LEARNING ENGLISH WITH FDVN'S NEWSLETTER NO. 05/2021

NEW POINTS ON WORK PERMITS FOR FOREIGNERS IN VIETNAM UNDER LABOR CODE 2019 AND LAW ON INVESTMENT 2020 – PART 1

NHỮNG ĐIỂM MỚI VỀ GIẤY PHÉP LAO ĐỘNG CỦA NGƯỜI NƯỚC NGOÀI TẠI VIỆT NAM THEO QUY ĐỊNH CỦA BỘ LUẬT LAO ĐỘNG 2019 VÀ LUẬT ĐẦU TƯ 2020 – PHẦN 1
(Ha Thi Hien – FDVN’s Newsletter No. 7)

1. VOCABULARY IN USE:

“In fact, foreign investors (“nhà đầu tư nước ngoài”) have created a strong economic resource to develop in all aspects in Viet Nam. The investment capital of foreign investors over the past years has created many values in economic growth (“tăng trưởng kinh tế”), infrastructure development (“phát triển hạ tầng”), improvement of social life, and creating employment resources... Hence, the law of Vietnam tends for facilitating (“tạo điều kiện”) to welcome foreign investors to come to Vietnam.

Besides basic positive issues, there are still cases of foreigners taking advantage (“lợi dụng/tận dụng”) of Vietnam's investment policies (“chính sách đầu tư”) to enter our country for other purposes, even though they are not qualified to work in Vietnam, as well as taking advantage of the provisions of the current law. They have stayed in Vietnam to live and work even though they are not the subjects allowed to work in Vietnam. Consequently, the consequences in social life, order, and national security are seriously arisen. There is a need for legal provisions to create the best conditions to attract the investment resources (“nguồn lực đầu tư”) and control the activities of foreigners in Vietnam to ensure the security, order, and national defense (“quốc phòng”) of the country at the same time.

Through this article, we would like to discuss some issues of the Labor Code 2019 and the Law on Investment 2020 that have been enacted (“ban hành”) with notable issues related to work permits (“giấy phép lao động”) (hereinafter referred to as "WP" ) and notable regulations on foreign investors ”.

1. Regulations on foreign investors and work permits are specified in the Labor Code 2012 and the Investment Law 2014

As prescribed in Clause 14, Article 3 of the Law on Investment 2014: “Foreign investor is an individual with foreign nationality, an organization established under the foreign law conducting business investment activities (“thực hiện các hoạt động đầu tư kinh doanh”) in Vietnam…"

According to the above-mentioned provisions, foreign investors include individuals and economic organizations. When investing in Vietnam, foreign investors can invest through 04 forms: investment in establishing economic organizations (“đầu tư thành lập tổ chức kinh tế”); investment in the form of capital contribution (“sự góp vốn”), share purchase (“mua cổ phần”), capital contribution to economic organizations; Investment in the form of PPP contract; Investment in the form of BCC contract. When investing in Vietnam, foreign investors should note that the conditional investment sectors (“ngành nghề đầu tư có điều kiện”) are specified in Appendix 4 of the Investment Law 2014 and the sectors and services that foreign investors are not allowed to invest in Vietnam. Regulations are scattered in legal documents, decrees, and circulars such as: lottery business [1], Publisher establishment [2], industrial property representation services [3], industrial property assessment services [4]… 

In order to making favorable conditions for the investment process, attracting more foreign investors, at Article 172 of the  Labor Code 2012, there are some cases where foreign citizens working in Vietnam are exempted from work permits (“được miễn giấy phép lao động”) such as:

“1. Capital contributor or owner of a limited liability company;

 2. Member of the Board of Directors of a joint stock company”.

According to the above-mentioned provisions, foreign investors investing in Vietnam through two forms which are investment in the establishment of economic organizations and investment in the form of capital contribution, share purchase, capital contribution to the economic organizations will be exempted from work permits.

From the above-mentioned regulations, in fact, the following problems have occurred:

Firstly, the fact that foreign investors investing in Vietnam in the form of establishing economic organizations and contributing capital, buying shares, and contributing capital to the economic organizations are not subject to the issuance of legal licenses is the regulation promoting the investment process in Vietnam to be faster. When foreigners entering Vietnam are required to apply for a work permit, they have to prepare a lot of papers to apply for a work permit specified in Article 10 of Decree 11/2016/ND-CP detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Labor Code regarding foreign workers working in Vietnam ("Decree 11/2016/ND-CP") such as (1) Proposal of issuing the work permit (“Đề nghị cấp giấy phép lao động”) of the employer in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs; (2) Health certificate; (3) Judicial record (“lý lịch tư pháp”, từ đồng nghĩa là Criminal record) or documents certifying that the foreign worker is not a criminal or prosecuted for criminal liability issued by the foreign country; (4) Proof of identity as manager, executive director, expert or technical worker (“lao động kỹ thuật”); (5) Certified copy of passport or passport substitute document or international travel document valid as prescribed by law; (6) Documents relating to the foreign worker.

On the other hand, Vietnam only grants WP to subjects having professional qualifications and skills such as managers, executives, experts or technical workers [5]. Thus, foreign workers working in Vietnam are highly qualified people.

Meanwhile, the dossier submitted in case foreigners are not required  for granting work permit only includes[6] (1) A written request (“Văn bản yêu cầu”) to confirm that the foreign worker is not required for granting a work permit; (2) A list of foreign workers with the following contents: full name; year old; sex; nationality; passport; work start date and end date; the job position of the foreign worker; (3) Documents proving that the foreign worker is not required to be issued a work permit. The procedure for the confirmation is also simpler than the one for granting WP specified in Article 8 of Decree 11/2016/ND-CP which takes 03 working days from the date of receiving a complete application. The Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs where the foreigner is expected to work shall send a written confirmation to the employer. In case of rejecting, they will reply in writing and state the reason.

2. EXPLANATION AND DEMONSTRATION:

1. Proposal và written request:

Hai từ này đều có nghĩa chung là “Đề nghị”, written request nêu cụ thể hơn, là “đề nghị bằng văn bản”. Thông thường, cả proposal và written request đều được sử dụng trong các đơn/văn bản đề nghị cấp giấy phép.

Ví dụ: “Proposal for the implementation of investment project” – Đề nghị thực hiện dự án đầu tư

Trong đấu thầu, cụm từ Request for proposal có nghĩa là “Đề nghị mời thầu”.

2. Obtain và grant

Obtain nghĩa là “có được”, grant nghĩa là “cấp”, đều sử dụng trong ngữ cảnh pháp lý liên quan đến các loại giấy phép.

Nếu chủ ngữ trong câu là người/đơn vị được cấp phép thì obtain luôn sử dụng ở thể chủ động, còn grant luôn sử dụng ở thể bị động. Nếu chủ ngữ trong câu là giấy phép, thì obtain và grant luôn được dùng ở thể bị động, nhưng grant thường được dùng phổ biến hơn.

Ví dụ:

FDVN obtained its Business License in 2011.

FDVN’s Business License was granted in 2011 by Department of Justice.

3. Các từ đồng nghĩa của work permit:

4. Certificate of exemption from work permit: Chứng nhận không thuộc diện cấp giấy phép lao động.

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