Two different questions hide inside the phrase business visa. Vietnam answers them separately, and confusing the two is the most expensive mistake anyone makes in this corner of the rules. One is whether you may enter for meetings, a conference, a supplier audit or a contract negotiation. The other is whether you may hold a job here and be paid for it. The first is a visa question. The second is a work permit question, settled by labor authorities before immigration is involved at all. This guide covers the landscape: the eVisa, the DN1 and DN2 business categories, work permits, temporary residence cards, and the shortcuts that don't work. It also says plainly which parts we handle and which we don't.
The Line That Decides Everything: Business Activity Versus Employment
Vietnamese law treats permission to enter and permission to work as two separate things, granted by two different arms of the state. Attending a meeting, negotiating a contract, auditing a supplier, speaking at a conference, standing on a trade fair stand: those sit on the entry side of the line. Holding a position at a Vietnamese entity, drawing a salary, delivering paid services under a local contract: those sit on the work side, and need a permit first.
The structure of the law makes the split obvious. Vietnam issues visas by symbol, each tied to a purpose, and two exist purely for people who work. LD2 goes to foreigners "working in Vietnam requiring work permit," and LD1 to foreigners "working in Vietnam and certified of eligibility for work permit exemption," per Law No. 51/2019/QH14. The same law says a visa can't be repurposed once issued, with a short list of exceptions, one of which is a person who entered on an eVisa and can produce a work permit or a confirmation of exemption. The permit unlocks the change of status. Not the visa, and not the intention.
⚠️ An eVisa is not work authorization, and no amount of paying for one makes it so. It lets you enter, and it lets you do business activity that stops short of employment. If a Vietnamese entity is going to pay you, or an employer is posting you here, the permit comes first and the visa follows from it. Getting this backwards is the most consequential error on this page.
What the eVisa Covers: Meetings, Conferences, and Multiple Entries
The eVisa is a general-purpose short-stay visa and it's the route almost every business traveler to Vietnam actually uses. Since 15 August 2023 it has been open to citizens of all countries and territories, for a maximum stay of 90 days, single or multiple entry, under Resolution 127/NQ-CP (Embassy of Vietnam in the United States). It covers tourism, family visits, conferences and short-term business. It does not cover employment, study or settling here.
Multiple entry is where this route earns its keep. Regional business is rarely one clean trip. You land in Hanoi, spend four days with a manufacturer, fly to Singapore for a fortnight, come back for an acceptance test, then leave through Ho Chi Minh City. On a single-entry visa that first departure ends it. On a multiple-entry eVisa the same 90 days absorbs all of it, for USD 50 in fees against USD 25 for single entry, processed in three working days on Vietnam's national e-visa service (Immigration Department, Ministry of Public Security). Our pricing page sets out what we add on top.
Where you can land matters too. Resolution 389/NQ-CP of 2 December 2025 added 41 checkpoints, taking the eVisa list to 83: 17 airports, 27 land border gates and 39 seaports (VietnamPlus, Vietnam News Agency). That opens up overland crossings from Cambodia and Laos, though two listed airports, Long Thanh and Gia Binh, apply only once operational.
⚠️ Multiple entry is a choice you make on the form, not something you add later. Once your eVisa is issued as single entry, leaving Vietnam closes it, and there's no upgrade path from inside the country. If a side trip to Bangkok, Singapore or Phnom Penh is even possible, pay the difference at the start.
DN1 and DN2: Vietnam's Dedicated Business Visa Categories
Vietnam does have purpose-built business visa symbols, worth understanding even if you never use one. DN1 goes to foreigners "working with other enterprises and organizations that are juridical person as per the law of Vietnam." DN2 goes to foreigners "making entry to promote services, establish commercial presence or conducting other activities according to international agreements to which Vietnam is a signatory," the category built for arrivals under a trade or investment treaty. Both are capped at 12 months.
The real difference between a DN visa and an eVisa isn't length. It's who stands behind you. The law requires a foreigner applying for a visa to be "invited or sponsored by agencies, organizations or individuals in Vietnam," and the eVisa is specifically carved out of that requirement. A DN visa is not. A registered Vietnamese enterprise has to act as your inviting entity, file with the Immigration Department on your behalf, and carry responsibility for what you do here. No sponsor, no DN visa.
That makes DN1 and DN2 something your Vietnamese counterparty arranges rather than something you shop for. The company invites you, the invitation is approved, and you collect the visa at a Vietnamese diplomatic mission abroad, which our guide to Vietnamese embassies and consulates covers. For a two-week trade fair trip, that machinery is more than the visit justifies, which is why the eVisa exists.
Work Permits: The Document That Has to Come First
The work permit, giấy phép lao động, is the foundation of every lawful working arrangement in Vietnam. The current framework is Decree 219/2025/ND-CP, issued on 7 August 2025 and effective immediately, replacing Decree 152/2020/ND-CP and Decree 70/2023/ND-CP outright. It merged two procedures into one, so employers now file a single dossier rather than first seeking approval for their demand to use foreign labor. The authority has 10 working days from a complete dossier to review the demand, approve it and issue the permit, and provincial People's Committees now handle issuance, extension and revocation (VietnamPlus, Vietnam News Agency).
Note who files. It's the employer, not you. The employer explains why the role needs a foreign hire, submits the dossier and receives the permit. A prospective employee has no standing to apply alone, which is why "how do I get a Vietnamese work permit" is usually the wrong question. The right one is which entity is employing you. Once the permit exists, the immigration side follows: an LD1 or LD2 visa capped at two years, and from there a temporary residence card. Our post on living and working in Vietnam picks up the practical side.
⚠️ We do not process work permits, and neither does any online visa form. A permit dossier involves your employer, criminal record checks, legalized and translated qualifications, and a provincial authority. It's handled by the employing company, usually with a licensed Vietnamese immigration agency or law firm alongside it. Anyone selling one as a quick online product is describing something that doesn't exist.
Work Permit Exemptions: The Cases Where You Don't Need One
Not every foreigner working in Vietnam needs a permit. Decree 219 sets out its exemptions in Article 7, expanding the list to 15 cases (Vietnam Law and Legal Forum, Vietnam News Agency). The categories most people fall into:
- Foreigners working in Vietnam for a total of less than 90 days in a calendar year, counted from 1 January to 31 December, with notification to the competent authority.
- Capital contributors and owners of a limited liability company, and board members of a joint stock company, at or above a VND 3 billion contribution.
- Heads of representative offices and project heads of international organizations and foreign non-governmental organizations in Vietnam.
- Consultants on ODA-funded programs and projects.
- Foreign correspondents confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and teachers at schools run by foreign diplomatic missions.
- Foreign students and trainees working under an agreement with their institution.
- Workers in finance, science, technology, innovation, national digital transformation and other prioritized fields, confirmed by a ministry or a provincial People's Committee.
An exemption isn't something you assert for yourself. The employer obtains written confirmation that the worker falls outside the permit requirement, and that confirmation is what an LD1 visa is built on. Even the under-90-days case involves notifying the authority: it's a category with its own paperwork, not a loophole.
The Temporary Residence Card: What Comes After the Permit
The temporary residence card, or TRC, is the document that turns a work arrangement into a life. It's issued to holders of specified visa symbols, LD1 and LD2 among them, and while it's valid you come and go without applying for a fresh visa. Its validity must be at least 30 days shorter than your passport's, and for LD1 and LD2 holders it caps at two years, then has to be applied for anew. Investors on a DT1 card can hold one for up to 10 years, which tells you where Vietnam's priorities sit.
Here's the detail that catches people out: DN1 and DN2 are not on the list of visas that lead to a temporary residence card. A business visa, however long it runs, does not convert into residence. That route goes through employment or investment, not commercial visits. The application is filed by the inviting or sponsoring entity where it is based, which is to say by your employer, and not by us.
Four Routes Compared: What Each One Permits and Who Sponsors It
These are the four routes a business traveler will actually meet. They aren't alternatives to one another so much as answers to different situations, and the wrong one is not a cheaper version of the right.
| Route | What It Permits | Who Sponsors It | Maximum Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| eVisa (EV) | Tourism, family visits, conferences and short-term business. Not employment. | No Vietnamese sponsor required | 90 days, single or multiple entry |
| DN1 and DN2 | Working with a Vietnamese legal entity, or promoting services and establishing commercial presence under a treaty | A Vietnamese enterprise or organization | 12 months |
| LD1 and LD2 | Employment, once a work permit or an exemption confirmation exists | The employing entity | 2 years |
| Temporary residence card | Residence, plus entry and exit without a fresh visa | The employing or sponsoring entity | 2 years on LD1 and LD2 |
The eVisa is the only one of the four you can arrange entirely by yourself, with no Vietnamese entity vouching for you. That independence is the point of it, and it's also the reason it stops where employment begins.
The Digital Nomad Question: Vietnam Has No Such Visa
Let's be direct: Vietnam does not have a digital nomad visa. The visa symbols are enumerated in the law, each attached to a defined purpose, and there is no category for a person living in Vietnam while earning from a foreign employer or foreign clients. Searching harder doesn't produce one, because it isn't there.
What people do instead is stay on eVisas and visa exemptions, sometimes back to back, and work remotely from a cafe in Da Nang or a co-working space in Ho Chi Minh City. This is a genuine grey area rather than a settled position. Vietnam's system assigns a purpose to every entry, and remote work for a foreign company isn't a purpose it names, in either direction.
We're not going to moralize about that, and we're not going to publish workarounds either. The risk sits with the traveler. Entry is decided at the checkpoint by an officer applying the law as they read it, and the consequences of being found working without a permit fall on you, not on whoever wrote the article you took the idea from.
Border Runs and Overstays: Where Short Trips Go Wrong
A border run, or visa run, means leaving Vietnam by land or air, usually to Cambodia, Laos or Thailand, and coming straight back in on a fresh eVisa or exemption. People do it because an eVisa can't be renewed from your sofa in Hoi An, and because extensions are handled from inside the country by licensed Vietnamese agencies, which is why our FAQs say we don't offer them. If Vietnam is only a stopover, the transit visa rules are a different question.
Each entry is judged on its own merits, and nothing published caps how many eVisas you may hold in a year. But entry is never automatic. An officer can ask why you keep returning, what you're doing here and where your income comes from, and a pattern of short entries with no visible purpose is what prompts those questions. It isn't a strategy.
Overstaying is the harder-edged risk, and it got harder at the end of 2025. Decree 282/2025 took effect on 15 December 2025 and doubled the maximum overstay fine from VND 20 million to VND 40 million, roughly USD 1,520 (Viet Nam News). Short overstays under 16 days were left where they were, but the scale climbs steeply after that, and for someone in and out of the country repeatedly the exposure is cumulative.
⚠️ An overstay follows you after you've paid for it. It is grounds for deportation and a future entry ban, and authorities can stop you leaving until the money is settled. If a project runs long, deal with your status before your permitted stay ends, not at the airport. Rules here move, so check our notes on Vietnam's visa policy before a long trip.
What We Can and Cannot Do
This is the part of the page that matters most, so no hedging. We process eVisas. Single entry and multiple entry, up to 90 days, for tourism, family visits, conferences and short-term business. We review the application, correct what's wrong with it, submit it and follow it up. For someone flying in for meetings or a trade fair, that's the right service.
We do not process work permits, temporary residence cards, LD or DN visas, employment visas, study visas or long-term residency, and we don't handle extensions from inside Vietnam. Those belong with your employer and a licensed Vietnamese immigration agency or law firm. Pretending otherwise would waste your time when you can least afford it.
| Your Situation | What You Need | Who Arranges It |
|---|---|---|
| Meetings, a conference or a trade fair | eVisa, single entry | You, or us on your behalf |
| In and out of Vietnam several times this quarter | eVisa, multiple entry | You, or us on your behalf |
| Invited by a Vietnamese company for a longer project | DN1 or DN2 | The inviting Vietnamese entity |
| Taking a job, or posted here by an employer | Work permit, then an LD visa, then a TRC | Your employer, with a licensed Vietnamese agency or law firm |
| Studying, or moving to Vietnam long term | A different visa category entirely | Not us. The institution or a licensed Vietnamese agency |
One more thing we'd rather say than hide. You can apply yourself on Vietnam's national e-visa service and pay only the USD 25 single or USD 50 multiple fee. Plenty of people should. What we sell is a second set of eyes on the form and a human to email when something goes wrong. If your trip is months out and your paperwork is simple, the case for us is weak.