The LD working visa: the immigration half of a decision taken on the labour side
Two different permissions are easy to confuse, and this page separates them. This one is immigration's, and it is issued on the back of a decision taken elsewhere. Asia Relocation Vietnam runs the handover between the two in-house, as one file.
A working visa in Vietnam does not settle the right to be employed. That is decided first, on the labour side, and the visa is issued on the strength of it: no single permission covers living and working here. A certified copy of the permit, or of the certificate confirming the role is exempt, belongs in the visa file. The employer applies for it at the Vietnam Immigration Department, not at the office that issued the permit.
Two variants exist and the labour outcome chooses between them. LD1 is for foreign nationals exempt from a work permit — an intra-company transfer, a specialist brought in for particular skills. LD2 is for those who hold one.
Asia Relocation Vietnam exists on this page to run a handover: we take the labour outcome, assemble the sponsor's side and the applicant's side around it — the entry approval letter included, since the file is named as calling for one — and settle where the visa is collected before anyone books a flight.
What the immigration half carries, and where the other half was decided
One visa, one department, one certified copy in the file.
Carried by us
- The variant, settled first. LD1 or LD2, read from the labour outcome rather than from what the role is called internally.
- The sponsor's side. The employing company's registration documents, the authorisation and introduction letters, notarised where required.
- The applicant's side. The application form, photographs to the accepted format, and the certified copy of the permit or exemption certificate.
- The entry approval letter. Named among the documents the file is assembled from, and checked against the passport that will actually be presented.
- The stamping plan. Which mission or which airport, what is carried on the day, and what happens if the itinerary changes.
Every line priced in the written quotation before the file opens.
Decided elsewhere
- The right to be employed. That is the labour administration's, on the Vietnam work permit page.
- Staying without renewing. Long residence is a card, handled at temporary resident card.
- Travelling once resident. That calls for an exit and re-entry permit, which is its own filing.
- Closing the posting. The end of an assignment runs through residence card cancellation.
- Coming for something other than a job. Business, investment, family and short visits are separate categories in the Vietnam visa silo.
Name the one that follows and the same coordinator opens it.
Five files that reach the Immigration Department differently
The department is the same; what changes is what sits behind the application.
A permit holder joining a Vietnamese employer
The standard route. The labour decision exists, its certified copy goes into the file, and the sponsor's documents are assembled around it.
An exempt transfer or specialist
No permit, but a confirmation of exemption — and the visa file then runs on that instead. The shape is the same; the document at its centre is not.
Someone flying in within weeks
The question is not whether the visa is possible but where it will be collected. We settle the mission or the airport first, then work backwards to what has to be lodged.
A visa whose labour document has just moved
The permit renewed, the exemption reconfirmed, the employment continuing. What the immigration side then needs is settled against the file, not assumed in the abstract.
A file started in the wrong order
Someone applied on the immigration side first and is now waiting for a document that does not exist yet. We establish where the labour file actually stands and rebuild from there.
From the labour outcome to a stamp in the passport
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Read the labour outcome
Permit, exemption certificate, or neither yet. This single answer decides the variant, the contents of the file and how much of it can start today.
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Build the sponsor's side
The employing entity's registration documents and the letters that accompany the application, notarised where the file calls for it. Prepared with HR in one pass.
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Lodge it with the Immigration Department
The employer's application goes to the Vietnam Immigration Department, entry approval letter included. The stamping step comes after that.
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Choose where it is stamped
A designated Vietnamese embassy or consulate, or arrival at a Vietnamese international airport. We decide this with you rather than discovering it at check-in.
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Hold the two calendars together
The labour document and the visa have their own dates. We track both and start on the earlier one early, because an expiry noticed late is a problem with no elegant solution.
Four people who discover the two halves are not the same thing
Employees who thought one document covered it
They have the offer, sometimes the permit, and assume the rest is administrative. The gap between the two administrations is the part we close.
Specialists moved in from the group
An intra-company transfer or an expert brought for particular skills. The exemption route changes the file rather than removing it, and it has to be proven.
Mobility teams with an announced date
A start date already communicated to the business, and two administrations that were never asked whether it was realistic. We say so while it can still be changed.
People already in Vietnam on another basis
A visit that turned into an offer. We tell you what your present entry does and does not allow, and whether the route runs through leaving and coming back.
Lodged in Vietnam, collected somewhere else entirely
The only document in this silo whose last step can happen outside the country.
The application is made in Vietnam, by the employer, at the Immigration Department. The visa can then be stamped either at a designated Vietnamese embassy or consulate, or on arrival at a Vietnamese international airport. Two routes, and one decision better taken early than at check-in.
We weigh where the candidate is, what the passport already contains and how firm the travel date is. We settle it before tickets are bought, then coordinate with whoever waits at the other end — an office in Ho Chi Minh City, a plant outside Hanoi, a team in Da Nang. Asia Relocation Vietnam is on the ground for that arrival, which is why the visa is not where we stop.
What employees and sponsors ask about the working visa in Vietnam
Does this visa allow me to work in Vietnam?
Is my case an LD1 or an LD2?
Can the visa file be opened before the labour side is finished?
Where is the visa actually stamped?
Our company has done this before. What do you add?
What happens to the visa when the permit behind it is renewed?
If I hold this visa, do I still need a residence card?
Our start date cannot move. What do you need from us today?
One step back, or the whole sequence
The decision this visa is built on
The labour file the employer lodges before immigration has anything to read.
Vietnam work permit →Every document, in the order they come
What Asia Relocation Vietnam runs across the silo, and which situation starts where.
Visa & immigration in Vietnam →Tell us where the labour file stands, and when the flight is
We confirm the variant, build the sponsor's side, assemble the entry approval letter with it and settle where the visa is collected.
Ask for a working visa quotation →