Who Will Be Able to Work in Vietnam Without a Work Permit?

The eighteen categories

The list below follows the government's own summary of the decree, published by VGP on 22 October.

1. Anyone covered by clauses 3 to 8 of Article 154 of the Labour Code. That cross-reference carries several long-standing exemptions into the new decree, among them foreigners married to a Vietnamese citizen and living in Vietnam, which is clause 8 and the subject of our article on the work permit exemption for foreign spouses.
2. Owners and capital-contributing members of a limited liability company, where the contribution is at least VND 3 billion.
3. Chairs and members of the board of management of a joint stock company, where the contribution is at least VND 3 billion.
4. Consultants and other staff on programmes and projects funded by grant aid, official development assistance or concessional loans, under the approved project documents or the international agreements behind them.
5. Journalists confirmed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
6. Teachers, managers and executive directors sent by a foreign authority to educational institutions founded at the request of a foreign diplomatic mission or an intergovernmental organisation, or established under an international treaty Vietnam has joined.
7. Students at institutions in Vietnam or abroad holding an internship agreement or an invitation to work at a Vietnamese agency, organisation or business, and trainees aboard Vietnamese ships.
8. Family members of staff at foreign diplomatic missions, where a treaty allows them to work.
9. Holders of official passports working for state bodies, political organisations and socio-political organisations.
10. Those responsible for establishing a commercial presence.
11. Volunteers.
12. Those implementing an international agreement signed by a central or provincial body.
13. Two short-term cases: foreigners entering for short-term work, and intra-corporate transferees within the eleven service sectors in Vietnam's WTO commitments, listed in the decree's Appendix II.
14. Five cases in education: teaching on approved joint education or training programmes; working on approved international cooperation projects in education; holding a master's degree or higher in STEM, science, technology, digital transformation, finance, economics or business administration and teaching or researching at an educational institution; holding a doctorate and teaching or researching at a vocational or higher education institution; and holding the rank of professor or associate professor and teaching, researching or taking part in academic exchange at one.
15. Anyone confirmed by a ministry, a ministerial-level agency or a provincial People's Committee.
16. Holders of the special visa exemption card issued under Decree 221/2025/ND-CP, which grants time-limited visa exemption to special categories of foreigner the government treats as serving socio-economic development.
17. Experts working in fields on the government's strategic technology and strategic technology product lists, and their family members.
18. Those recruited under the Prime Minister's national programme for artificial intelligence talent.

What the list does not mean

Exemption from the permit is not exemption from paperwork. The decree governs both work permits and the certificate confirming that a worker falls outside the permit requirement, issued under Article 157 of the Labour Code, so several of these categories still involve an application and a document to hold.

Short-term work carries its own trap, written into the decree itself. A foreigner may enter for short-term work without a permit, but the moment the arrangement becomes one of hiring, employment and payment of wages, the employer has to apply for a permit on the employment contract route set out in Article 19 of the decree.

Two categories are wider than they look. The confirmation route at number 15 lets a ministry or a provincial People's Committee place a worker outside the permit system, and the cross-reference at number 1 reaches back into the Labour Code rather than restating what it covers. Anyone relying on either should read the underlying text rather than the summary.

For everyone else, nothing changes. A foreigner outside these eighteen categories still needs a work permit, and the employer still applies for it, by the route set out in our work permit guide.

What it replaces

Decree 219/2025/ND-CP goes on 5 December 2026. How the new decree treats permits and confirmation certificates already issued, and applications still in progress, is not covered in the published summary, so anyone in that position should check the decree text before assuming their position carries over.

Sources

• VGP, the government's news service, reproduced by Ha Tinh province, 22 October 2026, for the full list of eighteen categories, the signing on 20 October, the structure of five chapters and 37 articles, and the commencement date of 5 December 2026.
• Government policy portal, for the text of clause 8 of Article 154 of the Labour Code covering foreigners married to a Vietnamese citizen.

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