Which Foreign Owners, Board Members, and Transferees Are Exempt From a Vietnam Work Permit?
Being the owner, a board member, or an internal transferee doesn't exempt a foreign national from a Vietnam work permit by itself — specific, measurable conditions decide it: a capital figure for owners and board members, and a 3-part test for transferees.
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Title Alone Doesn't Decide This
Vietnam's foreign-worker rules exempt certain owners, board members, and transferees from the work-permit requirement — but the exemption is built around a specific capital figure or a specific transfer definition, not the job title itself. A founder, CEO, or board member who doesn't meet the actual condition still needs a permit like any other foreign employee.
Owners and Board Members
The exemption for an LLC owner or a JSC board member turns on one number: actually-contributed capital, not registered or committed capital.
| Role | Exempt From a Work Permit When... |
|---|---|
| LLC owner or capital-contributing member | Actually-contributed capital is VND 3 billion or more |
| JSC board chairman or board member | Actually-contributed capital is VND 3 billion or more |
Intra-Company Transfer Exemption
Vietnam's intra-company-transfer (ICT) exemption is narrower than simply moving an employee between companies in the same group — it only applies when all 3 conditions hold together.
- The transfer is into a commercial presence the foreign enterprise has already established in Vietnam.
- That commercial presence falls within one of the 11 service sectors Vietnam committed to under its WTO schedule.
- The employee was already employed by that foreign enterprise for at least 12 consecutive months immediately before the transfer.
The Same ICT Test Also Decides Social Insurance
A genuine intra-company transferee is separately exempt from Vietnam's compulsory Social Insurance requirement — but only because the Social Insurance Law points back to this exact same foreign-worker-law definition, not because of an independent ICT test of its own. If the 3 work-permit conditions above aren't met, the Social Insurance exclusion doesn't apply either, regardless of what the assignment is called internally.
Legal basis: Decree No. 219/2025/ND-CP on foreign workers, effective 7 August 2025; Social Insurance Law No. 41/2024/QH15, effective 1 July 2025. This content was manually researched and reviewed by RedTab (last reviewed 16 August 2026) rather than sourced through RedTab's usual citation-verification process for its service pages — general regulatory information, not a legal or tax opinion for any specific individual. Content last verified 2026-08-16.
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