owners of limited liability companies.
They are members of the Board of Directors of joint-stock companies.
They are Heads of representative offices, projects of international organizations, and non-governmental organizations in Vietnam.
They enter Vietnam for a period of less than 03 months to offer services.
They enter Vietnam for a period of less than 03 months to handle incidents, complicated technical or technological situations that arise, affecting or having the potential to affect production, business activities that Vietnamese experts and foreign experts currently in Vietnam cannot resolve.
They are foreign lawyers who have been granted a license to practice law in Vietnam according to the provisions of the Law on Lawyers.
As stipulated by the international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member.
They are students studying in Vietnam and working in Vietnam, but the employer must notify the provincial state labor management agency 07 days in advance.
Other cases as stipulated by the Government of Vietnam.
This is guided by Section 2, Chapter II of Decree 11/2016/ND-CP: In addition to the aforementioned cases, foreign citizens are also exempted from the requirement for a work permit when working in Vietnam in positions of experts, managers, executive directors, or technical workers for a period of less than 30 days and the total accumulated time does not exceed 90 days in a year.
...
The application dossier requesting confirmation of exemption from the requirement for a work permit includes:
- A written request for confirmation that the foreign worker is not subject to the requirement for a work permit;
- A list detailing the foreign worker including: full name; age; gender; nationality; passport number; start date and end date of work; position of the foreign worker;
- Documents proving that the foreign worker is not subject to the requirement for a work permit;
- The document proving such exemption must be submitted with 01 copy attached to the original for comparison or 01 authenticated copy. If the documents are from abroad, they are exempt from consular legalization but must be translated into Vietnamese and authenticated in accordance with Vietnamese law.
Thus, currently, there is no mandatory regulation requiring foreign workers exempted from work permits in the position of experts to have a university degree; however, there must be documents proving this matter.
Respectfully!
