Vietnam Employment Law 2026: Contracts, Probation, IP

Last verified: 5 November 2026

This article provides general information on Vietnamese law based on publicly available sources as of 5 November 2026. It is not legal, tax or investment advice. How each rule applies depends on the circumstances; readers should check the official texts and seek qualified professional advice before making decisions.

Answer first: hiring an employee in Vietnam in 2026 runs on the Labour Code 2019 (Law No. 45/2019/QH14, in force since 1 January 2021), and as of November 2026 the core rules on contracts, probation and termination have not been amended since. A bill amending the Labour Code was presented to the National Assembly on 21 October 2026 and had not been passed at the time of writing (Vietnam Bar Federation journal, 2026). What has changed is almost everything around the Code. Between August 2025 and early November 2026, Vietnam replaced its work permit decree twice, brought a new Social Insurance Law into force, raised regional minimum wages and set the next increase for 1 January 2027, issued a new decree on trade union finance, enacted a Personal Data Protection Law, amended its IP Law, passed a new Personal Income Tax Law and issued a new decree on labour penalties.

For a foreign employer building a blockchain or software team, three areas carry most of the risk: the form of the contract, the probation period, and who owns the code your engineers write. This guide covers all three, then the surrounding obligations, with the legal instrument and article cited for each point.

Table of contents

1 What type of employment contract must you use in Vietnam?
2 How long can probation last in Vietnam?
3 How does employment end, and what must the employer do?
4 Who owns the code and IP your employees create?
5 What are working hours, leave and minimum wages in 2026 and 2027?
6 What social insurance and trade union fee must employers pay?
7 What changed for foreign hires, personal data and income tax?
8 Can you hire in Vietnam without a local entity?
9 Practical compliance considerations for employers
10 Frequently asked questions
11 Legal instruments cited (as of 5 November 2026)

What type of employment contract must you use in Vietnam?

Answer first: a written labour contract, either indefinite-term or definite-term of up to 36 months. You may sign only one further definite-term contract; after that, a continuing relationship must move to an indefinite-term contract.

The Labour Code sets the structure plainly:

Rule	What it requires	Legal basis
Substance over name	Any agreement covering paid work, wages and management is a labour contract, whatever it is called	Labour Code 2019, Art. 13
Written form	Two written copies; electronic contracts are equally valid; oral contracts only for terms under 1 month	Labour Code 2019, Art. 14
Contract types	Indefinite-term, or definite-term up to 36 months	Labour Code 2019, Art. 20
Renewal	30 days to sign a new contract after expiry; only one further definite-term contract, then indefinite-term	Labour Code 2019, Art. 20
Required contents	Party details, job, workplace, term, wage, working hours, leave, insurance, training	Labour Code 2019, Art. 21(1)
Secrets clause	Where the employee’s job directly involves business or technology secrets, the parties may agree in writing on protecting them, including compensation for breach	Labour Code 2019, Art. 21(2)

Source: Labour Code No. 45/2019/QH14 (English text via LuatVietnam), adopted 20 November 2019, effective 1 January 2021; article numbers checked against the consolidated Vietnamese text No. 18/VBHN-VPQH of 12 February 2026 (Official Gazette No. 131, 28 February 2026).

Article 13 matters most for foreign companies. Labelling an engineer a “contractor” or “consultant” does not change their legal status if the arrangement includes a fixed wage, set duties and management by your team. The Social Insurance Law 2024 follows the same logic and extends compulsory contributions to agreements of this kind (EY Vietnam legal update, 2024).

Electronic contracts are now built into national infrastructure. Decree 337/2025/ND-CP, issued on 24 December 2025 and effective 1 January 2026, sets up the National Electronic Labor Contract Platform run by the Ministry of Home Affairs; electronic contracts signed from 1 July 2026 must be synced to it within 24 hours of the last signature. Electronic contracts remain optional and paper contracts stay valid (Vietnam Briefing, 2026).

How long can probation last in Vietnam?

Answer first: between 6 working days and 180 days depending on the role. For most software engineering positions requiring a college degree or higher, the maximum is 60 days, and probation can be used only once per job.

Role	Maximum probation	Legal basis
Enterprise manager	180 days	Labour Code 2019, Art. 25
Job requiring a college degree or higher	60 days	Labour Code 2019, Art. 25
Job requiring intermediate-level qualification	30 days	Labour Code 2019, Art. 25
Other jobs	6 working days	Labour Code 2019, Art. 25

Source: Labour Code No. 45/2019/QH14, Art. 24-27.

Four further rules apply. Probation is optional and applies only once for the same job, and it is not permitted for contracts shorter than 1 month (Art. 24). The probation wage must be at least 85% of the wage for the job (Art. 26). Either party may end the probation without notice or compensation (Art. 27), and a failed or cancelled probation is one of the grounds on which a labour contract ends (Art. 34(13)).

Breaches now carry fines under Decree 283/2026/ND-CP, issued on 15 July 2026 and effective 10 September 2026, which replaced Decree 12/2022/ND-CP. Requiring probation more than once for the same job, exceeding the Article 25 maximum or paying less than 85% of the job’s wage is fined VND 2 million to VND 5 million, and fines on organisations are twice the stated amount (Decree 283/2026/ND-CP, Art. 7(1), 16(2) and 66).

The practical consequence for technical hiring: a 60-day window is short for assessing a senior blockchain engineer on a real production codebase. Structure the first 60 days around a defined deliverable rather than general onboarding, because extending probation beyond the statutory maximum is not an option.

How does employment end, and what must the employer do?

Answer first: Article 34 of the Labour Code lists 13 ways a labour contract ends, including mutual agreement, resignation by the employee, unilateral termination by the employer on statutory grounds, and redundancy after restructuring, technology change, economic reasons or a merger. Each route has its own notice rules. In most cases the employer must notify the employee in writing that the contract has ended; the Code exempts some grounds, including dismissal as a disciplinary measure and the expulsion of a foreign employee (Art. 45(1), referring to Art. 34(4)-(8)). Payments must be settled within 14 working days, the employee’s social insurance record confirmed, and severance or a job-loss allowance paid to staff with 12 months or more of regular work where the Code requires it.

All articles below refer to the Labour Code 2019 (Law No. 45/2019/QH14, adopted 20 November 2019, effective 1 January 2021), checked against consolidated text No. 18/VBHN-VPQH of 12 February 2026. None of the termination articles had been amended as of 5 November 2026.

Ending by mutual agreement. The parties may agree to end the contract at any time (Art. 34(3)). No statutory notice period applies. The employer must still notify the employee in writing that the contract ends (Art. 45(1)) and, where the employee has worked regularly for 12 months or more, pay severance, because Article 46(1) covers termination by agreement.

The employee resigns. An employee may end the contract with notice of at least 45 days on an indefinite-term contract, 30 days on a 12-36 month contract and 3 working days on a contract under 12 months (Art. 35(1)). No notice is needed in listed cases, such as not being paid in full or on time, harassment at work, or untruthful information given by the employer at hiring (Art. 35(2)).

The employer terminates unilaterally. This is allowed only on the grounds in Article 36(1):

repeated failure to complete work, measured against criteria in the employer’s own work-evaluation regulation, issued after consulting the grassroots employee representative organisation where one exists (point a);
illness or accident treated for 12 consecutive months on an indefinite-term contract, 6 months on a 12-36 month contract, or more than half the term on a contract under 12 months, without recovery (point b);
natural disaster, fire, dangerous epidemic, enemy action, or relocation or downsizing ordered by a state authority, after the employer has tried every remedy (point c);
failure to return to work after a suspension period under Article 31 (point d);
reaching retirement age, unless agreed otherwise (point đ);
abandoning work without good reason for 5 or more consecutive working days (point e);
untruthful information given by the employee at hiring that affected the recruitment (point g).

Contract type	Notice, employee resigning (Art. 35(1))	Notice, employer terminating on points a, c, đ, g (Art. 36(2))
Indefinite-term	45 days	45 days
Definite-term, 12-36 months	30 days	30 days
Definite-term, under 12 months	3 working days	3 working days

Source: Labour Code No. 45/2019/QH14, Art. 35-36; consolidated text No. 18/VBHN-VPQH (12 February 2026).

For the illness ground (point b), notice is 3 working days whatever the contract type (Art. 36(2)(c)). No notice is required for points d and e (Art. 36(3)). The employer may not terminate unilaterally while the employee is under medical treatment (except under point b), on annual or other approved leave, pregnant, on maternity leave or raising a child under 12 months old (Art. 37). A termination outside Articles 35-37 is unlawful (Art. 39): the employer must take the employee back, pay wages and insurance for the days not worked plus at least 2 months’ wages, and pay for any notice days missed (Art. 41(1)).

This is why written performance criteria matter from the first day. “Failure to complete work” is assessed against criteria the employer has issued, so an employer without them has a weak basis for termination.

Restructuring, technology change, economic reasons and mergers. Article 42 treats changes to organisational structure, reorganisation of labour, changes to processes, technology or equipment tied to the business, and changes to products as structural or technological change; economic crisis or recession, and implementing state policy on economic restructuring or international commitments, count as economic reasons. If such a change affects the jobs of many employees, the employer must draw up and carry out a labour usage plan (Art. 42(3)-(4)). The same applies to a division, demerger, consolidation, merger, sale, lease or conversion of the enterprise, or a transfer of its assets, and both the current and the succeeding employer must carry out the plan (Art. 43(1)-(2)).

The labour usage plan must list the employees who will be kept, retrained or moved to part-time work, those who will retire and those whose contracts will end, together with each party’s rights and obligations and the funding to carry it out (Art. 44(1)). The employer must consult the grassroots employee representative organisation where one exists and announce the plan to employees within 15 days of adopting it (Art. 44(2)).

Dismissals for restructuring or economic reasons may proceed only after consulting the grassroots employee representative organisation of which the employees are members (where one exists) and giving 30 days’ prior notice to the provincial People’s Committee and to the employees (Art. 42(6)). Following the 2025 reorganisation of government, provincial labour administration sits with the provincial Department of Home Affairs (for example, Ho Chi Minh City’s Department of Home Affairs collects employers’ labour reports), so ask that department how your province wants the notice lodged. Each dismissed employee with 12 months or more of regular work receives a job-loss allowance of 1 month’s wage per working year, with a minimum of 2 months, based on the average wage of the last 6 months and excluding periods covered by unemployment insurance (Art. 42(5), 43(3) and 47).

Settling the exit. The employer must give written notice that the contract has ended (Art. 45(1)). Within 14 working days of the end date, both sides must settle every payment owed, extendable to no more than 30 days only where the employer ceases operation, restructures, merges or is hit by disaster or epidemic (Art. 48(1)). Payments include wages for untaken annual leave (Art. 113(3)). The employer must also complete the confirmation of the employee’s social insurance and unemployment insurance contribution periods, return any original documents it holds, and provide copies of employment records on request (Art. 48(3)).

Severance. Severance under Article 46 is half a month’s wage per working year for employees with 12 months or more of regular work, calculated on the average wage of the last 6 months. It applies when the contract ends by expiry, completion of work, mutual agreement, lawful resignation under Article 35 or employer termination under Article 36, among other grounds, but not when the employee qualifies for a pension or is terminated for job abandonment (Art. 46(1)). It does not apply to dismissal or to the expulsion of a foreign employee (Art. 34(5) and (8)), and redundancy under Article 34(11) carries the job-loss allowance instead (Art. 47). An employee who resigns unlawfully is not entitled to severance (Art. 40(1)). The service period excludes time covered by unemployment insurance and time for which severance or a job-loss allowance has already been paid (Art. 46(2)-(3)).

Reporting changes in your workforce. Every 6 months (before 5 June) and every year (before 5 December), employers must report changes in their workforce through the National Public Service Portal on Form 01/PLI and notify the local social insurance office (Decree 145/2020/ND-CP of 14 December 2020, effective 1 February 2021, Art. 4(2), as amended by Decree 35/2022/ND-CP of 28 May 2022, Art. 73(1)). The next deadline is before 5 December 2026. In July 2026 the Ministry of Home Affairs published a draft decree that would move this report to the National Electronic Labor Contract Platform; as of 5 November 2026 it was still a draft (Ministry of Home Affairs comparison table, 2026; Ho Chi Minh City Department of Home Affairs, notice of 12 May 2026).

Mutual termination agreement as an option. Where both sides are willing, the parties may end employment by a written agreement under Article 34(3) instead of a unilateral decision. Such an agreement can fix the last working day, the final wage, payment for untaken leave, severance where due, the handover of code repositories, credentials and devices, a reminder of the confidentiality and IP terms that continue after exit, and the date the social insurance record will be confirmed. Whether it suits a given exit depends on the facts; the employer still has to give written notice (Art. 45(1)) and pay severance where due (Art. 46(1)). Have the agreement reviewed by a labour lawyer before signing.

Who owns the code and IP your employees create?

Answer first: under Vietnam’s IP Law, the employer owns the economic rights to software and other copyright works an employee creates under assignment, unless the parties agree otherwise. Inventions are different: the employer holds the right to register them, but the inventor keeps a statutory right to remuneration unless the contract deals with it.

Vietnam’s Law on Intellectual Property (Law No. 50/2005/QH11 of 29 November 2005, effective 1 July 2006) has been amended in 2009, 2019, by Law No. 07/2022/QH15 of 16 June 2022 (effective 1 January 2023), by the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation No. 93/2025/QH15 (effective 1 October 2025), and most recently by Law No. 131/2025/QH15, passed on 10 December 2025 and effective 1 April 2026 (WIPO Lex). Among other changes, the 2025 amendment adds rules on AI-created subject matter, the use of published works for AI training, and contributing IP as capital (Viet An Law, 2026).

Subject matter	Who owns it	Legal basis
Software (source and object code)	Protected as a literary work	IP Law, Art. 22
Copyright work created by an employee under assignment	Employer holds economic and publication rights, unless agreed otherwise	IP Law, Art. 39(1)
Work commissioned under contract	Commissioning party holds the same rights, unless agreed otherwise	IP Law, Art. 39(2)
Invention or industrial design made through job assignment	Party that funded and provided facilities has the right to register, unless agreed otherwise	IP Law, Art. 86(1)(b)
Inventor remuneration	Owner pays the author; statutory rates are 10% of profit from use and 15% of each licence payment, unless agreed otherwise	IP Law, Art. 135 (as amended in 2022)
Trade secrets	Protected if not common knowledge, commercially advantageous and kept secret with necessary measures	IP Law, Art. 84, 127

Sources: Law on Intellectual Property (English text); Viet An Law on Law 07/2022/QH15; Tilleke & Gibbins, Employee Inventor Remuneration Requirements in Thailand and Vietnam.

Three drafting points follow from the table. First, practitioners differ on whether Article 86(1)(b) requires a specific assignment, so Tilleke & Gibbins recommends explicit assignment clauses in employment contracts rather than relying on the default. Second, the inventor remuneration under Article 135 applies unless the parties agree otherwise, which means the contract is where it gets settled. Third, trade secret protection under Article 84 depends on the employer taking “necessary measures” to keep information secret, so access controls and a written confidentiality agreement under Labour Code Article 21(2) are part of the legal protection, not only good practice.

Non-compete clauses are a different matter. Vietnamese law does not regulate them, and there is no settled rule on enforceability. Le & Tran Law reports one court decision that upheld a one-year restriction on a technical employee by treating it as a civil transaction, while arguing that such clauses may be invalid because they conflict with the employee’s right to work under the Labour Code; the outcome depends largely on the judge (Le & Tran Law, 2021). For blockchain teams, confidentiality and IP assignment clauses carry more practical weight than a non-compete.

What are working hours, leave and minimum wages in 2026 and 2027?

Answer first: 48 hours per week, overtime capped at 40 hours per month and 200 hours per year for most sectors, 12 working days of annual leave, and regional minimum wages of VND 3.7 million to VND 5.31 million per month in 2026, rising to VND 4.04 million to VND 5.7 million from 1 January 2027 under Decree 399/2026/ND-CP.

Normal hours are 8 hours per day and 48 hours per week (Labour Code Art. 105). Overtime is capped at 40 hours per month and 200 hours per year, or 300 hours in listed sectors such as textiles and electronics (Art. 107), and is paid at 150%, 200% or 300% of the normal rate (Art. 98). Annual leave is 12 working days for normal working conditions (Art. 113(1)), plus one extra day for every 5 years of service (Art. 114).

Public holidays total 11 days under Article 112, and foreign employees receive one additional day for their traditional New Year and one for their National Day. In addition, National Assembly Resolution 28/2026/QH16, issued on 24 April 2026 and effective 1 July 2026, designates 24 November as Vietnam Culture Day, a day off on full pay; Article 112 itself has not yet been formally amended (LuatVietnam, 2026; Báo Điện tử Chính phủ, 2026; Vietnam News, 2026).

Region	Monthly, 1 Jan – 31 Dec 2026 (VND)	Hourly, 2026 (VND)	Monthly from 1 Jan 2027 (VND)	Hourly from 1 Jan 2027 (VND)
Region I	5,310,000	25,500	5,700,000	27,400
Region II	4,730,000	22,700	5,080,000	24,400
Region III	4,140,000	20,000	4,450,000	21,400
Region IV	3,700,000	17,800	4,040,000	19,400

Sources: 2026 rates under Decree 293/2025/ND-CP of 10 November 2025, effective 1 January 2026; 2027 rates under Decree 399/2026/ND-CP, issued on 2 November 2026 and effective 1 January 2027, Art. 3(1), which replaces Decree 293/2025/ND-CP from that date (Art. 5); comparison published by Báo Điện tử Chính phủ on 4 November 2026.

The region is set by where the employer, or each branch, operates (Decree 399, Art. 3(3)). Employers must review labour contracts, collective agreements and internal pay rules to bring them in line with the new rates, and may not remove or cut overtime, night-work or other wage entitlements when adjusting to the new minimum (Art. 5(3)). Minimum wages are rarely binding for engineering salaries, but they set the ceiling for unemployment insurance contributions, which is 20 times the regional monthly minimum wage (Employment Law No. 74/2025/QH15, Art. 34(2)).

The statutory reference level (lương cơ sở), which caps the social and health insurance salary base, is set separately and stays at VND 2,530,000 under Decree 161/2026/ND-CP (see below). We found no Government decision changing it for 2027 as of 5 November 2026.

What social insurance and trade union fee must employers pay?

Answer first: 21.5% of the contribution salary base from the employer and 10.5% from the employee for Vietnamese staff, and 20.5% and 9.5% for foreign employees covered by compulsory social insurance, who are outside unemployment insurance. On top of that, the employer pays a trade union fee of 2% of the social insurance salary fund, whether or not the company has its own trade union.

Fund	Employer	Employee
Retirement and survivorship	14%	8%
Sickness and maternity	3%	0%
Occupational accident and disease	0.5%	0%
Health insurance	3%	1.5%
Unemployment insurance (not applicable to foreigners)	1%	1%
Total	21.5% (20.5% for foreigners)	10.5% (9.5% for foreigners)

Source: EY Vietnam, Notable points regarding mandatory social security from 1 July 2025 (2025). The retirement, sickness and maternity rates are set by the Law on Social Insurance No. 41/2024/QH15, adopted 29 June 2024 and effective 1 July 2025 (Art. 33(1) and 34(1)), and are applied to the contribution salary base: the wage for the job or title, wage allowances and other regular, stable supplements (Art. 31(1)(b)). The Employment Law sets unemployment insurance at up to 1% for each side (Art. 33(1)), with the applied rate set by Government decree, and its unemployment insurance rules cover Vietnamese citizens (Art. 2(1)).

Foreign employees with a definite-term labour contract of 12 months or more with an employer in Vietnam are subject to compulsory social insurance, with exceptions for intra-company transferees, employees at retirement age when signing, and cases covered by an international treaty (Law on Social Insurance, Art. 2(2); EY Vietnam, 2024).

The salary base for social and health insurance is capped at 20 times the reference level. Decree 161/2026/ND-CP raised the reference level from VND 2,340,000 to VND 2,530,000 from 1 July 2026, moving the cap from VND 46.8 million to VND 50.6 million per month (Báo Điện tử Chính phủ, 2026). Separately, Employment Law No. 74/2025/QH15, adopted 16 June 2025 and effective 1 January 2026, extends unemployment insurance to definite-term contracts of 1 full month or more, which brings in contracts of 1 to under 3 months (Art. 31(1)(a); full text on Báo Điện tử Chính phủ, 2025; Acclime, 2026).

Trade union fee. On top of social insurance, every enterprise that uses employees pays a trade union fee of 2% of the salary fund used as the basis for compulsory social insurance contributions (Law on Trade Union No. 50/2024/QH15, adopted 27 November 2024 and effective 1 July 2025, Art. 29(1)(b), as amended by Law No. 97/2025/QH15 of 27 June 2025). The law names enterprises using employees as payers and does not make the fee depend on a grassroots trade union having been set up at the company. Decree 105/2026/ND-CP, issued on 31 March 2026 and effective 16 May 2026, replaced Decree 191/2013/ND-CP (Art. 18). It requires most employers to pay monthly at the same time as compulsory social insurance, no later than the last day of the following month (Art. 4(1)(a) and 4(2)(a)). Businesses in economic difficulty or force majeure may apply for a reduction, and those that suspend operations may apply to suspend payment for up to 12 months (Law on Trade Union, Art. 30) (consolidated Law on Trade Union No. 90/VBHN-VPQH, Official Gazette No. 1247-1248, 6 September 2025; Decree 105/2026/ND-CP, official text).

This fee is different from union membership dues, which only employees who are trade union members pay, under the Charter of the Vietnam Trade Union (Law on Trade Union, Art. 29(1)(a)). The employer’s 2% fee is paid from the enterprise’s own funds and booked as a business expense (Decree 105/2026/ND-CP, Art. 5(3)), not deducted from salaries.

What changed for foreign hires, personal data and income tax?

Answer first: a single-dossier work permit process since August 2025, now being replaced again by Decree 393/2026/ND-CP from 5 December 2026, a Personal Data Protection Law with specific recruitment rules since January 2026, and a five-bracket personal income tax schedule for the 2026 tax year.

Work permits. Decree 219/2025/ND-CP, issued and effective on 7 August 2025, replaced Decrees 152/2020/ND-CP and 70/2023/ND-CP. It merges the separate foreign-labour demand approval into one dossier handled by provincial People’s Committees, sets processing at 10 working days from a complete file, and keeps maximum validity at 2 years. An expert qualifies with a bachelor’s degree plus 2 years’ experience, reduced to 1 year in priority sectors including finance, science and technology, innovation and digital transformation. Exemptions cover, among others, managers, experts or technicians working under 90 days in a calendar year (Vietnam Briefing, 2025; Baker McKenzie, 2025).

Decree 219 has a short life. Decree 393/2026/ND-CP, issued on 20 October 2026, takes effect on 5 December 2026, and Decree 219 ceases to have effect on that date (Art. 36). The new decree keeps the two-year maximum validity (Art. 22) and the 10-working-day processing time (Art. 23(3)), and requires the work permit application to be filed at least 10 working days and no more than 60 days before the foreign employee is expected to start (Art. 23(1)). Among other routes, an expert qualifies with a bachelor’s degree plus 2 years of relevant experience, with an excellent-grade science or technology degree from a top-500 university plus 1 year, or with 5 years of relevant experience (Art. 4(3)). Short-term work of up to 90 days in a calendar year remains exempt, but a permit is required if an employment relationship and salary arise (Art. 3(5) and 8(13)(a)) (Decree 393/2026/ND-CP, official text; LuatVietnam, 2026).

Two transition rules matter for year-end hiring. Work permits issued under Decree 219 stay valid until they expire, and applications filed before 5 December 2026 are processed under Decree 219 (Decree 393, Art. 35). Employing a foreign worker without a valid work permit or exemption certificate is fined VND 30 million to VND 75 million depending on the number of workers, doubled for organisations, and the foreign worker can be fined VND 15 million to VND 25 million (Decree 283/2026/ND-CP, Art. 7(1), 13(3) and 13(5)).

Candidate and employee data. The Law on Personal Data Protection No. 91/2025/QH15, adopted on 26 June 2025, took effect on 1 January 2026, together with its implementing Decree 356/2025/ND-CP (issued 31 December 2025, effective 1 January 2026), which repealed Decree 13/2023/ND-CP (Decree 356, Art. 42). Article 25 of the Law applies directly to hiring: request only the information needed for recruitment, process it with the candidate’s consent, delete data of candidates who are not hired unless agreed otherwise, and use workplace monitoring technology only where employees are clearly informed.

Three further points matter for recruitment tools. Where personal data is processed automatically, including with AI, the controller must tell the data subject, explain how the algorithm works and its effects, and offer a way to opt out (Decree 356, Art. 10(3)). Transferring personal data abroad, which includes storing it on servers or cloud platforms outside Vietnam, requires a cross-border transfer impact assessment dossier sent to the competent authority within 60 days of the first transfer (Law 91, Art. 20). The Law and Decree exempt some employee-data cases, such as storing an organisation’s own employee data in the cloud and cross-border HR management under internal labour rules (Law 91, Art. 20(6)(b); Decree 356, Art. 17(3)(d)); they do not say expressly that candidate data falls within these exemptions. Maximum fines for organisations are 5% of the previous year’s revenue for cross-border transfer violations and VND 3 billion for other violations, and half those amounts for individuals (Law 91, Art. 8) (LuatVietnam; Decree 356/2025/ND-CP, Official Gazette). For a foreign parent reviewing CVs of Vietnamese candidates from abroad, the cross-border rule is the one to check first. For how the same law shapes AI tool use and data rules in a new team’s first weeks, see Onboarding a Vietnamese Engineering Team: 2026 Guide.

Personal income tax. The Law on Personal Income Tax No. 109/2025/QH15, adopted on 10 December 2025 and effective 1 July 2026, applies to salary income from the 2026 tax year. Residents are taxed on a five-bracket progressive schedule, reduced from seven.

Monthly taxable income (VND)	Rate
Up to 10 million	5%
Over 10 to 30 million	10%
Over 30 to 60 million	20%
Over 60 to 100 million	30%
Over 100 million	35%

Source: Law on Personal Income Tax No. 109/2025/QH15; Vietnam Briefing.

The personal deduction rose from VND 11 million to VND 15.5 million per month, and the dependant deduction from VND 4.4 million to VND 6.2 million. Non-residents pay a flat 20% on Vietnam-source employment income. A resident is an individual present in Vietnam for 183 days or more in a calendar year or in 12 consecutive months, or who has a habitual residence there.

Can you hire in Vietnam without a local entity?

Answer first: foreign companies use several arrangements, and each has legal limits. Labour outsourcing (cho thuê lại lao động) is restricted to 20 listed occupations for up to 12 months, and treating a full-time engineer as an independent contractor runs into Labour Code Article 13. The instruments reviewed for this guide do not set out “employer of record” (EOR) as a separate legal model, so what matters is which legal relationship an EOR arrangement actually uses.

For foreign engineers, Decree 393/2026/ND-CP lists the forms under which a foreign national may work in Vietnam, starting with a labour contract, an intra-company transfer and contracts between foreign and Vietnamese organisations (Art. 2(1)). If your plan places a foreign engineer through an employer of record (EOR) or staffing provider, ask the provider in writing which of these forms the arrangement uses and who files the work permit before 5 December 2026.

Labour outsourcing is capped at 12 months per employee (Labour Code Art. 53). From 1 July 2026 to 28 February 2027, Government Resolution 66.18/2026/NQ-CP, issued on 18 May 2026, suspends the outsourcing licence procedures in Decree 145/2020/ND-CP; an outsourcing company must instead lodge a VND 2 billion deposit and notify the authorities when it starts and stops the activity, and the client may not pass outsourced workers on to another employer (Resolution 66.18/2026/NQ-CP, Appendix I.4, Part C; Can Tho Department of Justice, 2026). The Labour Code bill before the National Assembly proposes moving outsourcing from a licence to a notification in the Code itself (Vietnam Bar Federation journal, 2026). Only the 20 jobs in Appendix II of Decree 145/2020/ND-CP (14 December 2020, effective 1 February 2021) may be outsourced; the one programming item on that list is programming of production machine systems, and general software development is not listed (Ho Chi Minh City Department of Home Affairs; Nhan Kiet, list of 20 occupations under Decree 145/2020).

On the contractor route, Article 13 looks at substance: if there is paid work, a wage and management, it is a labour contract regardless of its title, and the Social Insurance Law 2024 extends compulsory contributions to it.

For a side-by-side view of hiring models, costs and timelines for blockchain teams specifically, see our pillar guide: Hire Blockchain Developers in Vietnam: 2026 Employer Guide. For how long entity set-up takes and how EOR hiring works in practice, see Build, Rent or Hire a Blockchain Team in Vietnam (2026); Japanese employers can start with Why Japanese Firms Hire Vietnamese Engineers (2026 Data).

Practical compliance considerations for employers

These are practical points BlockchainWork sees employers raise when hiring blockchain and software engineers in Vietnam. They are not legal advice; check each step with a law firm before acting.

Write the rules before day one. Issue a work-evaluation regulation with measurable criteria and give each new hire a defined deliverable for the probation period. Both the 60-day probation limit (Art. 25) and the “failure to complete work” ground for termination (Art. 36(1)(a)) depend on written criteria.
Put IP and confidentiality in the contract, not the defaults. Add explicit clauses assigning copyright and inventions, settling inventor remuneration, and protecting confidential information under Labour Code Article 21(2). For blockchain teams, the code is often the main asset.
Consider how exits will be handled. Where both sides are willing, a written mutual termination agreement under Article 34(3) is one option, as described in the termination section above; written notice and severance rules still apply.
Keep a compliance calendar. Dates that matter for a Vietnam team right now: the labour change report before 5 December 2026, Decree 393/2026/ND-CP from 5 December 2026, the new regional minimum wages from 1 January 2027, the trade union fee by the last day of each following month, and the end of the outsourcing transition under Resolution 66.18/2026/NQ-CP on 28 February 2027. Recheck the rules before each date, because they change often.

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Frequently asked questions

1. What is the maximum probation period in Vietnam?

180 days for enterprise managers, 60 days for jobs requiring a college degree or higher, 30 days for intermediate-level jobs and 6 working days for other jobs (Labour Code 2019, Art. 25). Probation may be used only once per job, is not allowed for contracts under 1 month, and must pay at least 85% of the job’s wage.

2. Can a definite-term contract in Vietnam be renewed indefinitely?

No. A definite-term contract may last up to 36 months, and the parties may sign only one further definite-term contract. If employment continues after that, the contract must become indefinite-term, subject to limited exceptions in the Labour Code (Labour Code 2019, Art. 20).

3. Does the employer own software written by employees in Vietnam?

By default, yes for economic rights. Under Article 39(1) of the IP Law, an organisation that assigns an employee to create a work holds the economic and publication rights unless agreed otherwise, and Article 22 protects computer programs as literary works. Inventions follow Article 86 and carry a statutory remuneration right under Article 135, so explicit assignment and remuneration clauses in the contract are the safer route.

4. Are non-compete clauses enforceable in Vietnam?

Uncertain. Vietnamese law does not regulate non-competes. One court upheld a one-year restriction on a technical employee as a civil transaction, but practitioners argue such clauses may be invalid because they conflict with the Labour Code, and the outcome depends largely on the judge (Le & Tran Law, 2021). Confidentiality agreements under Labour Code Article 21(2) have a clearer statutory basis.

5. How much social insurance and trade union fee does an employer pay in Vietnam in 2026?

21.5% of the contribution salary base for Vietnamese employees and 20.5% for foreign employees covered by compulsory social insurance, who are outside unemployment insurance (Law on Social Insurance No. 41/2024/QH15; Employment Law No. 74/2025/QH15). The salary base for social and health insurance is capped at VND 50.6 million per month from 1 July 2026. Separately, the employer pays a trade union fee of 2% of the social insurance salary fund (Law on Trade Union No. 50/2024/QH15, Art. 29(1)(b); Decree 105/2026/ND-CP, Art. 4).

6. Which work permit rules apply to foreign engineers hired in Vietnam?

Decree 219/2025/ND-CP applies until 4 December 2026. From 5 December 2026, Decree 393/2026/ND-CP replaces it, keeping the 10-working-day processing time and two-year maximum validity and requiring filing at least 10 working days and no more than 60 days before the start date. Permits issued under Decree 219 remain valid until they expire, and applications filed before 5 December 2026 are processed under Decree 219 (Decree 393/2026/ND-CP, Art. 22, 23, 35 and 36).

7. What must an employer do before making employees redundant in Vietnam?

If restructuring, a technology change, economic reasons or a merger affects many jobs, the employer must adopt a labour usage plan, consult the grassroots employee representative organisation where one exists, announce the plan within 15 days, and give 30 days’ notice to the provincial People’s Committee and to the employees before dismissals. Each employee with 12 months or more of service receives a job-loss allowance of 1 month’s wage per year, at least 2 months, and payments must be settled within 14 working days, or up to 30 days in these cases (Labour Code 2019, Art. 42-44, 47 and 48).

Legal instruments cited (as of 5 November 2026)

Instrument	Number	Issued / adopted	Effective	Articles cited
Labour Code	45/2019/QH14 (consolidated text 18/VBHN-VPQH, 12 February 2026)	20 November 2019	1 January 2021	13, 14, 20, 21, 24-27, 31, 34-48, 53, 98, 105, 107, 112-114 (incl. 40(1), 45(1), 46(2))
Decree on labour conditions and labour relations	145/2020/ND-CP, amended by Decree 35/2022/ND-CP (Art. 73(1), 28 May 2022)	14 December 2020	1 February 2021	4(2), Appendix II
Decree on electronic labour contracts	337/2025/ND-CP	24 December 2025	1 January 2026	National Electronic Labor Contract Platform
Decree on penalties in labour and social insurance	283/2026/ND-CP (replaces 12/2022/ND-CP)	15 July 2026	10 September 2026	7(1), 13(3), 13(5), 16(2), 66
Decree on regional minimum wages	293/2025/ND-CP	10 November 2025	1 January 2026 (replaced from 1 January 2027)	Monthly and hourly rates
Decree on regional minimum wages	399/2026/ND-CP	2 November 2026	1 January 2027	3, 5
Decree on the statutory reference level	161/2026/ND-CP	15 May 2026	Applies from 1 July 2026	VND 2,530,000
Law on Social Insurance	41/2024/QH15	29 June 2024	1 July 2025	2(2), 31(1), 33(1), 34(1)
Employment Law	74/2025/QH15	16 June 2025	1 January 2026	2(1), 31(1)(a), 33(1), 34(2)
Law on Trade Union	50/2024/QH15, amended by Law 97/2025/QH15 (27 June 2025)	27 November 2024	1 July 2025	29(1), 30
Decree on trade union finance	105/2026/ND-CP (replaces 191/2013/ND-CP)	31 March 2026	16 May 2026	4(1)(a), 4(2)(a), 5(3), 18
Law on Intellectual Property	50/2005/QH11, amended by 36/2009/QH12, 42/2019/QH14, 07/2022/QH15, 93/2025/QH15 and 131/2025/QH15	29 November 2005	1 July 2006; Law 131/2025/QH15 from 1 April 2026	22, 39, 84, 86, 127, 135
National Assembly resolution on Vietnam Culture Day	28/2026/QH16	24 April 2026	1 July 2026	24 November day off
Decree on foreign workers	219/2025/ND-CP	7 August 2025	7 August 2025 until 4 December 2026	Work permit rules
Decree on foreign workers	393/2026/ND-CP	20 October 2026	5 December 2026	2(1), 3(5), 4(3), 8(13)(a), 22, 23, 35, 36
Law on Personal Data Protection	91/2025/QH15	26 June 2025	1 January 2026	8, 20, 25
Decree on personal data protection	356/2025/ND-CP (repeals 13/2023/ND-CP)	31 December 2025	1 January 2026	10(3), 17(3)(d), 42
Law on Personal Income Tax	109/2025/QH15	10 December 2025	1 July 2026	Tax schedule, deductions
Government resolution on decentralisation and simplified procedures	66.18/2026/NQ-CP	18 May 2026	1 July 2026 to 28 February 2027	Appendix I.4, Part C

Pending, not in force as of 5 November 2026: the bill amending the Labour Code and four related laws (presented to the National Assembly on 21 October 2026) and the Ministry of Home Affairs draft decree amending Decree 145/2020/ND-CP (published July 2026).

Sources

National Assembly, Labour Code No. 45/2019/QH14 (2019) and consolidated text No. 18/VBHN-VPQH, Official Gazette No. 131 (28 February 2026)
LuatVietnam, Labor Code No. 45/2019/QH14 (English text)
Vietnam Briefing, Vietnam Labor Law
Vietnam Briefing, Vietnam Mandates Centralized Electronic Labor Contracts from July 2026: Decree 337 (2026)
Government of Vietnam, Decree No. 399/2026/ND-CP on minimum wages (2 November 2026)
Báo Điện tử Chính phủ, Nghị định số 399/2026/NĐ-CP quy định mức lương tối thiểu từ 01/01/2027 (4 November 2026)
Báo Điện tử Chính phủ, Từ 01/7, Chính phủ tăng lương cơ sở (30 July 2026)
Government of Vietnam, Decree No. 105/2026/ND-CP on trade union finance (31 March 2026)
Office of the National Assembly, Law on Trade Union, consolidated text No. 90/VBHN-VPQH, Official Gazette No. 1247-1248 (6 September 2025)
Báo Điện tử Chính phủ, Luật Việc làm (full text, 2025)
Ministry of Home Affairs, Comparison table for the draft decree amending Decree 145/2020/ND-CP (July 2026)
Ho Chi Minh City Department of Home Affairs, Báo cáo sử dụng lao động 06 tháng đầu năm 2026 (12 May 2026)
WIPO Lex, Law No. 131/2025/QH15 amending the Law on Intellectual Property
Office of the National Assembly, Law on Intellectual Property, consolidated text No. 155/VBHN-VPQH (2025)
Viet An Law, Vietnam’s Amended IP Law 2025 (Law No. 131/2025/QH15): Key Highlights (2026)
Viet An Law, Intellectual Property Law revised 07/2022/QH15
Law on Intellectual Property No. 50/2005/QH11 (English text, ipmax.vn)
Tilleke & Gibbins, Employee Inventor Remuneration Requirements in Thailand and Vietnam
Le & Tran Law, Enforcing a Non-Compete Agreement for Employment Contracts in Vietnam (2021)
LuatVietnam, Chính thức có Nghị quyết về Ngày Văn hóa Việt Nam 24/11 (2026)
Báo Điện tử Chính phủ, Ngày 24/11 hằng năm là Ngày Văn hóa Việt Nam, người lao động được nghỉ hưởng nguyên lương (2026)
Vietnam News, Parliament designates Nov 24 as Việt Nam’s Culture Day, a public holiday (2026)
EY Vietnam, Legal update: Law on Social Insurance 2024 (2024)
EY Vietnam, Notable points regarding the mandatory social security from 1 July 2025 (2025)
Acclime, Updated Employment Law 2026 (2026)
Vietnam Briefing, Vietnam Work Permit Regulations for Foreign Workers from August 2025 (2025)
Baker McKenzie, Vietnam: New work permit rules for foreign employees (2025)
Government of Vietnam, Decree No. 393/2026/ND-CP on foreign workers working in Vietnam (20 October 2026)
LuatVietnam, Decree No. 393/2026/ND-CP on foreign workers working in Vietnam issued (2026)
Government of Vietnam, Decree No. 283/2026/ND-CP on administrative penalties in labour, social insurance and overseas employment (15 July 2026)
LuatVietnam, Law on Personal Data Protection No. 91/2025/QH15
Government of Vietnam, Decree No. 356/2025/ND-CP detailing the Law on Personal Data Protection, Official Gazette (31 December 2025)
DFDL, Vietnam Personal Data Protection 2026: What Foreign Organizations Need to Know (2026)
LuatVietnam, Law on Personal Income Tax No. 109/2025/QH15
Vietnam Briefing, Vietnam’s Personal Income Tax Law
Government of Vietnam, Resolution No. 66.18/2026/NQ-CP, Appendix I.4 (Ministry of Home Affairs) (18 May 2026)
Can Tho Department of Justice, Phân quyền, cắt giảm, đơn giản hóa thủ tục hành chính, điều kiện kinh doanh (2026)
Vietnam Bar Federation journal, Quốc hội nghe Tờ trình và Báo cáo thẩm tra về dự án Luật sửa đổi, bổ sung một số điều của 5 luật về lao động và các luật liên quan (21 October 2026)
Ho Chi Minh City Department of Home Affairs, Guidance on labour outsourcing
Nhan Kiet, List of 20 occupations permitted for labour outsourcing under Decree 145/2020/ND-CP

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Legal information notice: This article is published by BlockchainWork for general information, based on the sources cited as of the update date. It is not legal, tax, investment or compliance advice for any particular person or organisation. Some referenced provisions may not yet be in force. BlockchainWork does not assess or guarantee the legality of any business arrangement or transaction through this article. See our Disclaimer.

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