Legal & Investment Insights

The look-through principle Vietnam authorities and courts apply is the rule that a Vietnamese company majority owned by foreign investors is itself treated as a foreign investor when it invests further. It sounds technical. In practice it decides whether a fund’s carefully layered holding structure holds land lawfully or not. This guide sets out five…

Acquiring a land using company Vietnam investors target is the standard route by which foreign capital reaches Vietnamese real estate, because foreign-invested enterprises cannot receive transfers of land use rights from individuals in the way a domestic buyer can. The company holding the land is bought instead of the land itself. That structure works, but…

An FDI company acquisition Vietnam transaction differs from a domestic share purchase in three respects that drive the whole timetable: the buyer may need M&A approval before the share transfer can be registered, the target’s licences must be re-tested against foreign ownership conditions, and the payment must be routed through the correct account. This guide…

The investor visa Vietnam regime allocates entry and residence rights by the amount of capital an individual has contributed to a Vietnamese company. The tiers matter commercially: they determine whether a founder receives a ten-year residence card or a one-year one, and whether family members can be sponsored on matching terms. This guide explains the…

A temporary residence card Vietnam immigration authorities issue removes the need for repeated visa renewals and is what makes a long-term posting practical. It is granted by visa symbol, and the symbol on entry determines what card, if any, the holder can obtain. Choosing the wrong entry visa is the single most common reason an…

A work permit exemption Vietnam confirmation is not the same as having no obligation. Most exempt categories still require the employer to notify the licensing authority or to obtain a written confirmation of exemption before the individual starts work, and failing to do so attracts the same penalties as working without a permit. Decree 219/2025/ND-CP…

Obtaining a work permit for foreign executives Vietnam operations depend on became materially simpler in August 2025. Decree 219/2025/ND-CP dated 7 August 2025 replaced the previous framework, moved licensing authority to provincial People’s Committees and merged the separate explanation of demand for foreign labour into the permit application itself. The rules on who qualifies as…

A real estate business license Vietnam position is one of the most tightly conditioned areas of foreign investment. The Law on Real Estate Business 2023 and the Land Law 2024, both effective from 1 August 2024, redrew what a foreign-invested enterprise may do with property, and several structures that worked before no longer do. This…

A logistics license Vietnam application is rarely a single approval. Logistics is treated as seventeen distinct services in Vietnamese law, each with its own market access condition, and a foreign operator offering an integrated service will usually find that some lines are open, some are capped and at least one requires a Vietnamese partner. This…

Establishing a software company Vietnam operations run from is one of the most straightforward foreign investments available, and one of the best incentivised. Software production is open to full foreign ownership, carries no minimum capital, and attracts one of the most generous corporate income tax incentive packages in the country. The complications are not in…