Permanent status is closed to an ordinary newcomer, and so is citizenship. Path to citizenship scores 20 out of 100.
Vietnam lets foreigners in to work, not to stay for good. A foreigner can be hired only as a manager, executive, expert or technical worker for a post locals cannot fill, and the employer must justify the need to provincial authorities. There is no salary threshold; the requirements are about qualifications: a degree and 2 years of experience. The 2025 reform simplified the process, but there are still no shortage lists or hiring quotas. The state publishes no refusal statistics.
Status depends entirely on the job. The permit is tied to one employer and one post, and a new job means a new permit from scratch. When employment ends the permit lapses, the employer files for revocation within 15 days and returns the residence card, and the foreigner gets an exit visa of about 15 days. The company may extend the card for a few months so you can find a new sponsor, but that is its goodwill, not your right. A spouse on a family visa cannot work and needs their own permit.
Rules are tightening for everyone, legal residents included. Decree 282/2025, in force since 15 December 2025 with no transitional rules, raised fines for residence violations, including late temporary residence declarations and activity not matching the purpose of entry. Since April 2026 working without a permit can mean immediate deportation. The law lets the state order a foreigner to leave on defence, security or public order grounds without disclosing reasons. There is no independent monitoring: Freedom House rates the country Not Free.
Ordinary newcomers cannot put down roots. Permanent residence goes to people with merits to the country, scientists sponsored by a ministry, or after 3 years on a residence card with a sponsoring relative who is a Vietnamese citizen. Citizenship formally takes 5 years, but the clock starts from permanent residence, and you must give up your previous citizenship.
Day to day, a temporary residence declaration is due within 12 hours of moving in: the landlord files it, so you depend on their diligence. With a residence card valid 12 months or more, banks open accounts without trouble; on visas shorter than a year most refuse. State schools are free from the 2025-2026 school year but teach only in Vietnamese, so foreigners usually pay for international schools.
The index score ignores nationality. This is what changes for citizens of specific countries.
An e-visa for up to 90 days, single or multiple entry. For living there, the same employer route as for everyone.
A citizen's spouse is exempt from the work permit. People of Vietnamese origin and relatives of citizens get easier access to permanent residence and to dual citizenship.
An e-visa for up to 90 days, single or multiple entry, issued to citizens of all countries since 15 August 2023. Vietnam is not in the EU, so EU temporary protection does not apply.
No nationality restrictions on the work route were identified. No visa for up to 45 days under Government Resolution 44/NQ-CP, valid from 15 March 2025 to 14 March 2028. Working still requires the permit route.
No nationality restrictions on the work route were identified. No visa for up to 30 days per entry and no more than 90 days a year under a bilateral agreement in force since 30 January 2025.
The place interval 82-93 shows where the country lands when the data is nudged and the index is recalculated. One place of difference in the table means nothing; a difference of a league means something.
The thin mark on each bar is the average across 97 countries
The strongest category here is Family rights: 62 out of 100, against a 97-state average of 72.2. The weakest is Path to citizenship: 20 against 57.1. Above the world average: 0 out of 7.
Permanent residence is granted for services to Vietnam, to an academic with ministry sponsorship, or through kinship with a citizen. For an ordinary specialist there is no road. Citizenship is formally possible after five years, but the clock runs from permanent residence, which is closed, and renunciation of the previous citizenship is required.
When a contract is terminated the work permit is annulled, the employer is obliged to withdraw the residence card and return it to the migration service, and an exit visa of about 15 days is issued instead. There is no right to stay and look for work. Changing employer means a new permit through the full cycle. There is no visa for remote work and none has been announced: in practice remote workers live on 90-day e-visas and leave to get a new one, but working on them is not allowed.
All 97 states are calculated for one applicant: 35 years old, income of $2,500 and $3,856 a month before tax, passport not counted, the most accessible route that is actually in use.
Your passport, your income and your family do not change the table. They change which of its lines apply to you. A different income makes entry read differently, a family makes the family category read differently, and your passport makes everything read differently.
By decree, 10 working days for the permit and 5 working days for the residence card; in practice the state stage takes 3-4 weeks. Gathering documents, including diploma legalisation and a criminal record certificate, takes another 2-3 months.
No: there is no self-employed route and no digital nomad visa. Living on 90-day e-visas with border runs is not a route and does not allow work; without an employer only the investor visa remains.
A temporary residence card for up to 2 years costs $145, a multiple-entry visa for 6-12 months $95 and for up to 2 years $135. The work permit fee is set by the province, and document legalisation and translations are extra.
Yes. When your job ends the permit lapses, the residence card is returned and you get an exit visa of about 15 days. The law also allows the state to order you to leave on security grounds without giving reasons.
Not as an ordinary newcomer: permanent residence goes to people with merits, ministry-sponsored scientists or those sponsored by a relative who is a Vietnamese citizen. Citizenship is counted from permanent residence and requires giving up your previous passport.
Vietnam admits workers locals cannot replace and processes them quickly. But the status rests only on the employer, permanent status is closed, and fines and deportations for residence violations have grown much stricter since 2025-2026.
97 states, 26 indicators, seven categories, 2,522 scores. Every score has a source and a source class: primary means the texts of laws and government portals; reliable secondary means reports by international organisations, tax reviews by audit firms and specialist legal publications; weak means community posts and single secondary sources. The classes add up to a confidence level for the country, and a country with low confidence gets neither a score nor a place.
Every indicator is scored against a fixed ruler, not against its neighbours. Adding new countries therefore does not move the old ones, and a change in a score means a change in policy and nothing else.
A high place does not mean a good country. It means one thing: the state machine treats newcomers predictably and by the rules. Living there may be expensive, dull or hot; that is not our question.
Checked 01/10/2026. Facts come from the country's index card and official websites.
We make mistakes and we will go on making them: policy changes faster than any database. Our answer is not a pose of infallibility but a visible trail of corrections. Every correction is published: what it was, what it became, the source and the reason for the error. The corrections log opens with the second issue, together with the first block of changes.