Vietnam risks missing out on needed talent because of admin issues, Photo: Shutterstock

Last week, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) submitted a proposal to the government regarding a draft decree on foreign workers working in Vietnam, which includes many changes compared to current legislation.

Nguyen Thi Quyen, deputy director of the Department of Employment under the MoHA, stated that the new draft decree follows the prime minister’s directive to reduce at least 30 per cent of administrative procedures, including proposals that could simplify up to 40 per cent of the current processes.

“The revised draft integrates the reporting procedures to explain the demand for foreign workers into the application procedure for granting work permits,” Quyen said. “With this option, the time required to issue a work permit is expected to be reduced from a maximum of 36 days to 10 days, according to the submission schedule for work permit applications.”

According to the Department of Employment, the new draft regulations propose to relax conditions for foreign experts, allowing those with only a university degree, without required experience, to work in priority fields such as finance, sci-tech, digital transformation, or per cooperative agreements between the Vietnamese government and foreign countries.

In addition, experts and lecturers working in specialised fields may not need to apply for a work permit if they are confirmed by the relevant ministry. The draft also clearly outlines the direction of enhancing the application of IT in managing and granting work permits to foreign workers and allows the use of documents issued by foreign or Vietnamese medical facilities, provided they are valid within the next 12 months.

In mid-May, the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) also sent a letter to the MoHA proposing contents related to the draft replacing Decree No.152/2020/ND-CP, the current regulations on granting work permits for foreigners.

At the core of EuroCham’s submission is a widely shared concern among the international business community regarding the rigid requirement for formal academic degrees when applying for expert work permits, even in fast-evolving sectors where such majors did not historically exist.

Businesses, particularly those engaging in semiconductors, AI, and digital transformation, have called for greater flexibility to recognise professional experience in lieu of academic credentials.

According to EuroCham vice chair Nguyen Hai Minh, in the past few decades, these industries have advanced faster than formal education systems can adapt, and Vietnam risks missing out on world-class talent due to outdated administrative criteria.

“It has become increasingly common for professionals to study one thing and build careers in another. In today’s interdisciplinary world, we need to value experience as much as formal education,” Minh added.

In April, Bruno Jaspaert, CEO of Deep C Industrial Zones said, “It took more than six months of paperwork and waiting to bring in a logistics expert with 25 years of experience, just because he had a degree in biology. That is not just a cost burden, it slows down innovation and disrupts business operations.”

According to EuroCham’s Whitebook 2025, the regulations on permits for foreigners in Vietnam still have many shortcomings such as inflexible educational requirements, cumbersome procedures, lack of recognition of work experience, and unclear exemption conditions for permits.

Work permit reform is one of EuroCham’s top five must-win battles for 2025, as outlined in its Whitebook this year. To simplify the process of granting work permits for foreigners in Vietnam, the chamber believes that it is necessary to clarify that technical workers with at least five years of working experience do not need to provide certificates or documents.

“We stand ready to continue working with authorities to ensure that regulations evolve in line with the needs of a globalised, high-tech economy,” EuroCham vice chair Jean-Jacques Bouflet noted.

According to statistics from the MoHA, there are approximately 162,000 foreign workers working in Vietnam as of the end of 2024. Among them, 12,800 are exempt from work permits.