Insights

EOR Services in Vietnam: Hiring Vietnamese Staff Without a Local Entity

Updated 2026-07-20

A foreign company with no legal entity in Vietnam can still hire Vietnamese employees fully compliantly through an EOR (Employer of Record). The Vietnamese EOR provider signs the employment contract directly with the employee, pays social insurance contributions, files and remits personal income tax, runs monthly payroll, administers leave and statutory benefits, and carries the legal liability for the employment relationship. The foreign company signs a single service agreement with the EOR provider, while keeping full control over the work itself and day-to-day professional management.

The biggest difference is speed: with an EOR, an employee can start in 5–7 working days, whereas setting up your own entity in Vietnam typically takes 2–6 months.

When a foreign company needs an EOR

The need usually shows up in a handful of familiar scenarios:

• The parent company wants to hire a small team of Vietnamese staff for market development or regional technical support, but isn't ready to commit capital and overhead to a legal entity.
• The business wants to test the market before making a long-term investment — hire first, incorporate later if the results justify it.
• Incorporation is already planned, but people need to be working during the licensing wait.
• The project has a fixed end date, too short to justify standing up a local structure.

Comparing the three options

Setting up your own entity in Vietnam

Timeline: typically 2–6 months — from the investment registration certificate, enterprise registration, company seal, bank account opening, tax registration and social insurance employer registration, through to running the first payroll.

Best when: the company is confident about a long-term commitment, headcount will be substantial, and a Vietnamese legal entity is needed to sign commercial contracts and issue invoices locally.

Worth considering: once the entity exists, the business must run all the HR back office itself — payroll, social insurance, tax finalisation, periodic labour reporting — even with only a few employees. Many companies at this stage keep the entity but [outsource payroll and tax](/en/tinh-luong-thue-ngoai/) rather than hiring a dedicated C&B specialist.

Engaging a freelancer under an individual service contract

Timeline: the fastest option, essentially immediate.

Risk: legally, this is the least safe route. When an individual works full time, on fixed hours, under the company's direction and supervision, and is paid a regular monthly amount, the arrangement is in substance an employment relationship — regardless of whether the paperwork calls it a "service contract" or a "collaboration agreement". Such a relationship can be reclassified according to its true nature, triggering retroactive social insurance liabilities, under-withheld personal income tax, and entitlements covering annual leave, allowances and termination. For a foreign company with no local entity, the exposure is even greater: there is no legal person in Vietnam to answer for a dispute when one arises.

EOR — hiring through a licensed employer of record

Timeline: 5–7 working days from the moment the candidate and terms are confirmed.

How it works: the foreign company signs a service agreement with the EOR provider. The EOR provider signs the employment contract directly with the Vietnamese employee, becomes the legal employer of record, and handles everything: social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance contributions, personal income tax filing and payment, monthly payroll, and tracking of annual leave and statutory entitlements.

The line to remember: the EOR owns the employment relationship; the client keeps professional management. The employee still reports on their work, receives KPIs and works day to day with the foreign company's team.

How EOR differs from PEO

These two terms are often used interchangeably, and the confusion leads companies to pick the wrong service from the very start:

• EOR (Employer of Record) is for businesses that have no legal entity in Vietnam. The EOR provider is the sole employer on the contract. The client needs no enterprise registration, no Vietnamese tax code and no social insurance employer number.
• PEO (Professional Employer Organization) is a co-employment model and requires the client to already have a Vietnamese entity. The business remains the employer, while the PEO provider shares part of the HR operational burden.

Put simply: if you don't yet have a company in Vietnam, ask about EOR; if you already do, what you need may be PEO, [labour supply services](/en/cung-ung-lao-dong/) or [labour compliance services](/en/hop-thuc-hoa-lao-dong/), depending on the situation.

Compliance costs: the items you shouldn't overlook

When head office asks "what does one person in Vietnam cost", the figure on the offer letter is only part of the answer. Several statutory benchmarks belong in the budget:

• Regional minimum wage under Decree 293/2025/ND-CP, effective 1 January 2026: Region I 5,310,000 VND · Region II 4,730,000 VND · Region III 4,140,000 VND · Region IV 3,700,000 VND per month. The place of work determines which region applies.
• Compulsory social insurance under the Law on Social Insurance No. 41/2024/QH15 (effective 1 July 2025) and Decree 158/2025/ND-CP. For part-time staff, the contribution obligation arises only when both conditions are met: an employment contract of one month or longer, and a monthly salary at or above the reference level. At the reference level of 2,530,000 VND per month, the employer share of 21.5% equals 543,950 VND and the employee share of 10.5% equals 265,650 VND — a total of 809,600 VND per person per month.
• Overtime: premium rates range from 150% to 390% depending on the type of day and shift, and should be budgeted for roles that involve shift work.
• Personal income tax: withheld and remitted monthly, with an annual finalisation.

A properly run EOR provider consolidates all of these into a single cost sheet, so the parent company can see the true total cost per employee before signing.

Why Nhan Kiet

Nhan Kiet Human Resources Supply Co., Ltd (tax code 0308022768) was established in April 2009 and is now in its 17th year in the Vietnamese HR sector. It holds Labour Outsourcing Licence No. 15/2019/SHCM and operates management systems certified to ISO 9001:2015, ISO 45001 and ISO 14001.

To date, Nhan Kiet has served more than 500 clients and manages over 40,000 workers across 34 provinces and cities, with more than 200 operations staff and a candidate database of around 2 million profiles. For EOR clients, that means employee records, payroll and insurance obligations run on established operating processes, rather than being built from scratch for each new contract.

Full details of the scope of work, fee structure and a sample service agreement are available on our [EOR Vietnam services](/en/eor-vietnam/) page.

Contact

If your parent company is weighing up incorporation against hiring through an EOR, send us three things to start: the role you need to fill, the place of work and the target salary. We will come back with a complete cost sheet you can take to head office.

• Nguyen Quoc Trung — Deputy General Director · 0908 636 108 · trungnguyen@nhankiet.vn
• Nhan Kiet Human Resources Supply Co., Ltd · Room 202, Building 57, 57 Le Thi Hong Gam, Ben Thanh Ward, Ho Chi Minh City · Tel 028 3505 4224

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