4 March 2021
On 30 December 2020, the Government has promulgated Decree 152/2020/ND-CP (“Decree 152”) regulating on foreign workers and the recruitment and management of Vietnamese workers working for foreign employers. Some of most salient provisions of Decree 152 is as follows:
Work permit exemption
Compared to repealed regulations, Decree 152 added several new cases in which foreign employers are exempted from obtaining a work permit:
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being an owner or a capital contributor of a limited liability company with portion of capital contribution of VND3 billion or more;
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being the Chairman of the Board of Directors or a member of the Board of Directors of a joint stock company with a portion of capital contribution of VND3 billion or more;
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foreigners coming to Vietnam to set up a commercial presence of a foreign entity in Vietnam;
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being confirmed by Ministry of Education and Training to enter Vietnam to teach and research.
Criteria for determining an expert
Under Decree 152, a “foreign expert” has been clarified and defined in a stricter manner. Foreign agency, organisation and enterprise are no longer allowed to determine/certify “who would be deemed as a foreign expert”. A foreign expert is required to satisfy all conditions including: (i) years of experience and (ii) qualification (which includes relevant certification, decree…). For clarification, an expert is required to:
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obtains at least a bachelor’s degree or equivalent and at least 3 years’ experience in his/her training field which corresponds with the job position/job assignment that he/she will be appointed in Vietnam;
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obtains at least 5 years’ experience and a practicing certificate which corresponds with the job position that he/she will be appointed in Vietnam; or
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falls under a special case subject to decision of the Prime Minister according to a request of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.
Term of work permit/work permit exemption certificate
Decree 152 clarifies that the term of work permit or work permit exemption certificate is no more than two years and foreign workers are only permitted to renew once for a further two-year term. Hence, this implies that foreign workers are required to apply for a fresh work permit/work permit exemption in order to continue to work in Vietnam.
For more information, please contact:
Hoang Tran, ZICO Law Vietnam,
hoang.tran@zicolaw.com
