Vietnam · Available now
A comprehensive guide to choosing, planning, and living a Vietnamese retirement
Ideal for retirees who…
Vietnam is a young country with real regional variety, from the northern highlands to the southern coast, and foreigners are usually made welcome. Because Vietnam lacks a formal retirement visa, most retirees use tourist e-visas with periodic border runs and accept leaving every few months along with the inherent uncertainty about their ability to stay long-term if the country's tolerance for border runs changes. For a small minority of retirees, a business or investment visa is viable.
Read before you buy
The table of contents, the preface, and three chapters: what Vietnam offers and what it costs you, who does well there and who doesn't, and how to stay legal without a retirement visa, from the residence declaration to the overstay fines.
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A preview of chapter 4
Chapter 4 compares every visa a retiree can use, from visa runs to the ĐT investor tiers, the LĐ2, the DN, the TT family visa and the Viet Kieu exemption, and says which of them lead to a Temporary Residence Card. Chapter 5 is seven questions for choosing, Chapter 6 covers applying, and Chapter 7 the residence declarations and renewals.
Vietnam has no retirement visa, and most foreign retirees live on short stays renewed by leaving the country. The e-visa is open to every nationality, lasts up to 90 days and cannot be extended from inside Vietnam. Citizens of the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Nordic countries can enter without one for 45 days instead, which means eight trips a year rather than four. Americans, Canadians and Australians have no exemption.
For foreigners working with a Vietnamese company, which has to sponsor it. It allows no employment and leads to no residence card. Retirees meet it through services selling a long business visa or an extension without leaving, which work by having a company you have no real connection with sponsor you. Don't use them. Acting outside the purpose of your entry is fined and can mean expulsion and a three-year ban.
The tier below DT3, for a smaller investment, with no minimum. It leads to no residence card, so the company applies for a new visa every year, and your family cannot join you on it. If you will run the company yourself you also need a work permit, and the LD2 route is usually the better choice.
For someone who has put capital into a Vietnamese company. The test is capital paid in, not capital registered. It carries a residence card of up to three years, so there is no annual renewal, and a spouse and children under 18 can join you on it. For most foreigners the investment means a business of their own, which must keep an office, file monthly accounts and pass a yearly audit.
The family route. It is for the parent, spouse or child of a Vietnamese citizen, whatever the child's age, so it covers a retiree married to a Vietnamese citizen and a retiree whose child is one, a widowed parent included. There is no income, capital or insurance test, and it carries a residence card of up to three years. Vietnam does not recognize same-sex marriage.
A work-permit visa for someone managing their own Vietnamese company, with a residence card of up to two years. There is no minimum investment, which is what separates it from the investor visas, but every renewal needs a work permit, a health check and a police certificate. The company must keep an office, file monthly accounts and pass a yearly audit, and unpaid tax can leave its manager facing an exit ban.
A five-year exemption certificate for people of Vietnamese origin, their families, and the foreign spouses and children of Vietnamese citizens. It costs almost nothing, needs no sponsor and gives six months at each entry, so you leave and return twice a year. It is not a residence card, so you cannot exchange a foreign driving license on it and banks treat it as a visa. Anyone who may still hold Vietnamese citizenship should ask a Vietnamese mission first, because taking another nationality did not by itself end it.
What's inside
Whether Vietnam suits you, why people fail at retiring abroad, and what a scouting trip should answer.
Every route compared, how to choose, how to apply, immigration mechanics, and what each visa does and does not let you do.
What a month costs, Vietnamese banking, moving money in and out, tax at both ends, and protecting your capital.
Choosing where to live, then Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Vung Tau, Da Lat and Phu Quoc, and what to commit to in your first year.
Renting against buying, the mechanics and risks of buying, furnishing, domestic help, and aging in place.
The Vietnamese system, the private hospitals, health insurance, chronic and catastrophic illness, and treatment back home.
Learning Vietnamese, building a social life, food and cooking, getting around, recreation, and belonging.
Moving with a partner, Vietnamese partnerships, children and grandchildren visiting, and community beyond family.
How Vietnamese rules change, how to keep up, what is pending now, how to adjust, and the longer-term outlook.
Recognizing when to leave, returning home, or ending your life in Vietnam.
Country profile
Subjective scores out of 10, based on what is important to retirees relocating from the West.
Still deciding?
Vietnam has no retirement visa. Most foreign retirees live on 90-day e-visas and leave the country every few months to get a new one. Rules change quickly, and many go unenforced for years and are then enforced all at once, so what worked for someone last year may not work for you. The guide explains which visas a retiree can use, what each costs to keep, and how to plan a retirement around them.
Information we publish between book editions — rule changes, location reviews, and the questions we are asked most.
Healthcare
Routine care in Asia is cheap. A heart attack or a cancer diagnosis is not, and paying for serious illness from savings takes far more money than most retirees have.
Healthcare
Many retire-abroad budgets price a travel plan for a 30-year-old. Cover for a 65-year-old who lives abroad costs more, and climbs with age.
Visas
Vietnam has no retirement visa, so most foreign retirees there leave every few months and come back on a new e-visa. This covers how the runs work, what they cost and what could change.