Before you start

A Vietnamese employer, or a company you have capitalised, that can sponsor you
A passport valid at least 13 months beyond the card term you want
A legalised and translated criminal record check
A legalised degree certificate and employment references for the expert category
A Da Nang address whose owner will file the ward police declaration

Step-by-step

1
Come in on a visa that can bridge to a permit
The 90-day multiple-entry e-visa is a visitor permission and does not authorise work or confer residence. A sponsored business (DN) visa is the usual bridge while the work permit is processed. Da Nang International Airport has direct connections across Northeast Asia, which makes the exit runs cheaper here than from most Vietnamese cities — but they are still exit runs.
OnlineWho: YouBefore arrival
2
Get the ward police temporary residence declaration filed
Circular 53/2016 obliges the accommodation provider to declare you within twelve hours of arrival in an urban area, generally through the provincial portal at danang.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn. Serviced apartments do it automatically. Independent landlords letting a family property often do not until asked. Get the confirmation in writing.
In personWho: Your landlord, with you chasingWithin 12 hours of moving in
3
Check the fifteen exemption categories before applying for a permit
Decree 219/2025 expanded work permit exemptions from nine categories to fifteen from August 2025, including owners or capital contributors of VND 3 billion or more, people working under ninety days a year, and specialists in priority fields including finance, science and technology and digital transformation. Da Nang's financial centre and free trade zone push a lot of incoming roles toward those categories.
Via employerWho: Your employer and youBefore filing
4
Have the employer file the permit online
Since August 2025 the labour-demand approval and the permit application are a single submission through the National Public Service Portal, with a ten-day statutory lead time. In practice the binding constraint is legalising your degree and police check abroad, which takes weeks. Start those before you fly.
Via employerWho: Your employer4–8 weeks in practice
5
File the residence card at 78 Lê Lợi
The Da Nang immigration office takes forms NA6 and NA8, the work permit, labour contract, company licence and seal specimen, 2×3 cm photographs and the ward police confirmation. Issuance runs about five working days once the file is accepted.
In personWho: Your employer, with you attending≈5 working days
6
Re-declare after every move, including within the merged city
Moving between wards means a new declaration at the new ward. Because Da Nang absorbed Quảng Nam in July 2025, a move from the beach to Hội An is now an internal move within one city rather than a change of province — which simplifies the paperwork but does not remove the re-declaration.
In personWho: You and your landlordEach move

Documents you’ll need

Passport valid 13+ months
Work permit or exemption confirmation with 12+ months remaining
Labour contract or investment registration certificate
Forms NA6 and NA8
Two 2×3 cm photographs
Employer's business licence and seal specimen
Ward police confirmation of temporary residence

Things most newcomers don’t know

The July 2025 merger made Da Nang a province-sized city, and half the addresses online are now wrong.

Vietnam abolished the district tier nationally and merged Quảng Nam into Da Nang on 1 July 2025. The city now runs from Hải Vân pass to the Quảng Ngãi border and contains Hội An and Mỹ Sơn. Anything written before mid-2025 — including pages still live on government sites — will name districts that no longer exist. For residents of the former Quảng Nam this is a genuine simplification: one immigration office, one set of provincial procedures.

Source: 2025 administrative reform

Da Nang's financial centre and free trade zone changed which exemptions plausibly apply to you.

Decree 219/2025 exempts specialists in priority fields including finance, science and technology, innovation and digital transformation from the work permit requirement. Da Nang's International Financial Centre was inaugurated in January 2026 under Decree 323/2025 and the 1,881-hectare free trade zone is Vietnam's first. A role that would clearly need a permit in a tourism business may not in an IFC-linked one — it is worth asking before your employer starts a six-week process.

Source: Decree 219/2025 / Decree 323/2025

Landlords here are unusually likely to skip the police declaration, because so much stock is short-let.

Da Nang built enormous numbers of apartments for tourist letting, and many are now let long-term informally by owners who have never registered as a rental business. The twelve-hour ward police declaration makes that visible. A landlord who hesitates when you ask is telling you something about the tenancy, and without the confirmation you cannot get a residence card or open a bank account.

Source: Circular 53/2016 / community-reported

The golden visa is still a proposal, and the ĐT investor scale is what actually exists.

A five- and ten-year residency scheme has been trailed since May 2025 and is still not enacted, with no published draft. The functioning long-stay routes for the self-funded are the ĐT investor visas, graded by capital contributed, where only the higher tiers reach multi-year residence cards. Anyone choosing Da Nang on the strength of the golden visa coverage is planning around an announcement rather than a law.

Source: Immigration Department / legal press

Common mistakes to avoid

Treating the 90-day e-visa as a residence route or a bridge to one.
Letting the employer start the permit late and burning exit runs from Da Nang airport.
Renting from an owner who will not file the ward police declaration.
Doing a full work permit application without checking Decree 219's fifteen exemption categories.
Using pre-July-2025 guidance that names Da Nang districts and Quảng Nam offices that no longer exist.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.