What is a representative office in Vietnam?
The operation of a representative office shall be solely confined to the conduct of liaison activities, market research, and promotion of its head office’s businesses. In other words, the representative office promotes the foreign company’s businesses under which it is opened but is not allowed to generate profit by itself.
Legal services:
How to proceed?
A representative office is a dependent unit of an enterprise established outside Vietnam’s territory. The operation of the representative office shall be solely confined to the conduct of liaison activities, market research, and promotion of its head office’s businesses.
In other words, the representative office promotes the foreign company’s businesses under which it is opened but is not allowed to generate profit by itself.
Opening a branch is allowed by law for both domestic and foreign companies.
Although domestic companies (even foreign invested) can open a branch without issue, foreign companies usually face obstacles when trying to open their branch in Vietnam.
A foreign worker must apply for a work permit or work permit exemption certificate to legally work in Vietnam. The permit allows the foreigner to work in a specific position, company and location. Thus, foreigner workers might hold several work permits.
More importantly, the work permit or work permit exemption certificate do not exempt foreigners to obtain a visa or a temporary resident card.
It is mandatory for all companies to have at least one of its legal representatives in Vietnam at all time; however, the legal representative does not need to be a permanent resident in Vietnam.
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