“On July 5, 2021, the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control issued ‘Official Letter No. 5322/CV-BCD’ providing new guidelines for entry of foreign experts and foreigners to prevent and control the COVID-19 outbreak.“
The latest regulations for entry of foreigners into Vietnam include providing information about plan for transportation, isolation plan, program, work plan, place of residence, the contact information of the foreign expert and accompanying relatives. The duration of concentrated medical isolation has now been reduced to 7 days for immigrants who have received a full dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
The following information will help you better understand the current entry process:
Information that needs to be supplemented along with the application for immigration of foreign experts includes:
Thus, when applying for the entry of foreigners in Ho Chi Minh City, besides the requirements stated by the Immigration Department, they must also explain the urgency of bringing foreign experts to Vietnam to work. Further, the company must make arrangements for entry, isolation, working schedule of the experts, prepare accommodation in advance, and book isolation rooms and transportation when experts arrive in Vietnam. These details should be stated in the application for entry of foreigners.
According to the current regulations of the Ministry of Health, there are two categories of people entering Vietnam whose concentrated medical isolation period is reduced from 14 days to 07 days:
In this case, the person entering the country must fully meet the following conditions:
In this case, the person entering the country must fully meet the following conditions:
Experts and their relatives entering Vietnam must be approved by the People’s Committee of the province and the Immigration Department where they intend to enter. The following steps should be followed by foreigners entering Vietnam:
Step 1: Making plan, scheduling and preparing documents
The company must prepare work plans, isolation plans, contact details and estimated means of entry, transportation, isolation locations, places to stay after completing isolation, and documents proving entry status of foreigners.
Step 2: Approval of request for entry into Vietnam
The company must submit the application for entry approval along with documents proving their entry status to receive approval from the People’s Committee of the province where experts are allowed to enter.
The People’s Committee at the province level (“People’s Committee”) is the authority which can approve the request for entry. Please note that processing of the above procedures could take up to 7-21 days depending on the circumstances at the approval agency and the epidemic situation.
Step 3: Flight tickets, quarantine hotel and transportation bookings
According to the current practice of airlines, experts can only book air tickets after receiving the approval letter from the People’s Committee. Therefore, foreigners must book flight tickets after receiving the approval mentioned in Step 2.
In addition, foreigners need to register for transportation from the airport to the quarantine place. Usually, the hotel where the quarantine is located will provide these services.
* The respective People’s Committee in each province has issued the list of hotels eligible for quarantine.
Step 4: Visa application
After receiving the approval letter and preparing to confirm the flight booking and the hotel for quarantine. The company must apply for immigration settlement (Visa) at the immigration department.
In case the application is approved, the immigration department will fax the result of the application to the diplomatic mission of Vietnam where the foreigner is residing. The immigration department usually provided feedback on the application within 5 to 7 working days. The foreigners shall go to the diplomatic mission of Vietnam where the business is registered to receive Visa and must also pay the administrative fees related to the issuance of Visa.
Step 5: Enter Vietnam and quarantine
Within 3 days before entry, the foreigner need to prepare a certificate (in English) proving that he/she is negative for SARS-CoV-2 issued by a competent health authority. The foreigner must also make a medical declaration online before boarding the plane.
After arriving at the airport in Vietnam, foreigners will be taken directly to the registered isolation location by special vehicle where they must undergo medical isolation for a period of 7 days is the foreigner falls under any of the two categories mentioned in section 3 of this article. For all other cases, he/she must undergo 14 days of quarantine. During the quarantine period, foreigners will have to undergo 2-4 Covid-19 tests. If all tests are negative, the foreigner will be granted a certificate of completion of the medical quarantine program by the quarantine management authority. Such person will be transferred to self-quarantine and must monitor his/her health at the place of residence for additional 7 days to complete the entire isolation process.
Thus, Vietnam has tightened the rules for entry experts, technical workers, business managers, executives and relatives of these subjects, who enter Vietnam from March 21, 2020 in the context of the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak. All visitors must isolate after entry. As the situation is evolving, Vietnam has periodically updated the entry rules and procedures for foreign experts to ensure the prevention of the epidemic. The aim of this policy is to meet the dual goals of effective epidemic prevention and economic development.
The article is based on the current law at the time of recording as above and may no longer be relevant at the time readers access this article due to changes in applicable law and specific cases that the reader wants to apply. Therefore, the article is for reference only.