How Much Does It Really Cost to Register a Company in Vietnam as a Foreigner in 2026?
The government charges almost nothing to register a company in Vietnam - the Enterprise Registration Certificate fee is now $0 when filed online. What actually costs money is the professional service around it: a standard full-service LLC setup runs $2,000-$5,000, a Representative Office runs $900-$3,000, and neither figure includes the $100-$300/month bookkeeping or $1,500-$3,000/year mandatory audit you’re locked into once the company exists.
I’ve spent years helping foreigners untangle Vietnamese paperwork - mostly visas, but the same DOLISA and immigration offices show up the moment someone incorporates here, because a company on paper still needs a real person with a valid visa or work permit standing behind it. That’s the angle most “how to register a company” guides skip entirely, and it’s exactly what our Vietnam visa and long-stay services are built to cover.
How Much Does It Really Cost - LLC vs Representative Office?
| Cost item | 100% Foreign-Owned LLC | Representative Office (RO) |
|---|---|---|
| Government fee | $0-25 (ERC now free online; seal + digital signature + e-invoice starter ~$130-220) | ~$8-25 (registration + info + publication fees, Circular 47/2019/TT-BTC) |
| Full-service setup cost | $2,000-$5,000 (basic self-assisted from $800-$1,500; turn-key with nominee + virtual office $4,000+) | $900-$3,000 |
| Realistic timeline | 2-4 months end-to-end (statutory minimum 30-60 days) | 3-8 weeks |
| Can it invoice or sign contracts? | Yes | No - non-commercial liaison unit only |
| Mandatory annual audit? | Yes, $1,500-$3,000/year | No - no CIT, only staff PIT |
Both entity types need a Tax ID, a registered address, and someone locally accountable - the differences show up in what each one is legally allowed to do, not just in price.
Why Is the Government Fee Almost Free but the Real Bill Over $2,000?
The state’s own paperwork costs almost nothing: the Enterprise Registration Certificate fee is VND 50,000 (~$2) and is waived to $0 for online filings, seal carving runs $8-20, a 3-year digital signature subscription runs $80-120, and a starter e-invoice pack runs $40-80. Total official government receipts land around $10-25.
Everything above that - the $2,000-$5,000 you’ll actually pay - is the legal/consultancy service fee: drafting the investment dossier, translating and notarizing foreign documents, opening the bank account, and registering the initial tax filing. A handful of firms quote Representative Office totals as high as $10,000-$30,000, but that figure isn’t corroborated anywhere else I checked against the $900-$3,000 range most professional-services firms actually invoice.
What Changed in Vietnam’s Company Registration Rules in 2026?
Two changes from January and March 2026 already make a lot of published cost guides wrong. First, Vietnam abolished the annual Business License Tax entirely, effective January 1, 2026, under Resolution No. 198/2025/QH15 and Decree No. 362/2025/ND-CP. If you’re reading a guide that still lists an annual fee of VND 2,000,000-3,000,000 (~$80-120), it’s quoting a rule that no longer exists.
Second, under the new Law on Investment No. 143/2025/QH15, qualifying foreign investors can now obtain the Enterprise Registration Certificate before the Investment Registration Certificate, effective March 1, 2026 - the reverse of the old sequence, and it shaves real weeks off a standard setup. The IRC itself still carries a 15-working-day statutory clock (up to 45+ for sectors needing ministry review); the ERC is 3 working days statutory.
LLC or Representative Office: Which One Actually Costs Less?
An RO is cheaper to open but it can’t sell, invoice, or sign commercial contracts in Vietnam - it exists purely as a liaison unit, and its parent company must already have one full year of operating history to qualify (Decree 07/2016/ND-CP). An LLC costs more upfront but can trade freely, subject to 20% corporate income tax and an annual audit.
In practice, around 70% of foreign entrants open an RO first and upgrade to a full LLC within 6-18 months, once they’ve confirmed the market is worth the extra compliance load. If your business line is trading, import-export, or manufacturing, plan on $25,000+ in charter capital; service and consulting companies clear Department of Planning and Investment review with $10,000-$20,000 in most cases, even though there’s no fixed legal minimum on paper.
This is the piece most incorporation guides leave out entirely: whichever entity you set up, the foreign director or Legal Representative still needs their own valid visa, work permit, or TRC to legally run it here day to day - a status question that’s entirely separate from the company’s own paperwork. That’s the exact piece I deal with every week: sorting out the visa run, e-visa, or TRC renewal for someone whose company registration is already done but whose personal status in the country isn’t yet - I’ve messaged people directly on Telegram to sort out entry timing when a new director’s TRC was still weeks from ready.
How Much Do Monthly Running Costs Add Up To After Setup?
Setup is a one-time bill; running the entity is a recurring one. Outsourced bookkeeping for a small foreign-owned LLC runs $100-$300/month - mandatory even at zero revenue. A registered virtual office address runs $100-$200/month (or $500-800/year), and the annual independent audit, required for every foreign-invested company regardless of size, runs $1,500-$3,000/year.
Add a nominee or resident Legal Representative - commonly $200-500/month - if the actual owner plans to run the business from outside Vietnam, since Vietnamese law expects the Legal Representative to be reachable in-country or to formally authorize a Vietnam-based person in writing.
How Much Does a Work Permit Cost for the Person Actually Running the Company?
The DOLISA government fee for a work permit is small - VND 600,000 (~$24) for new issuance, VND 450,000 (~$18) for renewal. The realistic all-in package breaks down into three stages: labor-demand approval with the provincial authority (2-3 weeks), document legalization and health/police checks (2-4 weeks), then the DOLISA decision itself (5-10 working days) - $600-$1,000 all-in, plus another $300-$600 for the Temporary Residence Card that goes with it. The whole process takes 1.5-2 months.
Whatever entity type you end up choosing, the visa and work-permit side of running it in Vietnam is worth sorting out early rather than after the company’s already registered. If you want to talk through your specific timeline, Best Bus handles the visa-run and e-visa side directly, you can message me on Telegram with your dates and I’ll walk you through what applies to your situation, and WhatsApp works just as well if you’re not on Telegram.
Methodology: Where These Numbers Come From
Every figure above comes from cross-checking at least two independent 2026-dated sources - legal and advisory firms operating in Vietnam (Viet An Law, Emerhub, Vietnam Briefing/Dezan Shira & Associates, g2b.co, Statrys) plus the government’s own published fee schedules on the National Business Registration Portal and dichvucong.gov.vn. Work permit and TRC figures are cross-checked against Vietnam’s Immigration Department portal directly. Where sources disagreed by a small margin - like whether the post-incorporation announcement fee is $4 or free - I gave the range rather than picking one number to look precise. A handful of claims that appeared in only one source (specific high-capital thresholds for real estate or fintech, and the exact count of “conditional business line” sectors) aren’t included here as hard figures because they couldn’t be independently confirmed in this pass.
Frequently asked questions
Is a representative office or an LLC better for a foreigner entering Vietnam?
An RO is cheaper and faster to open but can’t invoice or sign commercial contracts - it’s a liaison unit only, valid 5 years and renewable, and the parent company needs 1+ year of operating history first. Around 70% of foreign entrants start with an RO and upgrade to a full LLC within 6-18 months.
Can I run a Vietnamese company remotely without living in Vietnam?
Yes, but if the sole Legal Representative leaves the country without a notarized authorization letter on file, the company is left with no one legally accountable in-country - a gap the business registration office can flag at the next filing or bank review, not just a theoretical risk. Most remote owners avoid this by hiring a local nominee or resident Legal Representative service, typically $200-500 per month.
Can a foreigner own 100% of a company in Vietnam?
Yes, in most sectors - trading, manufacturing, IT/software, consulting, and marketing all allow full foreign ownership. Banking, advertising, telecommunications, logistics, real estate brokerage, media, and parts of tourism, education, and healthcare require a joint venture or capped minority stake instead.
What’s the difference between an Investment Registration Certificate and an Enterprise Registration Certificate?
The IRC is required when a foreign investor holds more than 50% of charter capital and has a 15-working-day statutory processing time. The ERC is the document that actually creates the company and its Tax ID, with a 3-working-day statutory clock - and since March 2026, qualifying investors can get the ERC first.
What’s the minimum capital needed to register a company in Vietnam?
There’s no fixed legal minimum for most sectors - the Department of Planning and Investment instead judges whether your proposed capital fits the project. In practice, $10,000-$20,000 clears review for services/consulting, $25,000+ for trading or manufacturing, and it must be fully injected within 90 days of ERC issuance.
What happens if the director keeps running the company without sorting out their own visa or work permit?
Vietnamese authorities can fine both the individual and the sponsoring company for working without a valid permit, and in practice it also blocks the TRC renewal that most long-term company owners rely on to stay in the country at all. It’s a separate legal track from the ERC/IRC paperwork - finishing company registration doesn’t put you in compliance on the immigration side.
