VietnamAnnual compliance calendar for expats in Vietnam
In plain termsYour year is not one deadline. It is overlapping clocks: visa/TRC (Temporary Residence Card), work permit, and PIT (personal income tax) residency. This calendar is a cadence, not a promise that every provincial desk uses the same date.
Start here — three checks
- Put three expiry dates on one card: stay, labour, and the tax year-end you must file for
- Add the 183-day checkpoints (mid-year and November) so residency does not surprise payroll
- Assign an owner for each clock. “HR will remember” is not a date.
Decision map
| Signal | Lock now | If skipped |
|---|---|---|
| TRC expiry inside 90 days | Treat it as a new card file, not a quiet renewal. Start sponsor and forms now. | You plan a holiday and come back to an expired stay. |
| Work permit expiry inside 60 days | Renewal window is 10–45 days before expiry. Diary both ends of that window. | You miss the window and need a new issue after a gap. |
| Calendar year passing 150 Vietnam days | Run the 183-day tests and lease/TRC abode facts. Tell payroll. | January withholding is still 20% on a resident. |
| Employer PIT finalisation season | Have the residency proof pack ready before they ask for a status letter. | They guess. You live with the guess. |
| Family cards tied to your sponsorship | Put their expiries on the same card as yours. | You renew yourself and discover the spouse card died first. |
Common wrong movesWhere people lose time on this exact question.
- Using only the passport visa date and ignoring the TRC.
- Treating tax as “the accountant’s March problem” with no day-count all year.
- Renewing labour and stay in different months with no cross-check of sponsor names.
If this fails, do this nextRecovery order — not a generic legal memo.
- Rebuild the one-card expiry list this week from original documents.
- If any date is inside a filing window, start that file now.
- If residency already flipped, open worldwide-income and the proof pack.
Evidence to prepareChecklist before you file or walk in.
- Passport, visa, TRC — issue and expiry dates.
- Work permit issue/expiry and the statutory filing window for the next act.
- ERC of the sponsor if you need to prove who hosts you.
- Day-count sheet with a mid-year and Q4 checkpoint.
- Lease end date vs 183-day abode test.
- Last PIT filing date and who filed it (employer vs you).
- Family TRC dates and sponsor names.
- A 12-month grid: stay, labour, tax, lease — one row each.
Renewal timelineThe labour-and-stay sequence in more detail.Tax residencyThe 183-day checkpoints on the calendar.Temporary residence cardWhy TRC expiry is a new-card problem.
Common questions
What belongs on a Vietnam expat compliance calendar?
Stay (visa/TRC), work permit issue/renewal windows, 183-day tax checkpoints, lease term, family cards, and PIT finalisation. One card, three systems.
Is there one national date for everything?
No. Work-permit windows are in NĐ 219. Tax year-end is a tax clock. TRC is a stay clock. This page keeps them visible together; it does not invent a single public holiday for all three.
How often should I update the calendar?
When any document is issued or a lease is signed, and at a mid-year day-count. Waiting for expiry week is how gaps happen.