Extend investment registration certificate in Vietnam

For foreign capital companies, when being granted an Investment Certificate/Investment Registration Certificate, the project duration is fixed by a certain timeline from the date of issuance of the Investment Registration Certificate. Depending on each project, the duration of each project specifically recorded on the Investment Registration Certificate of each company is different. Therefore, when the expiry of the project operation term recorded on the Investment Registration Certificate is near, the company needs to carry out procedures for extension of the Investment Certificate.

Legal basis for Extending Investment Certificate in Vietnam

• Investment Law No. 61/2020/QH14;
• Decree No. 31/2021/ND-CP detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Investment Law;
• Decree 122/2021/ND-CP stipulates penalties for administrative violations in the field of planning and investment.

Time to submit the application for extending the Investment Registration Certificate in Vietnam

Ideally, about 03-05 months before the project expires, the company needs to carry out procedures for extending the investment registration certificate as well as extending the project implementation term.

Dossier of extending the Investment Registration Certificate in Vietnam

• 02 notarized copies of the Investment Registration Certificate/Business Registration Certificate  of the Company;
• 02 Notarized copy of tax code for company that have not yet issued and exchanged the Business Registration Certificate
• Report on the implementation of the investment project up to the time of extension of the Investment Certificate/Extension of the investment project;
• Monthly, quarterly and annual reports submitted to the Department of Planning and Investment/ Management Board of industrial parks and export processing zones;
• 01 notarized copy of the audited financial statements of the latest year up to the time of extension;
• Investment project proposal: Office area, email address, phone number of the investor, company in Vietnam, total number of employees, number of Vietnamese employees, number of foreign workers;
• Notarized copy of the representative’s passport, confirmation of the representative’s residence;
• Legal documents related to the head office address and project implementation location. Specifically: Site lease agreement and Land documents, construction decisions,…
• Notarized copy of business license (if the company operates commercially);

Procedures for extending the Investment Registration Certificate in Vietnam

Number of applications:

Company draft and prepare 02 sets of dossiers according to the above consulting item;

Application specifications:

Documents made in Vietnamese or Vietnamese and English (Documents in foreign languages: must be translated into Vietnamese and notarized)

Dossier-receiving agency:

• Department of Planning and Investment (Investment Department): For company having their headquarters and project implementation locations outside industrial parks;
• Industrial and Export Processing Park Management Board: For company having their headquarters and project implementation locations in industrial parks;

Time limit for completing procedures for extension of the Investment Registration Certificate:

15 working days from the date of receipt of the application if all documents are valid.

Note when extending the Investment Certificate Registration in Vietnam

• An company may only submit an application for extension of the Investment Registration Certificate if by the time of extension the company has fully contributed capital as committed and fully fulfilled the investment reports and other conditions specified in Article 3 of the company’s investment certificate;
• Company may make parallel adjustments to other contents on the Investment Registration Certificate along with procedures for extension of the Investment Registration Certificate.

Cost of extending Investment Registration Certificate

State fees

When extending the company investment certificate, there is no state fee.

Lawyer fees of Viet An Law Firm

• Cost and implementation time are the contents that any client is interested in when seeking lawyer consulting services. With its prestige, experience and capacity, Viet An Law Firm with nearly 20 years of investment law consultancy always wants to bring customers the best service and the most reasonable cost and fastest implementation time.
• Please contact Viet An Law Firm so that our lawyers can send a fee quote as well as a list of client documents to prepare to carry out the procedure.

Legal consequences if the company does not extend the Investment Registration Certificate

• Companies are only allowed to carry out investment activities in accordance with the operation duration of the investment project stated on the Investment Registration Certificate. Accordingly, upon expiry of the operation term of an investment project, the investor must terminate the operation of the investment project and return the granted Investment Registration Certificate and carry out procedures for closure of the project.
• In case the operation term of an investment project has expired, but the investor wishes to continue implementing the investment project, he may apply for an extension of the operation term of the investment project and must satisfy all conditions prescribed by current law. Therefore, if the investment certificate expires, investors who want to continue the project implementation without carrying out procedures for adjustment or extension of the operation term of the investment project will be sanctioned according to the provisions of 17 Decree 122/2021/ND-CP with a fine from VND 70,000,000 to VND 100,000,000. At the same time, the remedial measure is “Forced notification to the investment registration agency”, ie forced extension of the investment certificate.

Viet An Law Firm is a law firm with long-term experience in advising  on procedures for setting up a foreign-invested companies, procedures for adjustment of investment certificates, extension of investment certificates. For any difficulties and problems related to the procedures for extension of the Investment Registration Certificate, please contact Viet An Law for advice and provide the best service!