UPDATE: Following an amendment to the Vietnam News article linked in this piece, it has come to our attention that the new regulation exempting certain foreign workers from work permits limits that individual's time in the country to no more than 30 days at a time and no more than 90 days in a year. These workers must meet all additional requirements surrounding visas, employment and certification. A circular providing guidance in the implementation of the new regulation is coming soon. Saigoneer will continue to provide updates as the regulations are clarified.
Foreigners who possess both a Bachelor's degree and at least three years' work experience in their field are no longer required to hold a work permit.
Thanks to a new decree, approved last week by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, foreign employees who have “proved to work as an expert, manager, executive director or technician for foreign enterprises” are now exempt from acquiring a work permit in Vietnam, reports Vietnam News.
Foreign workers who transfer to Vietnam but remain within the same company and are employed in certain service sectors are also permitted to work permit-free.
The move comes as Prime Minister Dung is in the United States for ASEAN's first-ever summit on US soil. Part of the gathering's agenda will focus on the recent ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), an agreement between ASEAN nations which will help to increase the movement of workers across Southeast Asia. As a result of this, Vietnam is expecting to receive more foreign workers in future.
However, Le Quang Trung, deputy head of the Employment Department of Vietnam's Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), believes the government should also construct a legal framework to prevent Vietnamese workers from losing out to foreign employees. This framework, argues Deputy General Head of MoLISA's Social Insurance Department Thai Phuc Thanh, should stipulate a language proficiency requirement for foreign employees.
“There should be a regulation stipulating that foreign employees must be able to speak Vietnamese to be allowed to work in Vietnam,” the government official told Vietnam News.
In recent years, MoLISA has enacted measures to streamline the foreign work permit process, including the creation of an online expat management system and a pilot program which regrants work permits to foreigners online, however the process of receiving a work permit is still often a long and arduous one. Critics of the current system have pointed out that, at one time, even Bill Gates would have been ineligible for a work permit in Vietnam. Government officials pledged last year to loosen work permit requirements, and it appears legislators are now making good on their promise.
As of 2014, Vietnam had over 76,000 foreigners from 74 nations working within its borders, 58% of whom were Asian, while 29% were European.
[Photo via Jev55]
