The paperwork behind a long stay in Vietnam.

Vietnam’s visa system draws a sharp line between short stays and long ones. A tourist or short-term visitor typically enters on a 90-day e-visa, applied for online in advance, or a visa-exemption stamp available to a shortlist of passports for 15 to 45 days. Neither extends easily inside the country; the common workaround is to leave and re-enter, sometimes called a visa run.

For a stay of six months or longer, most residents move onto a long-term visa category, coded by purpose: LD for employment, DT for investment, TT for family ties to a Vietnamese citizen or TRC holder, among others. These can convert into a Temporary Residence Card (TRC), valid for one to five years, which removes the need to leave the country periodically.

Every foreign resident must also register their address with local ward police. This registration, tạm trú, is separate from the visa and is not optional.

Wu and Kin does not issue visas or represent applicants before Immigration; a visa agent or an employer’s HR department handles the filing. This guide covers what to expect, not how to complete it.

Visa categories

Vietnamese visas are coded by a two-letter purpose code, which determines length, extension rules, and whether the visa can later convert into a TRC.

Code	Purpose	Typical length	Sponsor
DL	Tourist	30 to 90 days	None, or e-visa
DN1 / DN2	Business or commercial work	90 days, extendable	A Vietnamese company invitation
DT1 to DT4	Foreign investor	1 to 5 years, by capital tier	Registered investment
LD1 / LD2	Worker	Up to 2 years	Employer plus work permit
TT	Family of a Vietnamese national or TRC holder	Up to 3 years	Family relationship
PV1 / PV2	Volunteer or NGO	Up to 1 year	Organization
DH	Student	Up to 1 year	School
VR	Family visit	6 months	Vietnamese inviter

Durations and conversion rules are confirmed by the Immigration Department at application time.

E-visa

The e-visa is the default route for tourists and short-business visitors from eligible countries, applied for at evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn.

• Validity: up to 90 days, single or multiple entry.
• Processing: 3 to 5 business days through the official portal.
• Cost: USD 25 single-entry, USD 50 multiple-entry, through the official channel.
• Extension: technically possible inside Vietnam but slow; most travelers leave and re-enter instead.
• Documents: a passport scan, a passport-style photo, and a planned port of entry.

Print the approval before travel; border officers ask for the paper copy, not the phone screen.

Holders of certain passports enter Vietnam without a visa at all, for a fixed period that varies by nationality and should be checked against that country’s own foreign-affairs guidance before relying on it. As of mid-2026: 45 days for UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain; 30 days for South Korea (single entry, conditions apply); 21 days for the Philippines; 15 days for Japan, Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Belarus; and 21 to 30 days for most ASEAN passports. Extending an exemption stay inside Vietnam is difficult; anyone who needs longer, and does not yet qualify for a TRC, typically resets the stay with a border crossing or a short flight out and back.

Temporary Residence Card (TRC)

The TRC is a one-to-five-year residence card. Once issued, a resident exits the visa-run cycle until the card expires.

Eligibility generally follows one of a few paths: holding a work permit and an LD visa long enough to upgrade; being the spouse or dependent of a Vietnamese citizen or another TRC holder (TT category); qualifying as a foreign investor at the relevant capital threshold; or being enrolled in an accredited educational program.

The process, once the matching visa is held for at least a month, runs through a document submission to the Immigration Department (work permit, marriage certificate, investment registration, or school enrolment, depending on the path), a fee (roughly USD 145 to 155 for a 2-year card as of 2026), and a wait of 5 to 10 business days.

The TRC is generally what separates living in Vietnam from visiting it: it typically supports opening a bank account, converting a driving licence, and registering tạm trú directly. An employer-sponsored TRC ends when employment ends, so it is worth having a next step lined up before resigning. Renewal at expiry follows a process similar to the first application; starting about two months ahead avoids a gap.

Work permit

A work permit is required before an LD visa is issued, for anyone working for a Vietnamese-registered entity (including a foreign-owned company) for more than 30 days as a paid employee. Filing is the employer’s responsibility, but the employee supplies the underlying documents: a notarized degree certificate (legalized in the country of issue, then consularized at the Vietnamese embassy there), a notarized criminal record check, a medical exam from a Vietnamese hospital licensed for work-permit medicals, a passport scan, and photos.

Clean documents move through the process in 4 to 8 weeks; notarization and consularization at home is usually the longest step. Larger employers typically have in-house HR or a retained visa agent handle the filing; smaller employers or self-arranged workers often engage an agent directly.

Some categories are exempt, including company owners and certain foreign-enterprise managers. The most common reasons an application stalls: a degree not legalized in its country of issue first, a criminal record check older than six months at submission, or a medical exam at a hospital not on the approved list.

Tạm trú, the temporary residence registration

Tạm trú is the temporary residence registration every foreigner in Vietnam must complete with the police of the ward (phường) where they sleep. It is separate from the visa itself and is not optional. The legal basis is Decree 21/2001/NĐ-CP and its later amendments.

Hotels and serviced apartments file automatically at check-in. For a long-term rental, the property owner or building management typically files on behalf of the tenant: a passport bio-page scan, the current visa or TRC, the lease agreement, and the property owner’s ownership certificate (sổ hồng). Filing is expected within about 12 hours of move-in; most wards now process this through the national public-service portal, though some still require an in-person stamp.

The confirmation, a stamped or digitally signed receipt, is worth photographing and saving in more than one place. It is the document authorities ask for whenever a resident’s address comes into question, including when opening a bank account or renewing a work permit or TRC.

Re-registration follows a new passport, visa, TRC, or work permit, or a guest staying more than a few nights. Without a current registration, fines run roughly 500,000 to 2,000,000 VND, and renewals can stall if an officer cannot verify the applicant’s address.

Common mistakes

A short overstay before a planned visa run carries a modest fine, roughly 200,000 to 500,000 VND for a few days, but it stays on the immigration record, and repeated overstays affect future applications. Visa-on-arrival and e-visa are frequently confused: visa-on-arrival requires a pre-approval letter from a sponsor and a stamp at the airport, while an e-visa is a fully online application.

Immigration-agent scams are common enough to watch for: a legitimate agent has a Vietnamese-language website, a physical office, and a track record; a quote for an “expedited” service that does not officially exist is a signal to look elsewhere.

An LD (work) visa is tied to its sponsoring employer, so resigning without a new sponsor lined up leaves roughly 15 days to depart or convert status. Home-country documents, degree, marriage certificate, criminal record check, generally need an apostille (or consularization, for non-Hague countries) before Vietnamese authorities accept them; missing this is the most common reason a work permit stalls.

Not legal advice

This page describes Vietnam’s visa and residency framework at a country level. It is not legal advice, and rules on eligibility, fees, and timelines change. Confirm current requirements against the Vietnam Immigration Department or a licensed agent before applying.

For the banking and tax side of settling in, see the money and tax guide. For anything not covered here, the FAQ is the next stop.