How Long Does It Take to Set Up a Company in Vietnam
For a foreign-invested company, the statutory processing time is around 20–30 working days total: up to 10 working days for the IRC, plus 3 working days for the ERC — with the range depending on business lines and location.
Statutory Time, Not Total Time
These are the statutory processing windows the licensing agencies work to once a complete, valid dossier is submitted — they don't include the time spent preparing documents beforehand, which is usually the larger share of the real timeline.
Statutory Processing Timeline
| Step | Statutory processing time |
|---|---|
| Investment Registration Certificate (IRC) | Up to 10 working days |
| Registration for capital contribution / share purchase (where applicable) | Up to 10 working days |
| Enterprise Registration Certificate (ERC) / shareholder information update | Up to 3 working days |
Total: roughly 20–30 working days, depending on business lines and investment location — from the date each agency receives a complete, valid dossier.
What Can Extend This
- An incomplete or invalid dossier resets the clock — agencies notify and request amendments rather than processing on a partial submission.
- Conditional business lines (retail, F&B, education, and similar) add a separate sector-licensing step on top of this timeline — see Sector Licensing.
- Document preparation, translation, and legalization of foreign-issued documents happen before submission and aren't part of the statutory clock above.
Legal basis: Decree 96/2026/ND-CP, Decree 31/2021/ND-CP, Decree 239/2025/ND-CP. Full citations on the ERC and IRC pages. Content last verified 2026-07-29.
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