“We handle everything — you just sign.” It is the standard pitch of the investment consulting market. But what “everything” includes, what it excludes, and what a fair fee looks like differ from firm to firm. Without a frame of reference, investors fall into two traps: overpaying for simple work, or choosing the cheapest package and discovering that the hardest part — answering the appraisal authority’s questions — is not in the contract. This article unpacks what an IRC consultant actually does, the fee models in use, and reference cost bands in the market, so that you can read any quotation and know what you are buying.
Scope of work: what an IRC consultant actually does
A complete engagement runs through five blocks of work. First, pre-filing structuring advice: reviewing market-access conditions for the business lines, choosing the investment form, capital structure and location, and flagging points likely to draw close appraisal. Second, dossier preparation: drafting the IRC application and project proposal and the charter, and guiding the investor through the foreign-side paperwork, including consular legalization and notarized translation. Third, filing and tracking: submitting via the National Investment Information System or in person, monitoring progress and receiving supplementation notices. Fourth, explanations and supplementation: drafting responses and working with the investment registration authority and consulted agencies. Fifth, collection and post-IRC steps: verifying the IRC’s contents on receipt and — where agreed — continuing with enterprise registration (ERC), seal and investment capital account. The point to pin down in the contract is block four: it is where disputes over extra fees usually arise, because nobody can predict the number of supplementation rounds.
Fee models and reference cost bands
Four fee models dominate the market. A fixed package fee suits projects with a clear scope; hourly billing is common for structuring advice or complex matters; stage-based fees split payment across filing, supplementation and result milestones; and result-linked fees, whose trigger conditions deserve very careful reading. The figures below are market reference bands at the time of writing — not an official tariff, because there is no State price for consulting services around the IRC procedure:
| Project type | Reference fee band | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Simple services or trading, no special conditions | Around USD 1,500–4,000 | Usually a fixed package covering IRC and ERC |
| Manufacturing in an industrial park | Around USD 3,000–8,000 | Rises with land, environmental and construction elements |
| Projects needing policy approval or in conditional sectors | Quoted case by case | Often stage-based, with deep explanation work |
Beyond the consulting fee, budget for items outside the package: consular legalization of foreign documents, notarized translation, and the project’s own costs such as the project performance security deposit where the Investment Law 143/2025/QH15 requires one. A professional quotation separates these three pots of money; a single round figure with no scope annex is a signal to ask more questions.
Choosing a consultant: criteria and warning signs
First, professional status: for the legal parts of the work, prefer a law firm or registered legal practice with a named person in charge rather than an anonymous “team of experts”. Second, sector-relevant experience: a firm strong on trading projects may not handle a manufacturing project with environmental elements equally well. Third, the contract itself: itemized scope, payment milestones tied to deliverables, confidentiality terms, and how extra supplementation rounds are charged. Warning signs include a guaranteed IRC issuance date — the timing of issuance belongs to the State authority and no consultant can decide it — demands for full payment before work starts, and reluctance to put the scope in writing. On the common question “can the consultant commit to a timeline”: a valid commitment covers only their own work — days to complete the dossier, response time when supplementation is requested — while the authority’s appraisal schedule can be forecast but never guaranteed. Ask for every commitment as a written contract clause, and start by sending the same request for quotation to two or three firms so you have a comparison baseline before deciding.
Negotiating the engagement letter like an investor
The quotation is marketing; the engagement letter is the contract that protects you. Insist that it names the deliverable of each stage in documentary form — a filed dossier with a receipt, a supplementation response with an annex map, a collected IRC with a verification note — rather than vague promises of support. Clarify who is authorized to sign and submit on your behalf, and whether a power of attorney is needed for each act or one general authorization covers the engagement. Agree in advance how supplementation rounds beyond the first are charged, because that is the single most common source of fee disputes in IRC work. Add a clause on file ownership and handover: the complete dossier, including drafts and correspondence with the authority, belongs to you and must be handed over if the engagement ends early. Finally, set a communication rhythm — a short written progress update at fixed intervals — so silence never has to be interpreted. A consultant who welcomes these clauses is signaling exactly the professionalism you are paying for; one who resists putting them in writing is telling you something equally valuable.
One final test separates professional firms from sales operations: ask what the weekly working rhythm looks like after signing. A serious consultant answers with reporting cadence, a named drafter, a named reviewer, and a rule for how authority requests reach you — same day, in writing, with a recommended response and its deadline. That rhythm, more than any brochure, predicts how your file will be handled when appraisal gets difficult.
Frequently Asked Questions
What work does an IRC consultant actually perform?
A full package covers: structuring and market-access advice before filing; drafting the IRC dossier and guiding the foreign paperwork (consular legalization, translation); filing and tracking the application; drafting explanations and supplements when the authority requests them; collecting and verifying the IRC; and, where agreed, the ERC, seal and capital account steps that follow. The contract should itemize each block, especially the explanation and supplementation work.
How much does IRC consulting cost, and is it charged per package or per hour?
The market uses all four models: fixed package, hourly, stage-based and result-linked. Reference bands at the time of writing: simple services or trading projects around USD 1,500–4,000; manufacturing in an industrial park around USD 3,000–8,000; projects needing policy approval or in conditional sectors are quoted case by case. These are market references, not a State tariff, and they exclude legalization, translation and the project’s own costs.
Can a consultant guarantee when the IRC will be issued?
No consultant can guarantee the State authority’s issuance timing, because the decision belongs to the investment registration authority after appraisal. A legitimate commitment covers only the consultant’s own work: time to prepare the dossier, internal filing deadlines, and a defined response time for supplementation requests. Commitments should be written into the contract with remedies, not given verbally.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council
