Do foreigners pay social insurance in Vietnam?

Yes, most do. Foreign employees with a labour contract of 12 months or more must join compulsory social insurance, unless an exemption such as an intra company transfer applies.

How much social insurance does a foreign employee pay in Vietnam?

In 2026 a foreign employee pays 9.5 percent of insurable salary and the employer pays 20.5 percent. The salary counted is capped at VND 50,600,000 a month from 1 July 2026.

Do foreigners pay unemployment insurance in Vietnam?

No. Foreign employees are not subject to unemployment insurance contributions, unlike Vietnamese employees.

When did the new Social Insurance Law take effect?

The Social Insurance Law of 2024 was passed on 29 June 2024 and many of its changes took effect on 1 July 2025.

How can I check my social insurance contributions in Vietnam?

You can look them up for free on the Viet Nam Social Security website at baohiemxahoi.gov.vn or call its hotline on 1900 9068. You need your social insurance number.

Social Insurance Vietnam: Rules for Foreign Employees

The law in force now

Vietnam passed a new Social Insurance Law (Law 41 of 2024) on 29 June 2024, along with changes to the Health Insurance Law (Law 51 of 2024). Many of the changes took effect on 1 July 2025. The law has 141 articles in 11 chapters and widens who must take part.

Foreign workers were first brought into compulsory social insurance by Decree 143 of 2018, from 1 December 2018. In the first three months, nearly 52,000 foreign workers from more than 8,700 employers joined, according to Viet Nam Social Security figures reported at the time.

Sources: EY Vietnam, Notable points regarding the mandatory social security from 1 July 2025; Vietnam Law and Legal Forum, Law on Social Insurance; VietnamNet, Nearly 52,000 foreign workers participate in social insurance in Vietnam, 16 March 2019.

Who must join

Under the 2024 law, a foreign employee must join compulsory social insurance if they have a labour contract of at least 12 months. Under the old law this applied only to people holding a work permit, practice certificate or practice licence. Now it applies whether you hold a work permit, a work permit exemption or another type of permit.

The law sets out three exemptions for foreign employees:

internal transfers within the same company group, as defined in the rules on foreign workers;
people who had already reached retirement age when they signed the labour contract;
cases where an international treaty that Vietnam has signed says something different.

If you think a treaty between Vietnam and your home country applies to you, ask your employer's payroll team or a lawyer to check it for your case.

Sources: Vietnam Briefing, Vietnam's 2024 Social Insurance Law: Implications for Businesses, 9 August 2024; EY Vietnam, Notable points regarding the mandatory social security from 1 July 2025.

What comes off your payslip

Contributions are a percentage of your insurable salary. For foreign employees in 2026, the split published for employers is:

Fund	Employer	Employee
Retirement and survivorship	14%	8%
Sickness and maternity	3%	none
Work accident and occupational disease	0.5%	none
Health insurance (BHYT)	3%	1.5%
Total	20.5%	9.5%

Unlike Vietnamese staff, foreign employees do not pay into unemployment insurance. EY's summary of the 2024 law also marks unemployment insurance as not applicable to foreign employees.

There is a cap. The salary used for social and health insurance is capped at 20 times the reference level. With the reference level at VND 2,530,000 from 1 July 2026, the cap is VND 50,600,000 a month (roughly USD 1,900). Salary above the cap is not counted.

Sources: Netviet, Vietnam Social Insurance Contribution Rates 2026, 16 June 2026; EY Vietnam, Notable points regarding the mandatory social security from 1 July 2025.

The salary floor

There is a minimum as well as a cap. Viet Nam Social Security says that for foreign workers the minimum salary used for contributions equals the reference level in force at the time of contribution, and the maximum is 20 times that level. With the reference level at VND 2,530,000 from 1 July 2026, the floor is VND 2,530,000 a month. Regional minimum wages are a separate rule: Netviet's 2026 summary lists them from 1 January 2026 as VND 5,310,000 in Region I, VND 4,730,000 in Region II, VND 4,140,000 in Region III and VND 3,700,000 in Region IV, an average rise of 7.2 percent. They are not the contribution floor for foreign workers that Viet Nam Social Security describes.

The insurable salary is not always your whole pay. It includes the salary for the job or position, salary allowances, and other regular payments agreed for each pay period.

Sources: Viet Nam Social Security, How to determine the salary used as the basis for social insurance contributions for foreign workers, 14 August 2026; Netviet, Vietnam Social Insurance Contribution Rates 2026, 16 June 2026.

A worked example

Take a foreign employee with an insurable salary of VND 40,000,000 a month, which is under the cap. The employee pays 9.5 percent, which is VND 3,800,000. The employer pays 20.5 percent on top, which is VND 8,200,000. Of the employee's share, VND 600,000 is the health insurance part.

Now take a salary of VND 80,000,000. Only the capped VND 50,600,000 counts, so the employee pays VND 4,807,000 and the employer pays VND 10,373,000. Check your own payslip against this. If the numbers look very different, ask payroll how your insurable salary was set.

Worked example by our editors using the 2026 rates and cap above. USD figures in this guide are rough conversions at about VND 26,400 to the dollar, the rate implied in a July 2026 news report (VND 30 million to USD 1,136).

Sources: Netviet, Vietnam Social Insurance Contribution Rates 2026, 16 June 2026; The Star (Vietnam News/ANN), HCM City fines pharmacies for selling prescription drugs without doctors' orders, 8 July 2026.

Your health insurance card

The health part of your contribution, 4.5 percent of insurable salary, gives you a state health insurance card. Viet Nam Social Security lets you check when the card expires: its SMS service on 8079 accepts the message BH HS followed by your health insurance card number. Each SMS costs VND 1,000, and lookups on its website are free.

Sources: Viet Nam Social Security, SMS information lookup service; Netviet, Vietnam Social Insurance Contribution Rates 2026, 16 June 2026.

What you get for it

The health insurance part gives you a state health insurance card, which pays towards care at contracted facilities. The other funds cover sickness and maternity pay, work injuries and a retirement benefit. When you leave Vietnam, rules on a one time payout or keeping your contribution record apply; the 2024 law changed the lump sum rules, so check the current position before you leave.

Sources: Vietnam Law and Legal Forum, Law on Social Insurance; Vietnam Briefing, Vietnam's 2024 Social Insurance Law: Implications for Businesses, 9 August 2024.

If your employer does not pay

The 2024 law takes late or missing payments more seriously. EY's summary says the new law strengthens penalties for late payment and evasion of contributions, including recovery of unpaid amounts and criminal prosecution of employers who evade payment. The Vietnam Law and Legal Forum says the law adds measures against late payment to better protect employees.

So check your record a few times a year. If contributions are missing, raise it with payroll in writing first, and keep copies of your payslips.

Sources: EY Vietnam, Notable points regarding the mandatory social security from 1 July 2025; Vietnam Law and Legal Forum, Law on Social Insurance.

Checking your own record

You can check your contributions yourself. Viet Nam Social Security offers free lookups on its website at baohiemxahoi.gov.vn and a hotline on 1900 9068. It has also run an SMS lookup service on 8079. Ask your employer for your social insurance number first, because you need it for every lookup.

Medical certificates and work permits run on their own paperwork track; see our guide to the work permit medical certificate. For how our editors handle sources in guides like this, see our methodology.

This guide explains the rules as published. It is not legal or tax advice. Ask your employer, a lawyer or a tax adviser about your own contract.

Sources: Viet Nam Social Security, SMS information lookup service.

Common questions

Do foreigners pay social insurance in Vietnam?: Yes, most do. Foreign employees with a labour contract of 12 months or more must join compulsory social insurance, unless an exemption such as an intra company transfer applies.
How much social insurance does a foreign employee pay in Vietnam?: In 2026 a foreign employee pays 9.5 percent of insurable salary and the employer pays 20.5 percent. The salary counted is capped at VND 50,600,000 a month from 1 July 2026.
Do foreigners pay unemployment insurance in Vietnam?: No. Foreign employees are not subject to unemployment insurance contributions, unlike Vietnamese employees.
When did the new Social Insurance Law take effect?: The Social Insurance Law of 2024 was passed on 29 June 2024 and many of its changes took effect on 1 July 2025.
How can I check my social insurance contributions in Vietnam?: You can look them up for free on the Viet Nam Social Security website at baohiemxahoi.gov.vn or call its hotline on 1900 9068. You need your social insurance number.

Sources

Figures checked against these sources. Our method.