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Vietnam in-country partner for EOR and payroll providers
Your client wants to hire in Vietnam. You do not have an entity here. Ours is already running. Nhan Kiet has been a licensed Vietnamese employer since 2009 — labour leasing licence 15/2019/SHCM, more than 40,000 workers on payroll across 34 provinces, serving over 500 client companies. Global providers place their clients' Vietnamese staff on our contracts and our payroll, and keep their own client relationship intact.
There is no incorporation, no capital contribution, no waiting for a business registration certificate. Staff can start in 5–7 working days.
Providers who need Vietnam without owning Vietnam
Most global EOR platforms own entities in the markets that produce the most volume and use in-country partners everywhere else. Vietnam is usually in the second group: the demand is real but it does not yet justify incorporating, staffing a local team and carrying a Vietnamese payroll licence.
Four kinds of company come to us for exactly this:
- EOR and global employment platforms whose client has hired a Vietnamese engineer, sales lead or factory team and needs them employed legally next month.
- Global payroll providers running multi-country payroll who need a Vietnam leg that files social insurance and personal income tax correctly.
- Staffing and recruitment firms that can source candidates in Vietnam but cannot employ them.
- Accounting, BPO and corporate-services firms whose clients are expanding into Vietnam and expect a single point of contact.
We are the Vietnamese side of that arrangement, not the front of it. The client relationship stays yours.
How the contracts can sit
Different providers need different structures, usually driven by whether your client may see a Vietnamese supplier name and who carries the invoice. All three below are workable for us.
| A. You contract us | B. Referral or MOU | C. Direct with your client | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who signs with the end client | You do | Each side signs its own scope | Nhan Kiet does |
| Who signs with the worker | Nhan Kiet | Nhan Kiet | Nhan Kiet |
| Who invoices the end client | You | Each side invoices its own part | Nhan Kiet |
| Is Nhan Kiet visible to the client | Only if you want us to be | Yes, as a named partner | Yes, as the contracting party |
| Who holds the Vietnamese employer obligations | Nhan Kiet | Nhan Kiet | Nhan Kiet |
| Typical reason to choose it | You keep one contract and one invoice in front of your client | Fastest to start; neither side takes on the other's liability | Your client wants a Vietnamese counterparty on paper |
Model A is what most platforms ask for. You stay the single face and the single invoice; we operate underneath. Our name appears only where Vietnamese law requires it — on the employment contract, the social insurance filing and the tax declaration, all of which are between us and the worker or the authorities.
Model B suits a first engagement. An MOU costs neither side much and lets one real case prove the working relationship before anyone signs a framework agreement.
What we run, what stays with you
| Nhan Kiet in Vietnam | Stays with you |
|---|---|
| Vietnamese employment contract with the worker, in Vietnamese and compliant in form | The client relationship, the commercial terms and the renewal conversation |
| Compulsory social, health and unemployment insurance — registration, monthly filing and payment | Deciding who is hired, at what salary and on what scope |
| Personal income tax withholding, monthly and annual finalisation, dependant registration | Your own invoicing, your currency and your payment terms with the client |
| Monthly net pay to the worker's Vietnamese bank account, and the payslip | Your platform, your reporting to the client, your brand |
| Statutory records: labour reporting, trade-union contribution, termination paperwork | Consolidated multi-country reporting on your side |
| Handling questions from the worker in Vietnamese — pay, insurance, leave, documents | Escalation and account management with the client |
Which Vietnamese framework the arrangement sits in
Vietnam has no statute called “employer of record”, and no licence carries that name. Any EOR-style arrangement here has to sit inside one of two existing frameworks, and the dividing line is who directs the work day to day:
- Labour leasing — Articles 52–57 of the Labour Code 2019 and Decree 145/2020/ND-CP. The worker signs with Nhan Kiet but works under your client's direct supervision. This route requires a labour-leasing licence, which Nhan Kiet holds (No. 15/2019/SHCM). It carries three statutory limits: only the 20 job categories in Appendix II of Decree 145/2020/ND-CP, a maximum of 12 months per worker under Article 53, and only in the permitted situations.
- Service contract — under the Commercial Law. Nhan Kiet organises, manages and supervises the staff and is responsible for a defined output. No job-category list and no 12-month ceiling, but your client does not direct individual workers.
We tell partners which route a given case falls into before anything is signed, including when the answer is inconvenient. Placing an engagement in the wrong framework is the single most common way these arrangements fail an inspection in Vietnam, and under Decree 12/2022/ND-CP the liability is joint — it reaches the client as well as the supplier.
A full explanation of both routes, with the fee model, is on our EOR Vietnam page.
What we will and will not say about you
- We do not publish partner names, client names or case details without written permission. Nothing about your engagement appears on this website unless you ask for it.
- Worker-facing documents can be kept commercially neutral where the law allows. Statutory documents cannot — the employment contract, insurance filing and tax declaration must carry the legal employer's name.
- Personal data of your client's staff stays inside our Vietnamese systems and is used only to run their employment. We do not approach your client, and we do not market to workers we employ on your behalf.
- A mutual non-disclosure agreement is signed before any employee data changes hands.
From first email to first payroll
| Step | What happens | Typical time |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Scope | You send the role, headcount, province, salary and start date. We confirm which legal route it falls into and quote. | 1–2 working days |
| 2. Paperwork | Mutual NDA, then the framework agreement or MOU. | 3–5 working days |
| 3. Worker onboarding | Identity documents, bank account, dependants, insurance history. Contract signed — we run electronic signing. | 2–3 working days |
| 4. First payroll | Insurance registration filed, payroll calculated, net pay to the worker, payslip issued, report to you. | Next monthly cycle |
For an urgent single hire, steps 1 and 3 can run in parallel and staff have started within 5–7 working days of first contact.
How partner pricing works
Our published rate for companies contracting us directly is on the EOR Vietnam page: 5% of gross salary per employee per month, with a floor and a cap, and no charge on the portion of salary above the social insurance ceiling.
Partner pricing is quoted separately, because the work is not the same. You carry the client relationship, the first-line support and the invoicing; we run the Vietnamese employer side. Rates depend on headcount, whether the engagement is ongoing or project-based, and which of the three models above applies. Send a real case — role, province, salary band, headcount — and you get a quotation, not a rate card.
We do not quote a partner rate lower than we can sustain in order to win a first placement. A rate that cannot survive the second year is not a partnership.
What we will ask you for
We are the party carrying Vietnamese employer liability in this arrangement, so we check the other side as carefully as you check us:
- Company registration and the entity that will sign, in whichever jurisdiction it sits.
- Who the end client is, and what the workers will actually do — we need this to place the engagement in the correct legal framework, not for commercial reasons.
- Payment terms. Vietnamese salaries, insurance and tax leave our account on statutory dates whether or not an invoice has been settled, so we agree the funding cycle before the first worker starts.
- A named operational contact in your time zone.
We expect the same scrutiny in return. Our business registration, labour-leasing licence, ISO 9001:2015, ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 certificates and client references are available on request.
In Vietnam we are the entity — nothing is sub-contracted
Every serious guide to choosing an EOR tells buyers the same thing: check whether the provider owns its legal entity in your target country or relies on a third-party partner, and prefer the one that owns it. That is the right question, and our answer is short:
- Nhan Kiet is a Vietnamese company. Labour-leasing licence 15/2019/SHCM is issued in our name, not borrowed.
- Employment contracts, social insurance registration, personal income tax filing and monthly pay are all executed by Nhan Kiet staff. No part of it is sub-contracted.
- More than 40,000 workers are paid directly from our own systems across 34 provinces.
The partnership described on this page runs in the opposite direction to what people often assume: global providers without a Vietnamese entity use ours. We do not borrow capability from them. When a global platform serves Vietnam through an in-country partner, your company sits one layer further from the entity that actually employs your staff — and pays for that layer.
Contracting us directly removes it. Same entity, same operations team, one step shorter.
What providers ask before the first engagement
Can you employ our client's staff if we have no entity in Vietnam?
Yes. That is the whole point of the arrangement. Nhan Kiet is a Vietnamese company holding labour-leasing licence 15/2019/SHCM and has employed workers here since 2009. Your client's staff sign a Vietnamese employment contract with us, we register and pay their compulsory insurance, withhold and file their personal income tax and pay their net salary each month. Neither you nor your client needs a Vietnamese entity, a representative office or a capital contribution.
Whose name appears on the employment contract?
Nhan Kiet's. Vietnamese law requires the legal employer to be the signing party on the employment contract, the social insurance registration and the tax declaration. That cannot be white-labelled, and any provider who offers to hide it is offering you a problem rather than a service. Everything outside those statutory documents — how you present the arrangement commercially to your client — is yours to decide.
Can you stay invisible to our end client?
Commercially, yes. Under Model A you hold the contract and the invoice with your client and we operate underneath as your sub-supplier; we do not contact your client and we do not publish the engagement. What cannot be hidden is the statutory paperwork the worker themselves receives and signs, which names us as the legal employer. In practice providers handle this by telling the client they use a licensed local employer in Vietnam, which is also the answer that survives an audit.
How quickly can a worker start?
Five to seven working days from the point where we have the worker's documents and an agreed scope, for a straightforward single hire. The variable is almost never us — it is how fast the worker produces their identity documents, bank account and insurance history. Larger teams are planned by weekly intake rather than as one batch.
Do you cover the whole country or only the main cities?
The whole country. We currently have workers on payroll in 34 provinces, including industrial provinces such as Binh Duong, Bac Ninh, Long An and Binh Phuoc as well as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Regional minimum wages and the unemployment insurance ceiling differ by region, and the quotation reflects the province the worker actually works in.
What is your partner rate?
Quoted per engagement rather than published, because partner scope varies — a provider who runs their own client support and invoicing is buying something different from a company contracting us directly. Our direct published rate is 5% of gross salary per employee per month with a floor and a cap, which sets the ceiling of what a partner would pay. Send one real case with role, province, salary band and headcount and you will have a quotation.
Can we also refer Vietnamese clients to you, or you to us?
Yes, in both directions. We regularly meet Vietnamese companies hiring in markets where we do not operate, and providers with entities in those markets are useful to us. A reciprocal referral arrangement under an MOU is usually the fastest way to start, because it requires neither side to take on the other's liability.
Send one real case and we will quote it
The fastest way to test whether this works is a live requirement rather than a general introduction. Send the role, the province, the salary band, the headcount and the start date, and you will get back the legal route it falls into, the quotation and the timeline.
Nguyen Quoc Trung — Deputy General Director
[email protected] ·
+84 908 636 108
Nhan Kiet Supplying Manpower Co., Ltd — tax code 0308022768, established 15 April 2009, head office in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Member of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam (KOCHAM).