PASSPORT CONTROLVietnam
ROUTES ON FILE · DT Investor Visa + Temporary Residence Card via foreign-owned LLCDT visa validity keyed to invested capital: <~USD 114,733 → ~1-year visa; ~USD 3.8M+ → 5-year visa (DT1/DT2). No statutory minimum LLC capital -- must be 'appropriate to business scope' per Department of Planning & Investment.
Every route we have on file
What the file has to contain
These are the documents the authorities expect for the lead route. This is a reference list, not an eligibility check: whether any one item is met depends on your own situation. Items marked for apostille must be legalized before they will be accepted.
No fixed national statutory minimum; accepted by the Department of Planning & Investment.
Vietnam-issued documents need no legalization for domestic use.
Require consular legalization (Vietnam not an Apostille member) + certified Vietnamese translation + notarization.
Consular legalization + Vietnamese translation + notarization.
Consular legalization + Vietnamese translation + notarization.
Vietnam is NOT a party to the Hague Apostille Convention as of 2026. Foreign-issued documents (police clearance, degrees, corporate papers) used for work permits, DT investor visas, or Temporary Residence Cards require full CONSULAR LEGALIZATION (home-country authentication + Vietnamese embassy legalization), then certified Vietnamese translation and notarization -- an apostille alone is not accepted. The standard e-visa requires no legalized documents at all.
From paperwork to residence card
The recorded process folds into stages, each listing the real steps it covers. Timing depends on your consulate and is not fixed, so no week estimates are shown here.
Prepare and legalize
- Register the foreign-owned company: obtain Investment Registration Certificate then Enterprise Registration Certificate
- Legalize and translate foreign corporate/personal documents
Lodge the application
- Apply for the DT investor visa tied to the investment project
- Apply for the Temporary Residence Card (TRC) with company sponsorship, forms, photos and proof of residence
Decision and collection
- Maintain the company and, after sufficient continuous residence, consider a separate permanent-residence application
The law says
Official rules, verified against government text.
- Income requirement
- See formula
DT visa validity keyed to invested capital: <~USD 114,733 → ~1-year visa; ~USD 3.8M+ → 5-year visa (DT1/DT2). No statutory minimum LLC capital -- must be 'appropriate to business scope' per Department of Planning & Investment. - Initial duration
- TRC typically 1-2 years at lower DT tiers; up to 5 years for DT1/DT2 investors
- Renewal
- TRC renewable as long as the investment/company stays operational and compliant with tax and reporting obligations.
- Maximum stay
- Renewable while the company remains active and tax-compliant
- Tax status
- DT/TRC holders present 183+ days are Vietnam tax residents taxed on worldwide income at 5-35% progressive PIT. Company profits are separately subject to corporate income tax.
- Processing time
- Weeks to a few months across company registration (Department of Planning & Investment), DT visa, and TRC issuance
- Official cost
- Beyond the invested capital, expect company-formation, legal, and government processing costs (varies by province and firm).
- Official source
- Vietnam residency and tax overview
The street says
19 SIGNALSWhat applicants report, kept separate from the official numbers.
Voices from the field
HUGE Vietnam Visa Update 2026 NOBODY Expected (WHY?!)Duong Global Business Consulting Group · 2026-01-23
Vietnam doesn't officially have a digital nomad visa (yet), and most people either enter on a tourist visa or a business visa and keep extending it.
no nomad visa yet, though they proposed a 10-year "Golden Visa" in 2025. For now you're on a 90-day e-visa. Workable for 1-2 months
As a foreigner on a tourist visa there is no real legal path to pay tax on foreign income in Vietnam. The tax law says 183 days which is true
Duong Global Business Consulting Group · 2026-01-23. A 2026 Vietnam visa change caught the expat community off guard and is framed as a major unexpected update.
Open the full source file (3)
- Vietnam residency and tax overviewPRACTITIONER · Settled Nomad · accessed 2026-08-03
- Investor visa tiersAGGREGATOR · Yahoo Lifestyle · accessed 2026-08-03
- Vietnam guides for digital nomads (DT visa / TRC / investor route)PRACTITIONER · Vietnam Launchpad · accessed 2026-08-03
The bottom line on Vietnam is that the paperwork is only worth it if you are comfortable with uncertainty, because the route most remote workers actually use, the e-visa, is a simple 90-day tourist status with no path to permanent residence, and its details are reported but not officially confirmed. For anything long-term, the DT Investor Visa via a foreign-owned LLC is the route that matters, but it has no fixed income bar; instead, your visa length is keyed to invested capital, starting at roughly USD 114,733 for about a one-year visa, and the LLC itself needs no statutory minimum capital, just an amount "appropriate to business scope." That said, even the DT route only gets you a temporary residence card of one to two years at the lower tiers, and converting to permanent residence is a separate approval, not automatic.