Investment Registration Certificate (IRC)

How It Works

• Step 1: The investor submits documents to the investment registration agency where the economic organization is headquartered to carry out procedures to register capital contributions, purchase shares, or stakes to Vietnamese companies
• Step 2: Investors submit documents to the agency Business Registration to carry out procedures for recording investor information on the Enterprise Registration Certificate (In case the enterprise has not separated the Investment Certificate and Enterprise Registration Certificate, the separation procedure will be performed at the same time in step 2. The Enterprise Registration Certificate number is also the tax code of the issued enterprise)
• Step 3: In c

Conditions & Eligibility

For individual foreign investors:

• Must be at least 18 years old and not fall under any prohibited categories for company establishment or management in Vietnam under Article 17 of the Law on Enterprises 2020.
• Must hold the nationality of a WTO member country or of a country that has signed a bilateral investment treaty with Vietnam.
• For foreign institutional investors:
• Must be legally established in a WTO member country or a country that has signed a bilateral investment treaty with Vietnam.
• Now, certain sectors are restricted to individual foreign investors only and only permit institutional foreign investors to register.

Required Documents

• Based on Clause 2, Article 36a of the Investment Law 2020 (as amended and supplemented in 2024 and 2025), the application documents for the issuance of the Investment Registration Certificate shall include documents similar to those required for approval of investment guidelines for investor-proposed projects under Article 33 of the Investment Law 2020, comprising::
• A written request for implementation of the investment project, including a commitment to comply with conditions, standards, and technical regulations as prescribed by the laws on construction, environmental protection, and fire prevention and fighting
• a project proposal identifying and forecasting the project’s environmental i

Validity

• The term of the Investment Certificate is also the operating term of the investment project. The term of the Investment Registration Certificate is considered and decided by the Investment Certificate Issuing Agency based on the objectives, scale, location, and operational requirements of the investment project. Accordingly, the maximum term of the Investment Certificate is specified as follows:
• The term of operation of an investment project in an economic zone must not exceed 70 years.
• The operating term of an investment project outside an economic zone must not exceed 50 years.
• Investment projects implemented in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions, areas with particularly dif