Procedures for certification of exemption from work permit for foreigners in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

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As stipulated in Decision 4182/QD-UBND of 2024, announcing the list of administrative procedures decentralized according to Decree 84/2024/ND-CP, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Procedures for certification of exemption from work permit for foreigners in Vietnam

Forms of Employment for Foreign Workers in Vietnam

Article 2 Decree 152/2020/ND-CP stipulates that foreign workers working in Vietnam may do so in the following forms:

- Employment contract;

- Intra-corporate transfer;

- Economic, commercial, financial, banking, insurance, scientific and technical, cultural, sports, education, vocational education, and medical service contracts or agreements;

- Service providers under contracts;

- Service sellers;

- Working for non-governmental organizations, international organizations in Vietnam that are allowed to operate under Vietnamese law;

- Volunteers;

- Persons responsible for establishing a commercial presence;

- Managers, executives, specialists, technical workers;

- Participation in implementing contracts or projects in Vietnam;

- Family members of members of foreign representative offices in Vietnam allowed to work in Vietnam according to international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member.

Clarification of Terminology Related to Foreign Workers

1. Intra-corporate transfer of foreign workers refers to managers, executives, specialists, and technical workers of a foreign enterprise that has established a commercial presence in Vietnam, temporarily transferring within the corporate structure to a commercial presence in Vietnam, having been employed by the foreign enterprise for at least 12 continuous months.

2. Volunteers are foreign workers working in Vietnam voluntarily without pay to implement international treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member, confirmed by a representative foreign diplomatic mission or international organization in Vietnam.

3. Specialists are foreign workers who meet one of the following criteria:

- Hold a university degree or higher or equivalent and have at least 3 years of experience relevant to the position to be occupied in Vietnam;

- Have at least 5 years of experience and a practice certificate relevant to the intended position in Vietnam;

- Special cases decided by the Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam upon recommendation by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids, and Social Affairs.

4. Managers are those who manage enterprises according to Clause 24 Article 4 of the Enterprise Law or are heads or deputy heads of agencies or organizations.

5. Executives are those falling into one of the following categories:

- Heads of branches, representative offices, or business locations of an enterprise.

- Heads who directly manage at least one field of an agency, organization, or enterprise and are directly under the direction and management of the head of that agency, organization, or enterprise.

6. Technical workers are foreign workers who meet one of the following criteria:

- Trained for at least 1 year and have at least 3 years of experience relevant to the position intended in Vietnam;

- Have at least 5 years of experience performing work relevant to the position intended in Vietnam.

7. Commercial presence includes foreign-invested economic organizations; representative offices, branches of foreign traders in Vietnam; executive offices of foreign investors in business cooperation contracts.

8. Service providers under contracts are foreign workers who have worked for at least 02 years (24 months) in a foreign enterprise without a commercial presence in Vietnam and must meet the criteria for specialists as specified in point 3.

9. Foreign workers engaged in service selling are foreign workers who do not reside in Vietnam and do not receive remuneration from any source in Vietnam, participating in activities related to representing a service provider in negotiations for the consumption of the provider’s services, provided that they do not directly sell the service to the public and do not directly participate in service supply.

(Article 3 Decree 152/2020/ND-CP as amended by Decree 70/2023/ND-CP)

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