Vietnam opens VNeID accounts to foreigners without residence cards

Decree 320/2026/NĐ-CP, in force from 28 September 2026, makes foreigners who enter Vietnam lawfully or reside there lawfully eligible for an account on VNeID, the national e-identity system. Until now only holders of a temporary or permanent residence card qualified. The immigration law treats anyone carrying a document of foreign nationality as a foreigner, which places Vietnamese abroad who hold only a foreign nationality on the foreigner side of that test.

What changed

The decree amends Decree 69/2024/NĐ-CP on electronic identification. Under the original Article 7, a foreigner aged 6 or over needed a temporary or permanent residence card to obtain a level-01 or level-02 account. The new Article 7(2) grants an account on request to a foreigner “entering Vietnam lawfully or residing lawfully in Vietnam”, and states that the account is not divided into levels. The decree sets no minimum length of stay, and how provincial offices will handle short-stay visitors has not been confirmed.

The earlier self-service route, under which a foreigner could open a level-01 account in the app with a passport number and a face scan, no longer appears in the text.

How an application works

The applicant attends the immigration office of the provincial police with a passport or other international travel document and completes Form TK01, giving a mobile number registered in his or her own name and, if available, an email address. Staff capture the applicant’s face and fingerprints and check them against the national immigration database. Children under 14 and persons under guardianship attend with their representative, who registers with his or her own mobile number.

The decree sets a limit of 2 working days where the immigration database already holds the applicant’s face and fingerprints, and 5 working days where it does not. The fee for issuing an account is not set out in the decree or in the other sources reviewed.

What the account is used for

Under the new Article 9(3), a foreigner’s account gives access to the data integrated from national databases and to all features of the e-identity system and of connected systems, in accordance with law. It is used to carry out administrative procedures and public services and to receive their results. The decree also encourages its use to log in to transactions in credit, telecommunications, transport, e-commerce and import-export.

Documents integrated into the app carry the same value as presenting the paper document, and agencies may not ask for originals or copies of a document already integrated. The list of documents an individual may integrate includes the passport, the visa, the visa-exemption certificate, the temporary and permanent residence cards, the investment certificate, the land-use and ownership certificate and the tax registration certificate.

For company work, Decree 168/2025/NĐ-CP on enterprise registration, in force since 1 July 2025, requires the person submitting an online registration to log in to the national portal with an e-identity account. Where the filing is made under an authorisation, both the authorising person and the filer must authenticate electronically; if the authorising person has no e-identity account, the file carries a copy of a valid identity document, which may be a foreign passport. Separately, since 1 July 2026 an agency or organisation applying for an e-visa for a foreigner must hold an e-identity account and an electronic signature, under the immigration law as amended by Law 118/2025/QH15.

A foreigner holding an account also qualifies to use the automated gates at border checkpoints, under the amended Decree 77/2020/NĐ-CP.

Bank and brokerage accounts

A new Article 40(9) requires electronic transaction accounts on digital platforms “in Vietnam” in listed sectors, including banking, securities, e-commerce and telecommunications, to be linked to and authenticated with an e-identity account. For covered accounts created before 28 September 2026, linkage must be completed before 31 December 2026, except in banking, where the deadline is before 30 June 2027.

The text draws no line by nationality. No implementing text from the State Bank of Vietnam or the Ministry of Finance was found that says how the duty applies to a foreigner’s bank or brokerage account. The 2024 text of the State Bank’s Circular 17/2024/TT-NHNN lets a foreigner opening a payment account identify either with a passport, plus a visa, a document valid in place of a visa or proof of visa exemption for a foreigner residing in Vietnam, or through a level-02 e-identity account. Decree 320 no longer grades foreigners’ accounts by level; whether the circular has since been amended, and how the State Bank will read that wording, has not been established.

What the account is not

The account locks automatically when the holder’s passport expires or when the permitted stay in Vietnam ends, a provision of Decree 69 that Decree 320 left unchanged. The provisions reviewed do not make the account a residence document: they list the temporary and permanent residence cards separately, as documents to be integrated into the app. For an investor holding an ĐT1 temporary residence card, Law 118/2025/QH15 sets a maximum validity of 10 years.

The decree contains no transitional clause for level-01 and level-02 accounts that foreigners already hold under Decree 69.

For Vietnamese abroad

The law provides for visa exemption, under Government rules, for Vietnamese settled abroad who hold a foreign passport and for their foreign spouses and children; the document issued is the visa-exemption certificate. The decree’s eligibility test turns on lawful entry or lawful residence, and it does not name visa-exemption certificate holders; no guidance from the Ministry of Public Security confirming how immigration offices will treat them was found.

Citizens aged 6 or over holding a valid Vietnamese identity card may request a level-01 or level-02 account on the citizen track. The decree does not say which track applies to a person holding both Vietnamese and a foreign nationality.