Vietnam work permit: the employer's file, and the one everything else waits for
This is not an immigration document. It is a labour decision about a company and a position, taken before immigration opens a file. Asia Relocation Vietnam builds it with your HR team, from the eligibility read to the renewal.
Most people arrive here believing a work permit is something a foreigner applies for. In Vietnam it is closer to the opposite. The labour administration — the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs — decides whether a foreign national may be employed. The candidate's papers matter, but they are read inside a file the employer owns.
That is what sets this page apart from the rest of the silo. Visas and residence cards belong to the Immigration Department; this one does not, and the two administrations do not share a file. A delay here moves every later date with it.
Asia Relocation Vietnam works the employer's side and the candidate's side at once, one coordinator holding both. We read eligibility before a form is filled in, start the papers that have to travel first, and record the expiry on the day of issue.
What the labour file carries, and what happens on another desk
One document, one administration. The right-hand column is the rest of the chain.
Carried by us
- The eligibility read. The position, the employing entity and the candidate's background — including whether a permit is needed at all.
- The employer's side. The company's documents, assembled with HR rather than requested in instalments.
- The papers from abroad. Degrees, professional certificates and record checks, which generally need legalisation, translation into Vietnamese and notarisation.
- The candidate's set. Proof of employment, educational certificates, health certificate and criminal record checks, read against each other.
- The life of the permit. Filing, follow-up, renewal before expiry, and the question we put when the job changes shape.
Scoped and approved in writing before a paper is legalised.
Not on this desk
- The visa that follows it. An immigration filing, and it lives on the LD working visa page.
- The card that comes after. Long-stay residence is decided later, on the temporary resident card page.
- Closing the file on departure. When the posting ends, the card goes to residence card cancellation.
- Ruling on exemption categories. Those are set by regulation; our guide to work permit exemptions sets them out.
- A job, or an employer. We file for a company that has already made the offer; immigration, home search, coordination and moving are what our own teams run.
Say which of these follows, and the same coordinator carries it.
Five ways a permit file lands on our desk in Vietnam
Same authority; what differs is who has to prove what.
A company's first foreign hire
An HR team in Vietnam that has never filed one, facing an administration that has to clear the employer as well. We prepare the company's side before anything is lodged.
A transfer in from another entity
The assignment is signed and the flight is a calendar entry. Missing is the sequence between them, and someone in Vietnam who deals with the labour administration.
Renewal, before the date arrives
A permit expires on a schedule the business did not choose. We open the renewal against the permit held, and begin early: papers from abroad move at their own pace.
A role that may not need one at all
Some roles are exempt and some are only believed to be. We read the contract and the duties against the published categories, then run the confirmation where the exemption holds.
A file that came back short
A document rejected, a translation questioned, a company detail that no longer matches the register. We go back to the eligibility read before a single form is filled in again.
Read first, legalise early, file once
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The eligibility read
The position, the employing entity and the candidate's qualifications, read together. We say whether the case is straightforward, borderline or better restructured, before anyone commits to a date.
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The papers that have to travel
Documents issued outside Vietnam generally need consular legalisation, a Vietnamese translation and notarisation. This starts on day one: it is the part of the file whose pace belongs to third parties.
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The employer's side, with your HR contact
The company documents are assembled once and, for a batch of hires, reused across it — in a single pass, instead of returning to HR as the file grows.
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Filing and following it
Submission to the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, then active follow-up rather than silence. You are told what stage the file is at and what is holding it.
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The date, recorded the day it issues
The permit carries an expiry, and the renewal has to start well before it. We put that date in the diary at issue and raise it before it turns urgent.
Four parties to one permit, and what each of them is missing
HR teams in a Vietnamese entity
The people who will be asked for the company's documents, and who often discover mid-file that the employer is the applicant. We say so at the start.
Mobility managers moving a team in
Several people, several nationalities, one start date already announced. One coordinator, one consolidated view, the employer's documents assembled once.
People who found the job themselves
No mobility policy, no relocation budget, and an employer in Vietnam who has never filed one. We work both ends, because neither end knows the process.
Anyone who has been told they are exempt
Usually by a colleague, occasionally by the employer. Exemption is a decision, not an assumption, and being wrong costs a start date. We verify it against the categories.
One administration, and the office that will actually handle you
Filed in the province where the work will be done, not against a published summary.
The permit is issued by the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, and its offices are local: the employer files the dossier with the provincial Department of Labour for the province where the person will work. We ask that office what it expects, and say which of the two we are working to when practice has moved ahead of what is published.
The Asia Relocation Vietnam office is on Le Thanh Ton Street in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, and the team that runs the file is our own, not a broker's. We run files for employers in and around Ho Chi Minh City, in Hanoi and in Da Nang, the three cities the group covers; elsewhere we confirm the handling office before quoting.
What employers and candidates ask before the first filing in Vietnam
Which comes first in Vietnam, the work permit or the visa?
Who files it, the employee or the employer?
We were told the role is exempt. Does that mean there is nothing to do?
Which documents have to be prepared abroad?
Can someone start work while the file is still open?
What happens if the job title, the entity or the employer changes?
How long does a Vietnam work permit take, and what does it cost?
Can you run several employees at once for one company?
Once the labour side is settled, immigration can start
The document the permit unlocks
The employment visa, filed at the Immigration Department once the permit or the confirmation exists.
LD working visa →The whole chain, in order
What Asia Relocation Vietnam runs across both administrations, and which document depends on which.
Visa & immigration in Vietnam →Send us the offer and the employing entity
We read eligibility against the real role, say what the start date has to accommodate, and quote in writing before anything is legalised.
Ask for a work permit quotation →