Temporary Residence Card (Thẻ tạm trú)
Vietnam's Temporary Residence Card is not a visa you apply for from abroad — it is an upgrade granted after you are already in Vietnam on a qualifying visa, and only a sponsoring company, investment or family member can file it for you. Validity is capped by the card's symbol: ĐT1 investor cards run up to 10 years, NG3/LV1/LV2/LS/ĐT2/DH up to 5 years, NN1/NN2/ĐT3/TT up to 3 years, and the LĐ1/LĐ2 employment cards most foreign workers actually hold up to 2 years, always at least 30 days shorter than your passport. The state fee is USD 145 per card up to 2 years, USD 155 for over 2 to 5 years and USD 165 for over 5 to 10 years, with a 5-working-day statutory decision window.
This record has not been fully source-checked yet. The headline figures come from secondary sources and some fields are incomplete. Treat it as a starting point and confirm with the embassy before acting.
Requirements at a glance
| Stay per entry | Continuous residence for the whole validity of the card. You do not accrue a per-entry stay limit and there are no border runs; the card replaces the visa for the period it covers. |
|---|---|
| Total validity | Depends entirely on the card symbol: ĐT1 up to 10 years; NG3, LV1, LV2, LS, ĐT2 and DH up to 5 years; NN1, NN2, ĐT3 and TT up to 3 years; LĐ1, LĐ2 and PV1 up to 2 years. Since 1 July 2026 the new UĐ1 and UĐ2 cards also run up to 10 years. Every card must be at least 30 days shorter than the remaining validity of your passport, so a passport with 18 months left caps even a 10-year entitlement at about 17 months. |
| Extendable | Not extended — reissued. Law 51/2019 replaced the old "may be extended" wording with "An expired temporary resident card shall be considered for issuance anew", so each cycle is a fresh application with a fresh sponsor, fresh work permit and the fee paid again. |
| Entries | Multiple |
| Government fee | $145 — Per card, for a TRC valid no more than 2 years — the tier that covers the LĐ1/LĐ2 employment cards most foreign workers get. USD 155 for over 2 to 5 years, USD 165 for over 5 to 10 years. Set by Circular 28/2026/TT-BTC, in force 1 April 2026. Excludes the work permit, the sponsor's paperwork and any agent fee. |
| Income required | None |
| Savings required | None |
| Deposit required | ₫100,000,000,000 — Not a refundable deposit — this is the capital contribution that buys the longest card. VND 100 billion or more (or investment in an incentivised business line or locality) gets you an ĐT1 visa and so the 10-year ĐT1 TRC. VND 50bn–under 100bn is ĐT2 (5-year card), VND 3bn–under 50bn is ĐT3 (3-year card), and under VND 3bn is ĐT4, which gets no TRC at all. |
| Minimum age | None |
| Health insurance | Not required |
| Processing time | 5 working days from receipt of a complete dossier, by statute. In practice provincial immigration offices commonly take 5 to 10 working days, and the clock only starts once the file is accepted as complete — an incomplete dossier is handed back rather than queued. |
| Apply from |
What most guides get wrong about the TRC
Each of these is a rule that changed, or a detail that is widely repeated incorrectly. Checked 11 September 2026.
I work remotely for a company back home, so I'll just get a temporary residence card and settle in Vietnam long-term.
There is no TRC category a remote worker can use. Article 36 as amended by Law 51/2019 lists exactly which visa holders may be granted a card — LV1, LV2, LS, DT1, DT2, DT3, NN1, NN2, DH, PV1, LD1, LD2 and TT — and the DN1 and DN2 business visas are deliberately absent, as are tourist visas and e-visas. Every eligible route requires a Vietnamese sponsor: an employer with a work permit, a licensed investment, an NGO or rep office posting, a university, or a Vietnamese/TRC-holding family member. Remote workers in Vietnam in 2026 are cycling e-visas and DN visas, not holding TRCs. Law 118/2025/QH15, effective 1 July 2026, added UĐ1 and UĐ2 for high-quality digital technology personnel, but those are employer- and incentive-tied, not a self-sponsored nomad permit.
A Vietnamese temporary residence card lasts up to 5 years.
That was the ceiling under the original Law 47/2014, whose Article 38 read "The duration of a NG3, LV1, LV2, ĐT or DH temporary residence card shall not exceed 05 years." Law 51/2019/QH14 rewrote Article 38 effective 1 July 2020 and split the investor categories: ĐT1 cards now run up to 10 years, ĐT2/DH/LV1/LV2/LS/NG3 up to 5, NN1/NN2/ĐT3/TT up to 3, and LĐ1/LĐ2/PV1 up to 2. Since 1 July 2026 the new UĐ1 and UĐ2 cards also reach 10 years. Guides still reciting the old symbol list "LV1, LV2, ĐT, NN1, NN2, DH, PV1, LĐ, TT" are quoting pre-2020 law — the undifferentiated ĐT and LĐ symbols no longer exist.
Set up a small company in Vietnam and the investor route gets you residence.
Below VND 3 billion of contributed capital you get an ĐT4 visa, and ĐT4 is not on the Article 36 list of TRC-eligible categories at all — a small company buys you a visa you must keep renewing, not a card. The thresholds set by Law 51/2019 are: under VND 3bn is ĐT4 and no TRC; VND 3bn to under 50bn is ĐT3, capped at a 3-year card; VND 50bn to under 100bn is ĐT2, 5 years; VND 100bn or more, or investment in a government-designated incentivised sector or locality, is ĐT1 and the 10-year card. The incentivised-sector clause is the part most guides omit, and it is the only way to reach ĐT1 without VND 100 billion.
When my TRC expires I just renew or extend it.
Law 47/2014 said "Expired temporary residence cards may be extended." Law 51/2019 deleted that and substituted "An expired temporary resident card shall be considered for issuance anew," effective 1 July 2020. The practical consequence is that there is no lightweight renewal: each cycle needs a current sponsor, a fresh work permit or work permit exemption confirmation, a new dossier and the fee again. If your employer has not started the work permit renewal in time, you cannot stretch the card to cover the gap — you drop back to a visa.
The TRC and the work permit are two ways of getting the same thing, so I can pick whichever is easier.
They are sequential, not alternative. The LĐ2 visa is defined as "Issued to foreigners working in Vietnam requiring work permit," and LĐ1 as issued to those "certified of eligibility for work permit exemption" — so you need the work permit or the exemption confirmation in hand before the LĐ visa, and the LĐ visa before the card. The card's life is then bounded by the permit's: practitioners report the TRC "must not exceed two years and is generally aligned with the validity period of the underlying Work Permit or Work Permit Exemption Confirmation." Because Vietnamese work permits themselves max out at 2 years, the LĐ1/LĐ2 card can never reach the 5- or 10-year numbers people quote from investor categories. A separate trap: the card must also end at least 30 days before your passport does, so renewing a near-expiry passport first is worth doing.
Where it wins
- Acts as a multiple-entry residence permit — you leave and re-enter Vietnam freely for the life of the card with no visa run, no extension stamps and no per-entry day count
- Genuinely long: an ĐT1 investor card runs up to 10 years, longer than almost any comparable Southeast Asian residence permit
- Cheap by regional standards — USD 145 to USD 165 in state fees for the whole multi-year term, not per year
- A holder can sponsor a TT card for a spouse and children under 18, keeping the family on one legal footing
- Statutory 5-working-day decision window, and applications are filed at the provincial immigration office where your sponsor is based rather than requiring a trip to Hanoi
Where it doesn’t
- You cannot apply for yourself. Article 37 requires an inviting or sponsoring agency, organisation or individual to submit the file, so the card is legally tethered to your employer, your company or a Vietnamese family member
- Lose the job and you lose the card — an LĐ2 TRC is built on a work permit, and when the work permit is revoked or lapses the card goes with it
- The LĐ1/LĐ2 employment card most expats actually qualify for is capped at 2 years, not the 5 or 10 years the headline figures suggest
- The work permit itself is the hard part: medical certificate, criminal record checks from Vietnam and your home country, legalised and notarised degree and experience letters, all before immigration will even look at the TRC
- No renewal path — an expired card is reissued from scratch, so the whole sponsor-and-documents exercise repeats every cycle
- Passport validity silently truncates the card, and nobody tells you in advance; the 30-day rule means a short-dated passport wastes most of a 5- or 10-year entitlement
- It is not permanent residence and does not accrue toward citizenship in any automatic way
Who cannot use this visa
- Holding a DN1 or DN2 business visa — business visa holders are simply not on the Article 36 list of TRC-eligible categories
- Being in Vietnam on a tourist (DL) visa or e-visa, including the 90-day multiple-entry e-visa
- Working remotely for a foreign employer with no Vietnamese sponsoring entity — there is no remote-work or digital-nomad TRC symbol
- Investing under VND 3 billion, which yields an ĐT4 visa and no TRC entitlement
- Having no work permit or work permit exemption confirmation when applying under LĐ2 or LĐ1
- A passport with under about 13 months remaining, since the card must end at least 30 days before the passport does
Recent rule changes
- That was the ceiling under the original Law 47/2014, whose Article 38 read "The duration of a NG3, LV1, LV2, ĐT or DH temporary residence card shall not exceed 05 years." Law 51/2019/QH14 rewrote Article 38 effective 1 July 2020 and split the investor categories: ĐT1 cards now run up to 10 years, ĐT2/DH/LV1/LV2/LS/NG3 up to 5, NN1/NN2/ĐT3/TT up to 3, and LĐ1/LĐ2/PV1 up to 2.
- Below VND 3 billion of contributed capital you get an ĐT4 visa, and ĐT4 is not on the Article 36 list of TRC-eligible categories at all — a small company buys you a visa you must keep renewing, not a card.
- Law 47/2014 said "Expired temporary residence cards may be extended." Law 51/2019 deleted that and substituted "An expired temporary resident card shall be considered for issuance anew," effective 1 July 2020.
Where these figures come from
Every number above is transcribed from one of the sentences below. We publish the sentence rather than only the link, so you can check it in one click — and so a figure nobody transcribed from anywhere cannot reach this page.
“b) Foreigners making entry on LV1, LV2, LS, DT1, DT2, DT3, NN1, NN2, DH, PV1, LD1, LD2 and TT visas.”
Backs: totalValidity
“2. Validity of ĐT1 temporary residence cards does not exceed 10 years.”
Backs: totalValidity, stayPerEntry
“3. Validity of NG3, LV1, LV2, LS, ĐT2 and DH temporary residence cards do not exceed 5 years.”
Backs: totalValidity
“4. Validity of NN1, NN2, ĐT3 and TT temporary residence cards do not exceed 3 years.”
Backs: totalValidity
“5. Validity of LĐ1, LĐ2 and PV1 temporary residence cards do not exceed 2 years.”
Backs: totalValidity
“1. Validity of issued temporary resident cards shall be at least 30 days shorter than remaining validity of passports.”
Backs: totalValidity, stayPerEntry
“6. An expired temporary resident card shall be considered for issuance anew.”
Backs: totalValidity
“7a. ĐT1 – Issued to foreign investors in Vietnam and representatives of foreign organizations investing in Vietnam and contributing capital of VND 100 billion or more or investing in business lines benefitting from investment incentives, in administrative divisions benefitting from investment incentives decided by the Government.”
Backs: depositRequirement.amount, depositRequirement.qualifier
“7d. ĐT4 – Issued to foreign investors in Vietnam and representatives of foreign organizations investing in Vietnam and contributing capital of less than VND 3 billion.”
Backs: depositRequirement.qualifier
“16a. LĐ2 – Issued to foreigners working in Vietnam requiring work permit.”
Backs: totalValidity
“16. LĐ1 – Issued to foreigners working in Vietnam and certified of eligibility for work permit exemption, unless otherwise specified by international agreements to which Vietnam is a signatory.”
Backs: totalValidity
“8. DN1 – Issued to foreigners working with other enterprises and organizations that are juridical person as per the law of Vietnam.”
Backs: totalValidity
“c) Within 05 working days from the receipt of sufficient documents, the immigration authority or the competent authority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall consider issuing the temporary residence card.”
Backs: processingTime
“b) The inviting entity shall directly submit the application for issuance of the temporary residence card to the foreigner to the immigration authority in the same administrative division in which the inviting entity is based or residing.”
Backs: processingTime
“a) Of a validity for no more than 02 years: USD 145/card”
Backs: governmentFee.amount, governmentFee.qualifier
“b) Of a validity of between over 02 years and 05 years: USD 155/card”
Backs: governmentFee.qualifier
“c) Of a validity of between over 05 years and 10 years: USD 165/card”
Backs: governmentFee.qualifier
“This Circular takes effect from April 1, 2026.”
Backs: governmentFee.qualifier
“The Minister of Finance's Circular No. 25/2021/TT-BTC of April 7, 2021, prescribing the rates of charges and fees related to exit from, entry into, transit through and residence in Vietnam and charge and fee collection, remittance, management and use, ceases to be effective from the effective date of this Circular.”
Backs: governmentFee.qualifier
“Notably, temporary residence cards bearing the codes ĐT1, UĐ1 and UĐ2 are valid for no more than 10 years.”
Backs: totalValidity
“Along with the introduction of the new visa categories, the Law expands the groups of foreigners eligible for consideration for temporary residence cards, adding holders of UĐ1 and UĐ2 visas.”
Backs: totalValidity
“Law No. 118/2025/QH15, amending and supplementing a number of provisions of 10 laws related to security and public order, took effect on July 1, 2026.”
Backs: totalValidity
“the validity of the TRC must not exceed two years and is generally aligned with the validity period of the underlying Work Permit or Work Permit Exemption Confirmation, as applicable”
Backs: totalValidity
“Five working days from the submission date with full required documentation.”
Backs: processingTime
Sources for this page
- http://comingo.gov.vn/data/data/comingo/files/van-ban/Law%2051_2019_doc.pdfofficial
- https://www.taiwanembassy.org/uploads/sites/97/2018/02/5151654571.pdf
- https://english.luatvietnam.vn/circular-no-28-2026-tt-btc-dated-march-27-2026-of-the-ministry-of-finance-providing-the-rates-and-the-collection-and-remittance-of-charges-and-fees-430424-doc1.html
- https://vietnamtimes.thoidai.com.vn/vietnam-introduces-new-rules-for-foreigners-entry-and-residence-756830.html
- https://www.alitium.com/vietnam-temporary-residence-card-trc-guide-2026/
- https://vietnam.acclime.com/guides/temporary-resident-cards/
- https://xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/en/tin-tuc/procedures-temporary-residence-cards-foreigners-vietnam-immigration-department-ministryofficial
Last checked 11 September 2026. Requirements are applied at the discretion of individual embassies and can change without notice. Confirm before you book anything.