Changes to Immigration Laws for Foreign Individuals in Vietnam

On October 19, 2019, the National Assembly of Vietnam approved amendments to the Law on Entry, Exit, Transit, and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam (“Law”). The amended Law was formally issued on 25 November 2019 (Law 51/2019/QH14 on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law 47/2014/QH13 on entry, exit, transit, residence of foreigners in Vietnam) and will come into effect on 1 July 2020. In this article, we highlight key changes and updates.

• The law now permits the changing of a visa purpose for foreign individuals under specific conditions without needing to leave and re-enter Vietnam.
• Vietnamese authorities will implement new visa types for foreign investors into Vietnam, based on the value of their contributed investment. The main impacts include:
• Updating the definition and process for electronic visa applications and their legal implications, and
• Amending the validity of Temporary Residence Cards for foreign individuals.

Significant impacts from the above include:

1. Reducing the maximum term of visas and temporary residence for small investors (less than VND3 billion) to one year,
2. Increasing the term of temporary residence for large investors to up to 10 years, and
3. Permitting foreign corporate investors to nominate a representative, who will be entitled to temporary residence or visa based upon the capital of the foreign investor.

1. Changes to visa purposes

In order to facilitate situations where foreign individuals enter Vietnam for the purpose of sightseeing/tourism, and then seek a visa conversion for other purposes, the Government supplemented Article 7, allowing the change of a visa purpose under certain conditions, namely:

1. Evidence of being an investor or a representative of a foreign organization investing in Vietnam according to the provisions of Vietnamese law;
2. Foreign individual has a document proving a direct family relationship with a Vietnamese citizen – father, mother, spouse, child;
3. Foreign individual is invited or guaranteed by agencies or organizations and has a work permit/certificate of work permit exemption in accordance with the Labour Code of Vietnam; oe
4. Foreign individual enters by an electronic visa and has a work permit/certificate of work permit exemption in accordance with the Labour Code of Vietnam.