Ongoing Legal Advisory for FDI Companies in Vietnam

Ongoing legal advisory for FDI enterprises: who is this service for?

• FDI enterprises operating in Vietnam needing periodic legal support.
• Manufacturing, trading, service or industrial park companies with many contracts and personnel.
• Chinese-speaking enterprises needing a legal bridge between the Vietnam team and the parent company.
• Companies without in-house counsel or needing specialized external legal support.
• Investors who have just established an FDI company and need to manage post-establishment obligations.

Legal issues clients commonly face

Risk often does not appear as a major case from the start. A hastily signed contract, an expired work permit for a foreign employee, an unupdated address change or an uncontrolled negotiation email can all create legal consequences.

FDI enterprises must also reconcile the parent company’s internal requirements with procedures in Vietnam. Without someone explaining both ways, business decisions can be slow or misaligned with regulations.

Post-2025 legal updates require enterprises to re-review addresses, competences, beneficial owners, investment conditions and dispute mechanisms.

What does FLAT LAW FIRM do?

• Advising on contracts, labour, licences, corporate governance and monthly compliance.
• Quickly reviewing documents before signing or sending to counterparties.
• Supporting ERC, IRC, representative, business line, capital or location amendments.
• Advising on foreign labour, work permits, internal labour rules and disciplinary handling.
• Updating legal developments affecting FDI enterprises and Chinese-speaking investors.
• Supporting negotiation, debt handling, disputes and working with related parties.

Implementation process

1. Surveying the legal status, business lines, licences, contracts and ongoing needs.
2. Agreeing on the advisory package scope, intake channels, response times and responsible persons — per FLAT LAW FIRM’s lawyer engagement process.
3. Setting up a risk-prioritized compliance checklist.
4. Handling arising requests monthly and recording legal recommendations.
5. Periodic or case-based meetings to update risks.
6. Proposing separate legal projects if M&A, disputes or complex licences arise.

Documents clients should prepare

• IRC, ERC, charter, sub-licences and the most recent change dossiers.
• Lists of template contracts, material contracts and approval procedures.
• Employee lists, foreign specialists, work permits and internal labour rules.
• Workshop, office, lease contract and administrative address information.
• Lists of risks, disputes, debts or requests being handled.
• Contact points in Vietnam and at the parent company.

Expected timeline

The ongoing service can be deployed monthly or by work-scope package. Response times depend on urgency, document volume, request complexity and whether work with authorities, counterparties or third parties is needed.

Common legal risks

• No contract review process before signing.
• Slow updates to ERC, IRC, beneficial owners or addresses after changes.
• Not managing expiry dates of work permits, sub-licences and reporting obligations.
• Lacking supporting dossiers when disputes or inspections arise.
• Parent company internal regulations unsuitable for Vietnamese practice.
• Handling legal matters only after risks become disputes.

Legal updates to September 2026

In each specific dossier, FDI enterprises need to review key changes: the Law on Investment 2025 (effective 01/3/2026) and Decree 96/2026/ND-CP — including the new sequence allowing foreign investors to establish an economic organization (ERC issuance) before carrying out the IRC procedure; Law No. 76/2025/QH15 amending the Law on Enterprises (effective 01/7/2025) with the obligation to declare and update beneficial owner information; Decree 219/2025/ND-CP on foreign labour (effective 07/8/2025) with one-step work permit procedures and expanded exemptions; new administrative addresses after the rearrangement and the two-tier local government model (from 01/7/2025); the new court system under Resolution 81/2025/UBTVQH15 with territorial jurisdiction adjusted by Resolution 04/2026/UBTVQH16 (effective 10/06/2026).

The full text of the above instruments can be found at the Government’s system of normative legal documents. The content on this page should be checked against the instruments in force at the time of application.

Why choose FLAT LAW FIRM?

FLAT LAW FIRM can become the regular legal point of contact for FDI enterprises, giving management a place to ask quickly, understand correctly and act early. The ability to work in Vietnamese, Chinese and English reduces friction between the team in Vietnam and the parent company.

Frequently asked questions

Useful links

You should talk to a lawyer if:

• The enterprise lacks a periodic compliance checklist and handles legal matters on an ad-hoc basis.
• ERC, IRC, representative, business line, capital or operating location amendments are upcoming.
• A foreign specialist’s work permit is expiring or the entire foreign labour dossier needs review.
• Contract templates, internal labour rules or internal regulations have long gone without review under new law.
• The parent company requires compliance reporting but the Vietnam team lacks a regular legal contact.