A foreign national married to a Vietnamese citizen is now exempt from a work permit. Therefore, the immediate sponsor for visa/temporary resident cards for the foreign national could be changed from the Vietnam organisation to the Vietnamese husband/wife of the foreign national.  Regulations to be issued in due course should give guidance on this matter.

Foreign national owners or shareholding members of limited liability companies and shareholders being members of the board of directors of joint stock companies with a certain threshold of capital contributions are entitled to a work permit exemption.  The government will provide further guidance on the threshold requirements in due course.

The term for a work permit is up to two years and under the new regulations can only be renewed once for a further two-year term.

This is a significant change.  To date there has been no restriction on the number of times a work permit can be renewed.  As a result of this change, it is understood that the foreign national must make a fresh work permit application based on his or her current role and requirement.

Vietnam-legal.com believes this change has been implemented to give the labour authority more power to review the ongoing foreign worker requirement and to determine approval of the application.

No further detail has been released as to the impact of this change. However, it could result in increased administrative burden and cost relating to the employment of foreign workers.

Please note this will also affect those foreign workers who have already renewed their work permits at least once.