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Strategic-Tech Experts and AI Recruits Will Need No Work Permit in Việt Nam From 5 December

Fourteen months after Việt Nam last rewrote its foreign-worker rules, the Government has rewritten them again. Nghị định 393/2026/NĐ-CP, on foreign nationals working in Việt Nam, was signed on 20 October 2026 by Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Thị Thanh Trà at the proposal of the Minister of Home Affairs. It has 5 chapters and 37 articles and takes effect on 5 December 2026. On that date it replaces Nghị định 219/2025/NĐ-CP of 7 August 2025. It also ends two work-permit provisions in the administrative-simplification resolution Nghị quyết 24/2026/NQ-CP.

Most of the paperwork is unchanged. Provincial People’s Committees still issue permits, a new permit still takes 10 working days, and an exemption certificate still takes 5. The changes are in who has to apply at all, and they lean clearly towards technology talent.

Two new exemptions aimed at tech talent

Article 8 lists 18 categories of foreign workers who do not need a work permit (giấy phép lao động). Two of them are new:

  • Khoản 17: experts working in a field on the Danh mục công nghệ chiến lược and Danh mục sản phẩm công nghệ chiến lược (the lists of strategic technologies and strategic technology products) issued by Prime Ministerial decision, together with their family members. The current list is Quyết định 21/2026/QĐ-TTg of 30 April 2026. It sets out ten groups of strategic technologies, including high-speed and urban rail. The application file needs a university degree or higher in a major on that list. A spouse or child needs proof of the relationship.
  • Khoản 18: foreign workers recruited under the national AI workforce programme. This is Quyết định 1528/QĐ-TTg of 11 August 2026, which approved the Chương trình quốc gia phát triển nhân lực trí tuệ nhân tạo to 2030. Its targets include at least 10,000 high-level AI researchers, engineers and experts. The file needs a document showing the person was recruited under that programme.

Exempt does not mean paperwork-free. Most exempt categories still need a confirmation of exemption (giấy xác nhận không thuộc diện cấp giấy phép lao động), valid for up to two years. A few categories only need to notify the authority at least three working days before work starts.

Other exemptions that changed

  • Ministry or provincial confirmation (khoản 15). Under 219/2025, a ministry or province could confirm a worker only in listed fields: finance, science, technology, innovation, digital transformation or priority sectors. The new text drops that list. Instead, Article 37 requires the confirming body to check that the worker fits socio-economic development goals and meets the new “expert” test.
  • Education (khoản 14). The old rule needed a confirmation from the Ministry of Education and Training. The new one names the groups directly. They include people with a master’s degree or higher in STEM, science, technology, digital transformation, finance, economics or business administration who teach or do research at an educational institution, plus PhD holders and professors or associate professors at universities and vocational schools.
  • Short-term work (khoản 13a). “Short-term” now means a total of no more than 90 days in a calendar year, counted across one or more Vietnamese employers. If the stay turns into a real hiring relationship with a salary, the employer has to apply for a full permit.
  • Intra-company transferees (khoản 13b). Their exemption certificate can now last up to three years instead of two. However, the definition now covers only managers, executive directors and experts. Technical workers already transferred under 219/2025 keep their papers until those expire. After that they can renew only if they qualify as experts.

A looser definition of “expert”

The definition of “expert” in Article 4 matters even for people who need a permit, because many permits depend on it. Under 219/2025 an expert needed a degree plus two years of experience, or a degree plus one year in finance, science, technology, innovation or digital transformation. Under 393/2026 a worker can qualify in any of six ways:

  1. a degree plus 2 years of relevant experience (unchanged);
  2. a degree in a strategic-technology major, or as provided in a Government cooperation agreement, with no experience requirement;
  3. a degree with honours (loại giỏi) or better in a science or technology field from a top-500 university in the QS, Times Higher Education, ShanghaiRanking or U.S. News rankings from the last three years, or in a list published by the Ministry of Education and Training, plus 1 year of experience;
  4. an expert in culture, arts or sports listed in Annex II;
  5. an expert in teaching, research or academic exchange under the education rules;
  6. five years of relevant experience, with no degree requirement.

Executive directors who head a business line now need two years of experience instead of three.

Less paperwork, faster renewals

  • Criminal records from the database (Article 7). If an employer applies online, it does not have to submit a criminal record certificate (Phiếu lý lịch tư pháp) when the authority can pull the information from the criminal records database itself. The processing clock starts when the database result arrives. The Ministry of Public Security will issue guidance on how this works.
  • Online filing everywhere. Every procedure now names the Cổng Dịch vụ công quốc gia (National Public Service Portal) as a filing channel, alongside the provincial public administration centres.
  • Renewals. Permit renewals will be decided within 5 working days instead of 10. Employers can file between 90 days and 10 working days before expiry. The old window was 45 days to 10 days.
  • A national database. The Ministry of Home Affairs must build one database of foreign workers covering every level of government, and connect it to the national immigration database.

Who is affected and what to do

Tech companies, R&D centres and universities hiring AI, chip or blockchain specialists can expect shorter lead times. Many of these hires can skip the labour-demand approval and the full permit file and go through the five-day exemption route instead. Foreign professionals without a degree but with five years of experience, and recent graduates of top universities, gain a path that did not exist before. Families of strategic-technology experts can work without a separate permit.

Transition rules: permits and exemption certificates issued under 219/2025, or under the older 70/2023 rules, stay valid until they expire. Applications filed before 5 December are processed under 219/2025. Renewals already filed under Nghị quyết 24/2026 are processed under that resolution.

Open questions

  • The decree does not say how an authority decides that someone “works in a field on the strategic-technology list”. The supporting document required is only a degree in a listed major. It is unclear whether employers will also need to show that the job itself is strategic-technology work.
  • The strategic-technology list is reviewed regularly. A Ministry of Science and Technology review is already under way under the new High-Tech Law. Each change to the list will change who qualifies.
  • Guidance on the online criminal-record check, and the national foreign-worker database, had not been published at the time of writing.

Sources

This post is general information, not legal advice.