Since 1/7/2025, foreign employees working in Vietnam officially joined compulsory health insurance — new under Law No. 51/2024/QH15 amending the Health Insurance Law. If your company hasn’t enrolled its foreign staff, both the business and the employees face back-payment and penalties.
Who must join? 1 condition + 3 exceptions
- Condition: foreign workers employed under fixed-term labour contracts of 12 months or more with Vietnamese employers.
- Exception 1 — Intra-corporate transferees: specialists transferred from a foreign parent/branch to Vietnam are not compulsory.
- Exception 2 — Retirement age: already at statutory retirement age (per the Labour Code) when signing the contract.
- Exception 3 — International treaties: bilateral/multilateral agreements Vietnam has joined providing otherwise (e.g. the Vietnam–Korea social insurance agreement).
HI contribution: 4.5% (Decree 188/2025/ND-CP)
- Total 4.5% of the contribution salary: employee 1.5%, employer 3% (Article 6, Decree 188/2025/ND-CP).
- Within the foreign-worker social + health insurance “package” (30%: employee 9.5%, employer 20.5%), HI is 4.5%. Note: foreign workers don’t join unemployment insurance (Vietnamese citizens only).
- Contribution salary is capped at 20× the reference salary (currently VND 2,340,000 → cap VND 46.8M/month).
What employers must do now
- Audit the roster: list foreign employees by contract type, term and exclusions — update on role, contract or salary changes.
- Register initial care facility: choose the first-registration clinic/hospital for foreign staff (prefer hospitals with international/English-speaking departments).
- Evasion = back-payment + fines: late or missing HI contributions draw full back-payment plus interest and administrative penalties.
FAQs
11-month contract — compulsory HI?
No — the threshold is a fixed-term contract of 12 months or more. Shorter contracts aren’t compulsory (but voluntary household HI is available — see EXP-0469).
Same HI benefits as Vietnamese?
Yes — same benefit rates by category (employees: 80% of covered in-network care costs). Since 1/7/2025, Law 51/2024 erased administrative boundaries: any first-registration facility nationwide pays full benefits.
Salary paid by the foreign parent — HI in Vietnam?
If you signed with a Vietnamese legal entity (subsidiary, branch) for 12+ months — yes, wherever payroll sits. Pure intra-corporate transfer (no Vietnamese-entity contract) — exception 1.
Contact us
FLAT Law Firm advises foreign nationals and their families on inheritance, wills, driving licences, health insurance and money transfers in Vietnam. Contact us for advice on your specific case.
