Most foreigners searching “LĐ1 or LĐ2” expect to find a list of job types. They find one. Then they pick the wrong visa anyway.

This decision has nothing to do with what you do for work. It’s about the legal relationship between you and the company sponsoring your entry. Get that wrong, and your application either comes back rejected or you find out mid-process that you needed a work permit you didn’t know about.

The real question isn’t about your job

Here’s what almost everyone gets wrong: LĐ1 and LĐ2 are not job categories. They’re legal status classifications.

LĐ1 covers foreigners who are exempt from needing a work permit (GPLĐ). LĐ2 covers those who aren’t. So the first question isn’t “what do I do?” It’s “does Vietnamese labor law require someone in my position to hold a work permit?”

That one question drives everything else: what documents you prepare, which office you deal with, and how long the whole process takes.

People get confused because work permit exemption ties to specific legal standing, not to qualifications or industry. A well-credentialed engineer on a standard employment contract needs LĐ2. A minority investor in a Vietnamese LLC might qualify for LĐ1. The job title on your contract tells you almost nothing useful here.

Which visa type applies to you

LĐ1 applies if you fall into one of these categories:

Under Article 154 of the Labor Code (45/2019/QH14) and Article 7 of Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP, foreigners exempt from the work permit requirement, and therefore eligible for LĐ1, include:

• Capital contributors or owners of a Vietnamese LLC with a contributed capital value of VND 3 billion or more
• Chairman or board members of a joint stock company with contributed capital of VND 3 billion or more
• Head of a representative office, project head, or person primarily responsible for the operations of an international organization or foreign NGO in Vietnam
• Intra-company transfers: someone sent from a foreign parent company to its commercial presence in Vietnam, with at least 12 consecutive months of employment at the parent company immediately before entering Vietnam
• Managers, executive directors, specialists, or technical workers entering Vietnam for less than 90 days in a calendar year
• Entering Vietnam for under 3 months to sell services
• Entering Vietnam for under 3 months to handle a complex technical or technological problem that local specialists can’t resolve
• A foreigner married to a Vietnamese citizen and living in Vietnam
• Other cases under Article 7 of Decree 219/2025 (accredited foreign journalists, students with internship invitations, unpaid volunteers under international agreements, holders of official passports working for state agencies, and others)

One thing that catches people off guard: most exempt categories still require a separate exemption certificate from the relevant authority before you can apply for the LĐ1 visa. The certificate has to come first. You can’t submit both at the same time.

LĐ2 applies if:

• You have a signed employment contract with a Vietnamese-registered company
• You hold a valid, current work permit
• You’re working under a direct employment arrangement, not as an intra-company transfer or equity holder

In practice, once you have a work permit, most people apply for a temporary residence card (TRC) rather than just a visa, because the TRC tracks the work permit period, up to 2 years per issuance. LĐ1 TRCs also go up to 2 years. Worth checking before you apply: if your passport is close to expiry, the TRC or visa will only be issued up to 30 days before your passport expires, regardless of how long the work permit runs. Renew the passport first if you’re cutting it close.

Exempt doesn’t mean no paperwork

A common misread: “exempt from the work permit” sounds like you skip the queue entirely. You don’t.

Most LĐ1 categories still require you to apply for an official exemption certificate before the visa. The processing time is roughly the same as a work permit. What changes is the paperwork you file and what you’re on the hook for afterward.

What’s different about the exemption certificate route:

No criminal background check required. Work permit applications (LĐ2) require a police clearance certificate. The exemption certificate process doesn’t. That removes one step, but adds others.

More supporting documents, and foreign ones need apostille or legalization. To prove you qualify for exemption, you need documents that match your specific category. For an intra-company transfer, that typically means an appointment letter or assignment letter from the overseas parent company. Any document issued outside Vietnam needs to be legalized before it’s accepted here – either apostilled (if the issuing country is a Hague Convention member) or through consular legalization. That adds both cost and lead time to your preparation, sometimes significantly.

No mandatory social insurance contributions. Workers on a work permit (LĐ2) are required to participate in Vietnam’s compulsory social insurance scheme. Workers on an exemption certificate (LĐ1) are not. For many employers and employees, this is a material financial difference.

Applications get reviewed more carefully. Because the exemption stakes are higher – no BHXH contributions, simpler ongoing documentation – the initial review tends to be more thorough. The documents proving your exempt status carry more weight, and gaps or inconsistencies in the file get flagged.

The practical implication: if you think you might qualify for LĐ1 exemption but your supporting documents are thin, hard to obtain, or will take time to legalize, factor that in before assuming the LĐ1 route is faster or easier. For some people it is. For others, a standard work permit (LĐ2) is actually the cleaner path.

Things that don’t work

There are a few routes I see people try regularly that go nowhere.

Switching from a tourist visa or e-visa to a work visa without leaving Vietnam. Current law doesn’t allow in-country conversion. If you entered on a tourist visa and then received a job offer, you have to leave Vietnam and start the LĐ1 or LĐ2 process from outside. There’s no in-country workaround.

Submitting a visa application before you have a work permit or exemption certificate. The visa application requires one or the other as a supporting document. Applications missing either get sent back. The order is fixed: work permit or exemption certificate first, visa second.

Not renewing your passport before applying for a TRC or visa. The TRC and visa can only be issued up to 30 days before passport expiry. If your passport expires in February 2026, the maximum TRC you’ll get runs to January 2026, even if your work permit goes through to the end of the year. A lot of people discover this only after they’ve started the application.

Assuming that a “director” or “manager” job title automatically qualifies for LĐ1. Title alone doesn’t do it. Exemption requires specific legal standing: capital contribution at the qualifying threshold, legal representative status, documented intra-company transfer, and so on. A job description isn’t a substitute for any of those.

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Work through this before you apply

Go through these in order. The first one that fits is your answer.

IF you hold contributed capital of VND 3 billion or more in a Vietnamese LLC, or you’re the Chairman or a board member with equivalent capital in a joint stock company, THEN you’re exempt from the work permit requirement. File for an exemption certificate with the provincial authority (under the delegation structure set by each province), then apply for the LĐ1 visa or TRC.

IF you’re being sent by a foreign parent company to its commercial presence in Vietnam, and you’ve been continuously employed by that parent company for at least 12 months immediately before your transfer, THEN you may qualify as an intra-company transferee and be exempt from the work permit. Your documents need to clearly show the continuity of employment with the parent company.

IF you have a signed employment contract with a Vietnamese company and you don’t meet any of the exemption criteria above, THEN you need a work permit first. This applies to specialists, technical workers, and managers working under direct employment contracts too: a senior title doesn’t mean you’re exempt. The employer files the work permit application. Once that’s issued, you apply for the LĐ2 visa or TRC.

IF your work permit has less than 6 months left and you plan to stay on, THEN start the renewal now. The visa or TRC can only be renewed if the underlying work permit is still valid or has already been extended.

IF you’re currently in Vietnam on a tourist visa and just received a job offer, THEN you need to exit before you can do anything else. No exceptions.

What the visa doesn’t cover

LĐ1 and LĐ2 give you the right to live and work in Vietnam. They don’t cover everything else that comes with foreign employment.

For LĐ2 holders, the visa and the work permit are separate documents. Both need to remain valid for your employment to be legal. If either expires, your right to work ends.

Your dependents don’t get work rights through your visa. A spouse or child entering on a TT (dependent) visa can live in Vietnam but can’t take paid work. They need separate authorization.

Neither the work permit nor the visa renews automatically. The renewal process for LĐ2 is essentially a new application. Two years of legal employment doesn’t give you any automatic right to continue.

A single-employer visa doesn’t cover working elsewhere at the same time. If you’re working for multiple Vietnamese entities simultaneously, each one may need to be part of your sponsorship arrangement depending on how it’s structured.

LĐ1 and LĐ2 are temporary residence statuses, not a path to permanent residence. Vietnam doesn’t have a straightforward permanent residence route for labor visa holders outside of specific investment thresholds.

Who I work with

Cases I take on:

• Foreigners with a concrete job offer or established legal standing in Vietnam who need to identify the right visa type and get the paperwork right
• Companies that regularly sponsor foreign workers and want a reliable process for handling work permits and visa sequences in the correct order
• Foreigners who entered on the wrong visa type and need to understand what options they have
• Foreign investors with equity in Vietnamese companies who need to properly establish their work permit exemption status

Cases I don’t take on:

• Anyone looking to use an incorrect visa category to avoid the work permit process. Exemptions have specific legal requirements. If you don’t meet them, there’s no way around it through documentation framing.
• Foreigners who want to obtain a work permit through one company but actually work at a different one, or who won’t be genuinely working at the sponsoring company at all. A work permit ties to a specific employer and role. Using a permit from Company A to work at Company B is a legal violation and can lead to revocation.
• Requests to process everything in the same week. Standard processing is 5 to 7 business days from the point of a complete, correct submission. Incomplete submissions reset the clock.
• Cases where someone is currently in Vietnam without valid status. I can advise on the path forward, but I don’t help retroactively document work that was done without authorization.

What I need to get started:

1. Passport copy (valid for at least 6 months beyond your intended stay)
2. Name and registration number of the Vietnamese sponsoring entity
3. Your job title and a short description of the work arrangement
4. For LĐ1 cases: any existing documents showing legal standing or prior exemption certificates
5. For LĐ2 cases: current status of the work permit application

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Rita Ngo advises on visa and work permit matters for foreigners in Vietnam. I don’t charge until I’ve confirmed your case is workable.

Email: Ritango.consulting@gmail.com Phone / Zalo: +84 943 344 342 WhatsApp: +84 943 344 343 Website: ritainvietnam.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rita-ngo Facebook: facebook.com/ritango.consulting