On April 1st 2016, the Decree No. 11/2016/ND-CP of the Government issued on February 3rd 2016 has affected. After over a week of implementation of the Decree, there are many positive feedbacks in details in respect of the Decree No. 11/2016/ND-CP which may be taken into consideration to debug the recent shortcomings.

In the Decree 11/2016/ND-CP, foreign labor objects have been redefined and expanded, namely foreign labors are those who internally moving within enterprises, volunteers, experts, managers, managing directors and technicalworkers. Moreover, in the Decree,  the demand for foreign labors has been also determined, i.e. identification of use of foreign worker  by contractors and expandation of regulations in respect of  foreign workers who are ineligible for granting working permits.

The Decree 11/2016/ND-CP is applied for foreign-citizen labors who work in Vietnam under various forms: Implementation of the labor contract; internally moving within enterprises; implementation of contracts or agreements in the fields of economy, trade, finance, bank, insurance, science and technology, culture, sports, education on career and medical; service providers under contract; service offer; working for foreign NGOs, international organizations in Vietnam who have permission to operate business under provision of Vietnamese laws; volunteers; people who are responsible for establishment of  commercial presence managers, managing directors, experts, technical workers who participating to the bid package and projects in Vietnam.
Objects who can use foreign labors include enterprises operating under the Enterprise Law, the Investment Law or International treaty to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a member; foreign and national contractors who participate and perform the contracts; representative offices or branches of enterprises, agencies and organizations which have permission to be established by Competent Authorities; State agencies, political and social organizations, political, social and politics organizations; foreign non-governmental organizations, international organizations in Vietnam; politics organizations establishing under the law; offices of foreign projects or international organizations in Vietnam; executive offices of foreign investors in the business cooperation contracts or of foreign contractors who have permision to operatee under the law; lawyer practiceorganizations in Vietnam under the law; cooperatives, unions of cooperatives establishing and operating under the Cooperative Law; associations establishing under the law; business households and individuals who have permision to operate business under the law.

Regarding the duration of the work permit, the Decree 11/2016/ND-CP clearly stated that the duration of the work permit shall be based on each specific case, but must not exceed 02 years..

The Decree 11/2016/ND-CP also defines foreign labors who are not objects for granting work permits; granting procedures, re-granting of work permits and the duration of the work permits is granted as stipulated in the Decree. Simultaneously,, the Decree also stipulates the expiration of work permit from  Article 174.1 to 174.8 of the Labor Code and expulsion of foreignlabors. Accordingly, foreign labors in Vietnam without work permit or a written confirmation which subjects to a work permit to be granted will be expelled.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affair, as of December 2014, Vietnam has 76,309 foreign labors. In particulars, number of foreign labors who are not subject to work permit granted are 5,610 people, accounting for  7.35%. Foreign labors come from 74 countries (Asian accounted for 58%, European accounted for 28.5%). As a result, it is necessary to strengthen the state management  regarding  foreign labor objects to take advantage of intelligence as well as multi-national technology for the development of economy of Vietnam and indirectly promote the development of other industries such as investment, finance, etc.

The clarification of the regulations on foreign labors in Vietnam has overcome and limited the possible misleading and misunderstanding on regulations for forein labors in Vietnam. Such clarifications also  encourage foreign labors to come to and work in Vietnam.

Lawyer Mrs. Nguyen Thi Phuong - Vietthink Law firm.