How To Register Company In Vietnam 2024: Step By Step Guide

At Vieter Vietnam, we help foreign investors register their own companies in Vietnam. Our corporate establishment and licensing services are designed around simple and practical advice, with clear processes from start to finish.

We guide investors through the government requirements, removing the confusion and providing clarity for what can be an otherwise drawn-out process for starting a business so that your Vietnamese company is established and ready for you to operate.

Structures & positions

1. Structure

In terms of form of company establishment in Vietnam, companies can take one of 2 (two) basic forms:

• Limited Liability Company (LLC)
• Joint Stock Company (JSC)

In which, LLCs are the most common corporate structure for foreign investors, given their relative simplicity in operation while JSCs have more requirements, including a minimum of 3 shareholders, and are preferable for companies which may mobilise more capital by share issuance and listed on the stock exchange in the future.

Also, if the foreign investors do not want to establish a company officially in Vietnam, they can consider other structures:

• Representative Office
• Business Co-operation Contract (BCC) with a Vietnamese Partner

However, these remain most relevant to specific situations or scenarios.

2. Formal positions/responsibilities

The main positions that each company must have in Vietnam, include:

• Legal Representative: There can be more than 1 (one) Legal Representative appointed, but at least one of them must generally reside in Vietnam.
• (General) Director: The (General) Director is the person who operates the company on a day-to-day basis. Please note that these 2 (two) positions can be of any nationality, but there may be Work Permit matters to consider for foreign appointees.
• Chief Accountant: This position is appointed once the company is established, and takes on many of the responsibilities that a “Company Secretary” would do in other jurisdictions.

Procedures and timelines

Foreign investors investing in Vietnam in the form of establishing a new company need to obtain an Investment Registration Certificate (IRC) first for their “investment project”, and then continue by obtaining an Enterprise Registration Certificate (ERC) for the new company.

The process includes three (3) basic stages: