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New Immigration Law in Vietnam

Hanh Pham Last update: Aug 05, 2019

In June 14, 2014, the National Assembly of Vietnam approved the new immigration law. The new law is scheduled to come into effect on January 1, 2015. Following are the key changes in this new Immigration Law of Vietnam:

1/ A complete new structure of visa types with 20 different categories of visas and new durations:

	Categories of Visa	Description / category of applicant entitled to	Duration of Visa	Duration of Temporary Resident Card
1	NG1-NG4	Diplomatic	Up to 12 months	Up to 5 years
2	LV1-LV2	Working with Vietnamese authorities/parties	Up to 12 months	Up to 5 years
3	ĐT	Investors/foreign lawyers	Up to 5 years	Up to 5 years
4	DN	Working with Vietnamese enterprises	Up to 12 months	NA
5	NN1-NN2	Chief Representative Office, Head of Project Office of foreign NGO), Chief rep of rep offices in Vietnam	Up to 12 months	Up to 3 years
6	NN3	Staffs of NGO, Rep office in Vietnam	Up to 12 months	NA
7	DH	Students/ interns	Up to 12 months	Up to 5 years
8	HN	Attending meeting	Up to 3 months	NA
9	PV1	Journalists with permanent residence in Vietnam	Up to 12 months	Up to 2 years
10	PV2	Journalists with short term residence in Vietnam	Up to 12 months	NA
11	LĐ	Foreign workers	Up to 2 years	Up to 2 years
12	DL	Tourists	Up to 3 months	NA
13	TT	Dependents of 2,3,5,7,9,11	Up to 12 months	Up to 3 years
14	VR	Visiting relatives, other purpose	Up to 6 months	NA
15	SQ	Related to MOF, Consulate with the purpose of market research, visiting relatives, tourist, medical treatment	Up to 30 days	NA

2/ According to article 7, point 1 of the new law, the purpose of Visa may not be converted from one purpose to another. Our interpretation is that, for instance, someone entering Vietnam with a tourist visa (DL) may not be able to convert it to a work visa in country (LD)

3/ New prohibited conditions for entry and exit:

Prohibited conditions for entrance:

– Any person that was deported from Vietnam within the last 03 years;

– Any person that was compelled to leave Vietnam within the last 06 months;

– Any person Presenting forging paper or providing false information to obtain entry/exit/residence permit.

– A child under 14 years of age traveling without an accompanying parent or custodian; etc

Prohibited conditions for exit: A foreigner’s exit will be suspended (up to three years) in the following cases:

– His or her tax obligations have yet been fulfilled;

– He/she is obliged to comply with an administrative sanction;

– He/she has been criminally charged or must serve a criminal sentence;

– He/she is a defendant or a person with related rights and obligations in a civil, economic, labor, administrative or marriage litigation case

In addition to this piece of information, we have include all information about Vietnam visa in one post: Vietnam visa policy. It covers all information you may need to know about Vietnam visa, including: