From 1 July 2025, foreign nationals in Vietnam on labour contracts of at least 12 months must join compulsory social insurance, unless exempt. They get the same benefits as locals. Contributions total 25% of salary: 8% by the worker and 17% by the employer, split across designated funds.
MANDATORY SOCIAL INSURANCE FOR FOREIGN WORKERS IN VIETNAM
(Effective from 1 July 2025)
Pursuant to the provisions of the 2024 Social Insurance Law and Decree No. 158/2025/ND-CP of the Government, foreign nationals working in Vietnam are subject to participation in the compulsory social insurance scheme where they are employed under a fixed-term labour contract of at least twelve months’ duration.
The obligation to participate shall not apply in cases where a foreign worker is internally transferred within an enterprise in accordance with Vietnamese regulations on foreign workers; where, at the time of entering into the labour contract, the worker has attained the retirement age as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 169 of the Labour Code; or where an international treaty to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a signatory establishes provisions to the contrary.
Foreign workers who are enrolled in the compulsory social insurance scheme shall be entitled to equal benefit entitlements as Vietnamese employees. Such entitlements include, inter alia, sickness benefits, maternity benefits, work injury and occupational disease allowances in accordance with the Law on Occupational Hygiene and Safety, together with retirement pensions and survivorship benefits.
In respect of contribution obligations, employees shall remit an amount equivalent to eight per cent of their monthly salary to the pension and survivorship fund. Employers shall remit an amount equivalent to seventeen per cent of the employee’s monthly salary, comprising a three per cent contribution to the sickness and maternity fund and a fourteen per cent contribution to the pension and survivorship fund. The aggregate monthly compulsory contribution, therefore, amounts to twenty-five per cent of the employee’s base salary, apportioned as eight per cent by the employee and seventeen per cent by the employer.
