Legal retainer services for FDI companies in Vietnam is a service where lawyers periodically accompany foreign direct investment enterprises, supporting investment, corporate matters, labor, work permit in Vietnam, visas, temporary residence cards for foreign workers, contracts, compliance, and resolving legal risks arising during operations. Providing regular legal consulting is an essential part of foreign legal services for FDI companies in Vietnam.
| Content | Summary for FDI companies |
| What is the service? | Lawyers providing legal advisory services for FDI companies in Vietnam on a monthly, quarterly, or long-term basis as needed. |
| Who is it suitable for? | Newly established or operating FDI companies with foreign employees, many contracts, or periodic reporting obligations. |
| Main scope | Investment, corporate, labor, work permits, visas, temporary residence cards, contracts, compliance, and initial disputes. |
| Brought value | Helps enterprises prevent risks, handle issues quickly, and reduce legal costs arising from individual cases. |
| Expected results | Clear legal dossiers, tight contracts, valid labor, compliant licenses, and safe internal governance. |
The legal retainer services for FDI companies in Vietnam is a continuous legal support format for foreign-invested enterprises operating in Vietnam. Instead of contacting a lawyer only when a dispute or violation has arisen, enterprises receive periodic advice to review dossiers, check contracts, update new regulations, and prevent risks from the beginning.
This service is also understood as a legal retainer or outsourced legal counsel for FDI companies in Vietnam model, in which Viet An Law Firm acts as the regular legal focal point for the enterprise. FDI companies can send consulting requests when issues arise regarding personnel, contracts, licenses, capital contribution, investment reports, foreign labor, or daily commercial transactions.
For FDI companies, regular legal consulting helps enterprises:
FDI companies should use regular legal advisory services right from the post-establishment stage or when many operational activities begin to arise in Vietnam. In particular, this service is very necessary if the enterprise does not yet have an internal legal department or frequently has to work with partners, employees, state agencies, and parent companies abroad, making in-house counsel services in Vietnam a great alternative.
FDI companies should use the service in the following cases:
| Checking question | Related content |
| Does the company have foreign employees? | Should have a lawyer track work permits, visas, temporary residence cards, and dossier deadlines. |
| Does the company frequently sign commercial contracts? | Should review contracts before signing to limit payment risks, breach penalties, and disputes. |
| Does the company have changes in capital, investors, location, or business lines? | Should consult before investment registration certificate adjustment and enterprise license changes. |
| Does the company not have an internal legal department yet? | Should use regular legal services like an outsourced legal counsel for FDI companies in Vietnam model. |
| Has the company ever had labor disputes, debt, or contract issues? | Should build a risk prevention and handling mechanism right from the early stage. |
| Does the parent company abroad require compliance control? | Should have a legal focal point in Vietnam to report, review, and update regulations. |
Unlike ordinary domestic enterprises, FDI companies must simultaneously comply with regulations on investment, corporate, labor, foreign employees, contracts, tax, reporting, and internal transactions with the parent company. Therefore, building a legal risk map helps enterprises early identify points prone to violations through compliance consulting for FDI companies in Vietnam.
| Department | Common legal risks | Viet An Law Firm supports |
| Board of Directors | Wrong signing authority, unclear decentralization, internal decisions not in proper form | Reviewing resolutions, decisions, power of attorney, and representation authority |
| Human Resources | Loose labor contracts, disciplining with wrong procedures, risky contract termination | Contract consulting for labor contracts, internal labor regulations, discipline, and contract termination, as part of labour law consulting for FDI companies in Vietnam |
| Foreigners | Lacking a work permit, visa with wrong purpose, expired temporary residence card | Consulting on the work permit in Vietnam, work permit exemption, visas, and temporary residence cards |
| Accounting – Tax | Late reporting, insufficient cost dossiers, uncontrolled related-party transactions | Warning on compliance obligations and coordinating with the tax/accounting department |
| Sales | Contracts lacking payment, breach penalty, compensation, and dispute resolution clauses | Drafting, reviewing contracts, and advising on debt handling |
| Investment – Licenses | Not adjusting the IRC/ERC when changing capital, investors, location, or business lines | Consulting on license adjustments and investment reporting obligations |
The scope of foreign investment legal services in Vietnam can be flexibly designed according to the scale, operating sector, and complexity level of each enterprise. Viet An Law Firm supports from daily legal advice to reviewing dossiers, drafting documents, representing in carrying out procedures, and advising on risk handling plans.
| Service group | Main support content |
| Corporate consulting | Changing enterprise registration, representative, charter capital, members/shareholders, business lines, headquarters, branches, representative offices. |
| Investment consulting | Adjusting the investment registration certificate, changing investors, investment capital, project objectives, DICA accounts, capital contribution progress, project locations. |
| Labor consulting | Reviewing labor contracts, internal labor regulations, salary and bonus regulations, confidentiality, discipline, contract termination, and labor disputes. |
| Foreign labor consulting | Work permits, work permit exemption, visas, temporary residence cards, and dossiers of foreigners working in Vietnam. |
| Contract consulting | Drafting, reviewing commercial contracts, service contracts, sale contracts, distribution contracts, lease contracts, and bilingual contracts as part of contract review services in Vietnam. |
| Compliance consulting | Compliance consulting for FDI companies in Vietnam covering investment reports, labor reports, tax obligations, accounting, insurance, data protection, and internal governance. |
| Initial dispute consulting | Supporting the handling of debts, contract complaints, labor disputes, commercial disputes, and negotiation plans. |
Labor and foreign management are an important group of legal issues for FDI companies in Vietnam. Enterprises need to ensure that foreign employees meet working conditions, correct positions, entry purposes, and have appropriate residence dossiers during their working period. This requires professional labour law consulting for FDI companies in Vietnam.
Viet An Law Firm supports FDI companies in the following contents:
Synchronously handling work permits, visas, and temporary residence cards helps FDI companies limit the risk of using foreign workers incorrectly, while ensuring foreign personnel have a stable legal basis to work long-term in Vietnam.
Besides labor issues, FDI companies must regularly review the legal status of investment projects, enterprise licenses, commercial contracts, and compliance obligations during operation. This is an important group of work helping enterprises operate within the licensed scope and prevent risks before disputes arise, which is the core of corporate legal services in Vietnam.
Viet An Law Firm advises FDI enterprises on:
An important point of the legal retainer services for FDI companies in Vietnam is helping FDI companies track legal obligations over time. Instead of only handling when an incident occurs, enterprises can proactively review dossiers monthly, quarterly, annually, or when major changes arise. This forms the basis of reliable legal advisory services for FDI companies in Vietnam.
| Timing | Tasks to review | Risks if missed |
| Monthly | New contracts, labor dossiers, visa duration, work permits, temporary residence cards | Loose contracts, foreign employees’ documents expiring, penalty risks |
| Quarterly | Investment reports, labor reports, management personnel changes, debts, and important contracts | Late reporting, wrong governance information, payment disputes |
| Annually | Internal labor regulations, template contracts, signing decentralization, licenses, compliance dossiers | Being passive during inspections, checks, or when disputes arise |
| When changes occur | Capital increase, change of address, change of representative, changing business lines, change of investor | Operating contrary to licenses or incurring mandatory adjustment procedures |
| Before major transactions | Contracts, guarantees, payments, intellectual property rights, transaction conditions | Risk of losing rights, difficulty recovering debts, or disadvantages in disputes |
Many FDI companies only seek a lawyer when a dispute has arisen, are requested to explain, are inspected, or a partner breaches a contract. However, in corporate governance, risk prevention is often much more cost-effective than incident handling after it has occurred. This is why legal services for FDI companies in Vietnam emphasize continuous support.
| Criteria | Case-by-case consulting | Regular legal advice |
| Timing of support | When a specific issue has arisen | Before, during, and after an issue arises |
| Objective | Handling a single task | Preventing risks and accompanying operations |
| Cost | Can be high when the case is complex | Easy to control by month, quarter, or service package scope |
| Understanding of the enterprise | The lawyer needs time to re-learn the dossier | The lawyer understands the dossier system and the enterprise’s operation |
| Suitable for | Single, infrequent cases | FDI companies with continuous operations in Vietnam |
| Long-term value | Mainly solving immediate problems | Building a safer and more stable legal system |
For many FDI companies, building a separate internal legal department can be costly, especially when the enterprise scale is not large enough or legal needs arise in stages. In this case, the regular legal advisory services of Viet An Law Firm can act as an outsourced legal department, effectively providing in-house counsel services in Vietnam for the enterprise.
Viet An Law Firm supports FDI companies in:
Viet An Law Firm provides regular legal advisory services for FDI companies according to a clear procedure, ensuring enterprises have stable legal support focal points, timely feedback, and transparent work control, reflecting high-quality foreign investment legal services in Vietnam.
| Step | Implementation content | Results for FDI companies |
| Step 1 | Receiving information on operating sector, personnel scale, license status, legal needs, and current risks | Correctly identifying the enterprise’s regular legal consulting needs |
| Step 2 | Preliminary reviewing legal dossiers, investment, corporate, labor, contracts, and related licenses | Detecting points needing supplementation, amendment, or risk control |
| Step 3 | Proposing service scope, consulting duration, focal point in charge, and coordination method | The enterprise chooses a consulting package suitable for needs and budget |
| Step 4 | Signing a regular legal service contract and establishing working channels | Having a stable legal support mechanism, clear responsibilities, and scope of work |
| Step 5 | Consulting, drafting, reviewing dossiers, and supporting the handling of monthly arising issues | The enterprise receives timely legal support during operations |
| Step 6 | Summarizing work, warning of risks, and proposing next handling directions | FDI companies proactively manage legal affairs, limiting disputes and violations |
Fee packages for regular legal advisory services for FDI companies are built based on the enterprise scale, the number of monthly consulting requests, the scope of work, the complexity of dossiers, and the need to use bilingual lawyers or representatives to work with state agencies.
| FDI company type | Main legal needs | Suitable service package |
| Newly established FDI company | Perfecting initial dossiers, template contracts, labor dossiers, reports, and internal regulations | Starter package |
| Manufacturing company | Labor, workshops, supply contracts, licenses, environment, foreign workers | Operational package |
| Trading company | Sale contracts, distribution, debts, business conditions, agents, suppliers | Commercial package |
| Technology company | Service contracts, confidentiality, intellectual property, foreign labor, data, and software | Intensive package |
| Corporation with multiple legal entities | Internal governance, related-party transactions, decentralization, reporting, multi-company compliance | Custom-designed package |
Specific costs will be quoted by Viet An Law Firm after reviewing the legal needs, the expected amount of work, and the level of support the enterprise desires. Using regular legal advisory services helps FDI companies control their legal budget better than only handling individual cases when risks have already arisen.
Viet An Law Firm is an experienced legal advisory unit in supporting foreign investors and FDI companies in Vietnam. With a team of lawyers and legal specialists knowledgeable in investment law, enterprise law, labor, contracts, work permits, and intellectual property, Viet An Law Firm can accompany the enterprise in the stages of establishment, operation, expansion, and restructuring.
FDI enterprises should choose Viet An Law Firm because:
No, it is not mandatory. However, FDI companies should use regular legal advisory services if they have many contracts, foreign labor, internal transactions, periodic reporting obligations, or frequently arising legal issues during operations in Vietnam.
Case-by-case consulting usually only handles a specific issue when the enterprise requests it. Meanwhile, regular legal advice has a continuous companionship nature, helping enterprises review dossiers, prevent risks, and handle arising issues promptly.
Yes, it can. For FDI companies without an internal legal department, a legal retainer can act as an outsourced legal department. For large enterprises, this service can provide supplementary support to the internal legal department in specialized matters or legal procedures in Vietnam.
Yes. Viet An Law Firm can support consulting on work permits, work permit exemptions, visas, entry clearance letters, and temporary residence cards for foreigners working at FDI companies.
Yes. Viet An Law Firm supports reviewing Vietnamese, English, and bilingual contracts, including commercial contracts, service contracts, labor contracts, distribution contracts, lease contracts, and internal agreements.
Yes. Viet An Law Firm can coordinate directly with the parent company abroad, the board of directors in Vietnam, or the department in charge of legal, human resources, and accounting of the FDI enterprise to handle work.
The cost usually depends on the scope of work, the number of monthly consulting requests, the complexity of dossiers, the need to review contracts, draft documents, bilingual consulting, or representing to work with state agencies. Viet An Law Firm will provide a specific fee quote after reviewing the enterprise’s needs.
