In 2019, Vietnam deployed 152,530 migrant workers, of which 54,700 were women, with the top five destination countries for regular migration being: Japan, Taiwan, China, the Republic of Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Romania. Expats are attracted to the affordable cost of living, transport options, and facility to find jobs, and it is a convenient and easy country to travel to other Southeast Asian countries. On the other hand, BLawyers Vietnam says the country has started tightening its rules for hiring expats workers. “The purpose of the tightening is to ensure job opportunities for Vietnamese citizens; enterprises only use foreign workers in cases where it is not possible to recruit Vietnamese who meet the job criteria set by the enterprise.”
How is Vietnam tightening its rules?
The extent of tightening the recruitment and employment of foreign workers in Vietnam can be found in laws and legal decisions. On 14 May, 2021, the Ministry of Labor issued an Official Dispatch to strengthen the management of foreign workers in Vietnam known as the “Official Dispatch 03”. According to that, the strengthening of the management of foreign workers is carried out by State authorities through a series of tasks:
- Reviewing all establishments and enterprises employing foreign workers in the locality and closely monitoring all cases of entry of foreign workers who have registered and worked at those establishments and enterprises;
- Ensuring the issuance of work permits to foreign workers in accordance with the conditions, order, and procedures as prescribed by the labor law;
- Strengthening the inspection, examination, and strictly handling of establishments and enterprises that use illegal workers and deliberately violate the law. Applying the measure of the expulsion of foreign workers working in Vietnam without a work permit and failing to comply with the provisions of the Law on entry, exit, transit, and residence of foreigners in Vietnam.
- Carrying out inspection of epidemic prevention and control at establishments and enterprises employing foreign workers. Applying the suspension and strictly handling the establishments and enterprises that fail to ensure safety according to the provisions of law.
Currently, when an enterprise needs to declare the reasons for using foreign workers in a document explaining the need to use foreign workers, such enterprise must report to the competent authority several detailed information as the enterprise needs to clearly state the number of foreign workers working, job positions, titles, and the total number of employees of the enterprise. The provision of this information is intended to help State authorities have a basis for assessing whether the number of foreign workers to be recruited is suitable for the employment situation or not. Moreover, employers need to provide a description of the position and job title: The enterprise needs to clearly state the job content and title to be assigned to foreign workers when recruiting and state the reasons for not recruiting Vietnamese people for the position that is expected to employ foreign employees. The enterprise needs to state which jobs/requirements Vietnamese employees cannot undertake and not bring work results according to the enterprise's wishes.
Vietnam still supports foreign work but moderately
Although there are resolutions that make it harder for expat workers to find a job in the country, the Vietnamese government issued a resolution on September 9 last year to help support businesses affected by the pandemic. That document includes easing regulations for issuing, extending, and certification of documents for work permits of foreigners in Vietnam. Some work permit requirements were eased as well. To ease restrictions, the government has asked the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) to instruct provincial authorities to relax some conditions on the issuing and renewing of work permits. Specifically, authorities have been asked to be flexible where the degree does not have to necessarily be related to the job position in Vietnam. Second, the training field does not have to be related to the job role or relevant experience.
Thirdly, for experts and technicians, previously issued work permits can be accepted as work experience rather than work experience of the foreign company from the home country. Certificates may also be used. Lastly, as per the Resolution, foreign workers with valid work permits can be sent to another province or city for not more than six months without having to reapply for a work permit. However, the employer must report to the labor department where the foreign workers have gone to work. In addition, notarization requirements for passports have been removed; just a copy of the passport is sufficient.
