Long-term residence in Vietnam in 2026

Current as of September 2026. Sources: Vietnam Immigration Department and English-language legal guides (Emerhub, Vietnam Briefing, 2025–2026). Immigration rules change often — confirm the details before you file.

Does Vietnam actually have permanent residency?

Short answer: not the way most Western countries do. There is no golden-passport scheme, no "buy a visa and settle forever" product. If a website promises you Vietnamese permanent residence for a fee and a form, be careful — what they usually mean is a temporary card.

The status you will actually live on is the Temporary Residence Card (TRC, thẻ tạm trú). It is a plastic card, valid 1 to 10 years, that replaces your visa: no extensions, no counting days, no visa runs while it is live. It is tied to a reason — a job, a company, a Vietnamese spouse — and you renew it when it runs out.

True permanent residence (PRC, thẻ thường trú) does exist, but it is rare. It is mostly for spouses of Vietnamese citizens, recognised specialists, and people who have already lived here for years on a TRC. For most foreigners, the honest endpoint is a TRC you keep renewing — and that is fine, because a renewed TRC gives you almost everything a resident needs.

TRC vs PRC vs citizenship — the three levels

People conflate these three, and the confusion costs money. Here is how they actually stack up, from the status you can get this year to the one almost nobody gets.

The takeaway: aim for a TRC, treat a PRC as a bonus once you have lived here a few years, and forget about citizenship unless you have close Vietnamese family. Since 1 July 2025 (Law 79/2025/QH15) Vietnam does allow dual nationality — but only in cases listed in the law, mainly applicants with a Vietnamese spouse, child, parent or grandparent, or with recognised service to the country, and each case is decided individually.

Which route fits you — the honest version

There is no single "best" route. The right one depends on what you already have: a job, a spouse, or capital. Read the ground that matches your situation and skip the rest.

• You have a job offer in Vietnam — go the work route (LD card). Your employer sponsors you; it is the most common path.
• You are married to a Vietnamese citizen — the marriage route (TT card) is the simplest and cheapest, and it shortens the road to a PRC.
• You freelance or run an online business — most people in this spot open a small Vietnamese company for a DT investor card. It is the usual workaround for remote workers, but it comes with real accounting duties.
• You just want to buy an apartment and live here — property alone gives you nothing. You still need one of the grounds above. What the purchase itself gets you is in our guide to buying property in Vietnam as a foreigner.

Residence through work

Employment is the most common route to a card. Sign a contract with a Vietnamese employer for 12 months or more, and the company acts as your sponsor. Plenty of foreigners who freelance in Vietnam take exactly this path, signing through a local company that agrees to employ them on paper.

In outline: the employer gets you a work permit (giấy phép lao động) through the labour department, you get an LD work visa on that basis, then you file for the LD-category TRC. The card runs up to two years and renews with the job. Some roles skip the work permit entirely — company directors, intra-company transfers, and short technical assignments.

The full sequence, with processing times and the exact forms, is in our TRC guide. The one thing worth knowing up front: when the job ends, so does the card. You get only a short window to line up a new sponsor or leave.

Residence through business and investment

The second common route is opening a company. Put in the charter capital, get an investor DT card, and you have both legal status and a business you can run. It suits entrepreneurs and remote workers who cannot get a local job contract — and, at the top end, it is the fastest realistic path toward permanent residence.

The DT card comes in four tiers, and the size of your capital sets both the tier and the term:

For most people the realistic tier is DT3 (3 billion VND, ~$115,000 in registered capital, up to a 3-year card). Note the catch at the bottom: under 3 billion VND you land in DT4, which is a yearly visa with no residence card at all — you renew it every twelve months.

The company-setup steps, the licences (IRC and business registration) and the lawyer costs are laid out in our TRC guide. Budget for a lawyer here — a slip in the company paperwork can cost you months.

Residence through marriage to a Vietnamese citizen

Marriage to a Vietnamese citizen is the simplest way to a card. The TT card runs up to three years, your spouse is the sponsor, and for citizenship it waives the five-year residence requirement. It also helps at the top: a foreign spouse of a Vietnamese citizen is one of the few categories a PRC is actually written for.

The requirements are light: a registered marriage (in Vietnam, or abroad and legalised), a passport valid at least 13 months, and the spouse's sponsor declaration. The trade-off is time. A marriage-based card takes around six months — longer than work or business — because the authorities check that the marriage is genuine. And if the marriage ends, so does the card. The full document list and forms are in our TRC guide.

Golden Visa — what is actually real in 2026

You will read a lot about Vietnam's "Golden Visa". Here is the reality check: as of September 2026 the programme is not live. It was discussed in spring 2025, with press reports quoting different thresholds, most often $250,000 for five years and $400,000 for ten, but we found no enacted law and no application process. What is live is a separate programme, the 5-year visa exemption card for top talent under Decree 221/2025, explained in our talent visa guide.

So if you want long-stay investor status in Vietnam today, you do it through the ordinary DT card, not a Golden Visa. That means a real company and charter capital from about 3 billion VND (~$115,000), as above. Treat any agent selling you a live Golden Visa right now with suspicion — the product does not exist yet.

Vietnam does not have a golden visa as of 2026. The program was announced in 2025 and remains under government review, with no enacted legislation.property-guide analysis, rumavi.com, 2026

What long-term residence costs

The government fee for the card itself is small; the real spread comes from which route you take and whether you use a lawyer.

USD figures are approximate, at roughly 25,000 VND to $1. Rates and fees move — confirm the current numbers before you budget. The full fee schedule and the translation/notary line items are in our TRC guide.

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From a TRC to permanent residence

Once you have held a TRC continuously for three years — counted from your entry and exit stamps over the previous four years — you can apply for permanent residence. The PRC has no fixed expiry: it is reissued every ten years with updated biometrics, and it is not tied to a single employer or sponsor. That independence is the whole point of it.

Realistically, a PRC is within reach for a narrow set of people:

• Foreigners with a Vietnamese relative — a spouse, parent or child who is a citizen
• People recognised by the government for a contribution to the country
• Scientists and highly qualified specialists put forward by the relevant ministry
• Stateless people who have lived in Vietnam since 2000

You also need a stable income, a registered address and a clean record. The government fee is about $100, and the file takes several months to decide. For most expats without a Vietnamese spouse, though, the truth is blunt: you will renew a TRC rather than ever hold a PRC — and that works perfectly well for a long, settled life here.

Citizenship is a further step almost nobody takes. Since 1 July 2025 (Law 79/2025/QH15) Vietnam does accept dual nationality, but only in cases listed in the law, mainly applicants with a Vietnamese spouse, child, parent or grandparent, or with recognised service to the country — and each case is decided individually. In marriage cases the five-year residence requirement is waived, but that is academic for most.

A card versus living on visa runs

Not everyone bothers with a card. Plenty of people live in Vietnam by alternating visa-free entries and visa runs — a flight out and back every 45 to 90 days to reset the clock. It works, until it doesn't. Once you are here six months or more, a card pays for itself.

Since December 2025, overstay penalties have tightened, so drifting past your visa-free window is a worse gamble than it used to be. If you are staying more than half the year, the card is cheaper and safer.

What to expect, honestly

A few things the glossier guides leave out, so you go in with clear eyes.

• Approval is not guaranteed. Vietnam controls immigration tightly. Even a complete, correct file can be refused without a stated reason. A local lawyer ($500–2,000) does not remove that risk, but it lowers it a lot.
• Your card is only as stable as its ground. Lose the job, close the company or end the marriage, and the TRC goes with it. Build a plan B before you need one.
• The company route has a tail. A DT card through your own business means quarterly tax filings forever, even at zero revenue. Skip them and your tax code gets blocked, which then blocks your renewal.
• Paperwork is in Vietnamese. Every foreign document needs a certified translation, and the police-clearance apostille can only be done in your home country — get it before you fly.
• "Permanent" rarely means permanent. For most foreigners the realistic ceiling is a renewable TRC, not a PRC and certainly not a passport. That is not a failure; it is just how the system works.

FAQ — long-term residence in Vietnam