Who this is for. Foreign nationals working or investing in Vietnam, and the companies employing them. UniLaw handles the Vietnamese side: work permits, exemption confirmations, temporary residence cards, and what happens when one of them is refused or lapses.
We do not handle immigration into any other country, emigration of Vietnamese nationals, or applications for Vietnamese nationality. If that is what you need, this is not the right firm — and the section below explains why.
“Immigration lawyer in Vietnam” means something narrower than it does elsewhere. Vietnam has no points-based skilled migration and no general path from employment to citizenship. What foreign nationals and their employers actually need here is a sequence: the right to work, then the right to stay. A work permit first, then a temporary residence card — and the deadlines belong to the employer, not the employee.
This note is about immigration into Vietnam: foreign nationals coming to work here, and the Vietnamese companies and foreign-invested companies employing them. It does not deal with emigration from Vietnam, or with the immigration law of any other country.
The governing instrument is Decree 219/2025/ND-CP on foreign workers in Vietnam, in force from 7 August 2025. It replaced the foreign-worker provisions of Decree 152/2020/ND-CP as amended by Decree 70/2023/ND-CP, so any guide written before August 2025 is describing a regime that no longer applies.
The sequence, in brief
Two documents, in this order, and both belong to the employer’s calendar rather than the employee’s:
- Work permit — the employer applies, for a position falling in one of the four categories of Article 3 of Decree 219/2025 (manager, executive director, expert, technical worker), or obtains a confirmation of exemption under Article 7. Maximum duration two years, one extension.
- Temporary residence card — applied for on the strength of the permit, symbol LĐ2 for a permit holder and LĐ1 for an exemption holder. It cannot outlast the permit, and cannot outlast the passport.
The filing window, the document list under Article 19, the two-year ceiling, the notification duty where a worker covers several provinces, and the employer’s 15-day duty to return an expired permit are all set out in full on our service page for work permits in Vietnam. This note does not repeat them; it answers a different question.
What “immigration lawyer” does not mean in Vietnam
The search term arrives carrying expectations from other countries, and most of them do not hold here. Four worth saying plainly:
- No naturalisation route through employment. Vietnamese nationality is governed by separate legislation with its own narrow conditions. Years of lawful work and residence do not accumulate into a claim to citizenship the way they do under many other systems.
- No points-based or skilled-migration visa. There is no self-sponsored route. Entry to work is employer-sponsored, through the permit and card above. A foreign national cannot apply on their own behalf and then look for an employer.
- No permanent-residence equivalent of a green card for ordinary workers. Permanent residence exists but sits under the Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners on grounds unrelated to employment, and is not the destination of a work permit.
- A work permit is not a residence right, and a residence card is not a work right. Holding one without the other is the most common and most expensive mistake we are asked to unwind.
What we do, and what we do not
We act on: whether a position qualifies under Article 3 and how to evidence it; the document set under Article 19, including consular legalisation of foreign degrees and experience confirmations under Article 5; exemption confirmations under Article 7; the permit timetable against an intended start date; the residence card that follows; extensions, re-issues and the employer’s obligations when a permit ends; and the position of a worker or employer already facing a refusal or a penalty.
We do not act on: immigration into any country other than Vietnam; emigration of Vietnamese nationals; applications for Vietnamese nationality; study or family-reunification routes that do not run through employment. Enquiries of that kind are better placed with counsel qualified in the destination country, or with the nationality authorities directly.
Hiring someone, or moving here to work? The two documents, the filing window, the document list and the fee are on our service page: work permits in Vietnam. Or call 091 2266 811 — initial review of documents is free.
When it has already gone wrong
Refusal on position evidence, a worker found working without a permit, overstay, an administrative penalty, or a dispute where the employment relationship itself is questioned because no permit was ever issued — those turn on different material: the Labour Code provisions on foreign workers and what the courts have actually decided. We deal with that in refusals, overstay and penalties involving foreign workers.
What to send when you ask us
- The intended job position, and which of the four Article 3 categories it falls in.
- Degree certificates and experience confirmations, with the issuing country — consular legalisation is dealt with in Article 5.
- The intended start date, so the 60-day / 10-day window can be worked backwards.
- The employing entity and whether the person will work in more than one province.
- Any existing permit or residence card, with expiry dates.
We come back with whether the position qualifies, which documents are missing, the filing date, and the realistic start date. Initial review of documents is free; work beyond that is quoted in advance.
This note is general and reflects the position at the date of writing; it is not advice on a particular case.
The full procedure, the file itself and the problems we are most often asked to fix are set out on our page for work permits in Vietnam.
Legal basis: Decree 219/2025/ND-CP dated 7 August 2025 on foreign workers in Vietnam, in force 7 August 2025 — Articles 3, 5, 6, 7, 19, 21, 22, 30, 31, 33; Labour Code No. 45/2019/QH14 Article 156; Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam, consolidated text 62/VBHN-VPQH — Articles 36 to 38.
