Vietnam has no digital nomad visa

Requirements

• Status check (verified August 2026): Vietnam operates no digital nomad visa and no retirement visa. There is no application to make and no income threshold to meet, because neither category exists
• What does exist: a 90-day e-visa, single or multiple entry, applied for online at the government portal — roughly USD 25 single-entry and USD 50 multiple-entry
• Passport valid at least six months beyond entry, a passport photo and a scan of the photo page
• A Temporary Residence Card is the only route to actual residence, and it is granted on a separate basis — employment with a work permit, investment, or marriage to a Vietnamese citizen. Remote work for foreign clients is not one of the bases
• Working remotely for foreign employers while on an e-visa sits in a grey area Vietnam has not formally addressed. It is widely done and not obviously permitted; we are not going to tell you it is fine when the government has not said so

How to apply

1. Apply for the 90-day e-visa at the official portal before travelling — it is the only route most remote workers will use, and it is issued in about 3–5 working days
2. Choose multiple entry if you intend to leave and return; single entry ends the moment you cross the border out
3. Plan for the reset: at 90 days you leave and re-enter on a fresh e-visa. Budget the flights and accept that entry is always at an officer's discretion
4. If you want real residence rather than repeated visits, work backwards from the Temporary Residence Card bases — a work permit through a Vietnamese employer, an investment, or marriage. There is no remote-work route to a TRC
5. Track your days. Tax residency starts at 183 days in a 12-month period, and repeated e-visas make it easy to cross without noticing

Renewal and long-term stay

• Renewable: no — a single fixed term
• Path to permanent residency: no — time on this visa does not lead to residency
• Path to citizenship: no

There is nothing to renew, because there is no long-stay permission to hold. The 90-day e-visa is not extended from inside the country in the ordinary case — you leave and apply again. Time spent on repeated e-visas counts toward nothing: not residence, not permanent residence, not naturalisation. That is the honest difference between Vietnam and every other country in this dataset with an open route.

Applying: where and how

• Apply from outside the country: yes — apply before you travel
• Where you file: online

The e-visa is applied for online at the government portal and issued in about 3–5 working days; roughly USD 25 single-entry, USD 50 multiple-entry. Use the official site — this is one of the most impersonated visa applications in the region, and the agency copies charge several times the government fee for the same form.

Bringing a partner or children

Not applicable in the usual sense — there is no long-stay visa to add dependants to. Each person travels on their own e-visa. Marriage to a Vietnamese citizen is one of the bases for a Temporary Residence Card, which is a different application with its own conditions.

Tax

• You become tax resident: after 183 days in the country
• Foreign income taxed locally: yes — taxed once you become tax resident
• Special nomad or expat tax regime: no — ordinary resident rates apply

183 days in a 12-month period, and note that it is a rolling 12 months rather than a calendar year — which is stricter than Thailand's 180-day calendar-year test and catches people who assume the clock resets in January. Vietnamese tax residents are taxable on worldwide income at progressive rates. The trap specific to this country is structural: the only realistic way to stay long-term is repeated 90-day entries, and repeated 90-day entries are an efficient way to accumulate 183 days without ever making a decision about it.

This summarises published rules, not your situation, and it is not tax advice. Two things it can't tell you: your home country may tax you anyway — US citizens are taxed on worldwide income wherever they live — and day-count is only the most common trigger for tax residency, not the only one. Having a permanent home, a family or your centre of economic interests in a country can make you resident well before the day count does. Get advice before you move.

Moving abroad means more than the visa — sort your travel insurance (many visa applications require proof of coverage), set up borderless banking, and land with data working.

First nomad visa? Our digital nomad visa guide explains how qualifying, applying, and taxes work across every country.