The question of whether do foreigners working under 90 days need a work permit in Vietnam is frequently raised by enterprises seeking a work permit application service in Vietnam when receiving experts, managers, technical workers, project support personnel, or foreigners entering the country for short-term work. As a general principle, foreign workers working in Vietnam must have a work permit in Vietnam, except for cases not subject to a work permit under legal regulations. Therefore, a working period of under 90 days does not mean automatically qualifying for a work permit exemption in Vietnam in all cases. Enterprises must correctly identify the working purpose, total working time in a year, job position, and notification procedures to avoid the risk of penalties when employing foreign workers improperly.
According to the general principle in Article 151 of the Labor Code 2019, foreign workers working in Vietnam are strictly required to have a work permit. However, the law still opens exceptions to facilitate short-term commercial and technical activities.
Specifically, foreigners working under 90 days may not need a work permit if they meet strict conditions regarding the number of staying days per entry and the total cumulative working time in a year. If they do not meet these time-splitting criteria, they are still obligated to apply for a work permit just like long-term workers.
Regulations on work permit exemption under 90 days under Vietnamese law
Based on Article 154 of the Labor Code 2019 and Article 7 of Decree 219/2025/ND-CP, below is a detailed legal analysis of the cases not subject to a work permit when working under 90 days or under 03 months.
To be granted a short-term work permit exemption in Vietnam, foreigners and sponsoring enterprises must satisfy conditions regarding:
The law divides time limits according to specific target groups as follows:
According to Point a, Clause 13, Article 7 of Decree 215/2025/ND-CP, for cases subject to the limit of “under 90 days per 01 year”, the 01-year cycle is clearly determined by the calendar year: Calculated from January 01 to the last day of the year (December 31). Entering January 01 of the following year, the cumulative cycle will be reset from the beginning.
Note: This case is calculated based on the total cumulative time of all entries within that year. If entering multiple times, the enterprise must closely monitor to ensure the total number of days does not exceed 90 days.
The subjects entitled to the short-term work permit exemption in Vietnam mechanism encompass 3 main groups:
Below is a detailed comparative summary table of the target groups granted a short-term work permit exemption along with the corresponding legal bases:
| Target group | Purpose and time limit | Legal basis |
| Any foreign worker | Entering Vietnam for a duration of under 03 months to offer services for sale. | Clause 4, Article 154 of the Labor Code 2019 |
| Experts, technical workers | Entering Vietnam for a duration of under 03 months to resolve complex technical or technological incidents or situations affecting production and business that cannot be resolved by on-site forces. | Clause 5, Article 154 of the Labor Code 2019 |
| Managers, executive directors, experts, technical workers | Entering Vietnam to work with a total time of under 90 days in 01 year (calculated cumulatively from January 01 to December 31). | Point a, Clause 13, Article 7 of Decree 219/2025/ND-CP |
Many enterprises mistakenly believe that as long as the total working time in a year is under 90 days, an exemption is automatically granted. However, workers are still strictly required to apply for a work permit in Vietnam in the following cases:
The short-term exemption mechanism only applies to 04 title groups:
Therefore, if an enterprise recruits unskilled workers, administrative staff, assistants… even if the contract is only for 01-02 months, the worker is still strictly required to have a work permit.
According to Article 154 of the Labor Code 2019, the duration of “under 03 months” only grants a work permit exemption for two specific purposes:
If the workers do not belong to the expert or manager group and perform regular jobs (not falling within the two aforementioned purposes), they must still apply for a work permit.
The exemption regulation for the manager, executive director, expert, and technical worker groups is limited to the total cumulative time in a calendar year (from January 01 to December 31).
Example: An expert has accumulated 80 working days in Vietnam. If they continue to enter to work for an additional 20 days (totaling 100 days), this working period will exceed the exemption quota. The worker is compelled to complete the work permit application procedures right from the beginning of this entry.
According to the provisions in Clause 4, Article 9 of Decree 219/2025/ND-CP, in case a worker works under 90 days in Vietnam, they do not have to perform the procedures for issuance of a confirmation of not being subject to a work permit, but must notify the competent authority granting the confirmation of not being subject to a work permit where the foreign worker is expected to work at least 03 working days in advance, counting from the day the foreign worker is expected to begin working in Vietnam.
Notification of labor utilization for cases of work permit exemption As mentioned above, enterprises must execute notification procedures when workers arrive to work in this case. Specifically as follows:
Notification contents:
Notification receiving authority: Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs
Execution methods:
Calculating the working time of workers in Vietnam in this case is crucial to avoid administrative violations for both workers and enterprises.
The working time is calculated from the date of entry according to the verification stamp of the immigration management authority stamped on the passport, until the date of exit. The cumulative calculation will sum up the actual staying days in Vietnam across all entries within the limit of 12 months (between January 01 and December 31 of the same year).
If the business trip serves the purpose of attending conferences, seminars, or market research (without generating direct income from a Vietnamese legal entity) and involves a short staying period, they can fully utilize a commercial visa or business visa (DN1, DN2) without needing to proceed with the work permit application procedures. However, if they directly participate in operational or production activities, they must comply with the rule of under 90 days per year as analyzed above.
Short-term working foreign experts can entirely be exempted from a work permit if they satisfy the statutory conditions.
Based on Point a, Clause 13, Article 7 of Decree 219/2025/ND-CP, an expert is exempt from licensing if they have a total working time of under 90 days in 01 calendar year (calculated cumulatively across all entries).
In addition, according to Clause 5, Article 154 of the Labor Code 2019, an expert entering for under 03 months to resolve complex technical or technological incidents that cannot be resolved by on-site experts also falls under the exemption category.
Therefore, enterprises and workers must closely monitor the cumulative staying time to properly execute legal procedures.
If the actual working time exceeds 90 days per year (or exceeds 03 months for the incident resolution or service offering categories), the foreign worker will lose the exemption right and is strictly required to apply for a work permit.
For legal processing, right before reaching this time milestone, the sponsoring enterprise must proactively execute 02 procedural steps:
If delayed or intentionally violating, the enterprise will face heavy administrative fines, while the worker faces the risk of being deported from Vietnam.
To align with the nature of a short-term work permit exemption, foreigners typically apply for the following types of visas:
Note: Do not use a tourist visa (DL) for short-term work, as this constitutes entering for the wrong purpose and violates the law.
The process of providing labour law consulting reveals that enterprises frequently make the following serious mistakes:
If falling into the cases qualifying for a work permit exemption specified in Article 154 of the Labor Code 2019 and Article 7 of Decree 219/2025/ND-CP, the worker is not required to apply for a work permit according to regulations.
A work permit exemption does not equate to a visa exemption. Even if foreigners (expats) fall under the category not required to apply for a work permit due to short-term work, they must still enter using a commercial or labor visa.
Based on the Law on Entry, Exit, Transit, and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam, the sponsoring enterprise must execute procedures to apply for the following types of visas for the worker:
If entering Vietnam for internal training or technology transfer with a duration of under 90 days per year, the expert will be exempt from a work permit, but the enterprise must notify the labor management authority in advance.
Continuously exiting and re-entering to reset the 90-day milestone carries major risks. Functional authorities have the right to inspect the actual nature of the work. Furthermore, this does not change the limit of “total cumulative time not exceeding 90 days per year” under regulations. If exceeding the total 90-day threshold, this method will be considered an act of violating labor laws.
Based on Clause 1 and Clause 3, Article 2 of the Law on Personal Income Tax 2025, foreigners staying in Vietnam for under 183 days and lacking a regular residence are determined as non-resident individuals. However, the law stipulates that non-resident individuals are still taxpayers if they have taxable income arising within the territory of Vietnam.
Therefore, despite working short-term for under 90 days, the income-paying organization in Vietnam still holds the responsibility to deduct, declare, and pay personal income tax on behalf of this worker according to the tax rate designated for non-resident individuals.
Hopefully, the above information can be helpful to our clients. For enterprises determining whether do foreigners working under 90 days need a work permit in Vietnam, if you need assistance with a work permit application service in Vietnam or require labour law consulting, clients please contact Viet An Law for prompt support.
