United States: COVID-19 And Eligibility To Enter Vietnam

As of the date of this post, the Government of Vietnam still maintains suspension of entry for expats, including people with a Vietnamese visa exemption certificate. A potential date to allow foreigners to enter Vietnam again has not been formally announced by the Government yet, though further information is expected imminently.

The current entry restriction, which came into effect on 22 March 2020, has limited exemptions for diplomatic, official duty, as well as special circumstances, including experts, business managers, high-skilled technicians (pursuant to Government's Decree 11/2016/ND-CP, it can be interpreted that experts, business managers, high-skilled technicians are those who have been issued with work permits to legally work in Vietnam), and other essential categories as determined by the Government of Vietnam. That is to say, statutorily speaking, there exists a possibility where such subjects are entitled to enter Vietnam, subject to approval of provincial People's Committee and Department of Immigration, after the consultation with the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health, and other relevant agencies.

Despite this, to the best of our knowledge, though feasible in theory, practice appears to be different and it seems no formal approval has been granted yet, partly due to absence of any guidance from the Government to each province in detail.

Should an enterprise wish to send an expat (with a valid work permit) to Vietnam to manage operations in Vietnam at the moment, they should seek approval for entry on a case-by-case basis from the provincial People's Committee and Department of Immigration as first priority.

Quarantine Requirements in Vietnam

Since 8 March 2020, all people who have arrived from outside the country must (i) complete a medical declaration form, which can be done by completing a paper form on arrival or a digital form online before the trip via this link https://tokhaiyte.vn/ and (ii) undertake COVID-19 testing. On this basis, regardless of whether the COVID-19 testing result is positive or not, everyone entering Vietnam, including Vietnamese nationals, have been subjected to mandatory, centralized quarantine for 14 days. It is worth noting that this quarantine period, under some circumstances, might be prolonged to more than 14 days, at the broad discretion of the authorities.

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So-called "centralized" quarantine sites in Vietnam may be basic facilities. Therefore, Ministry of Health released Decision No. 1246/QD-BYT on 20 March 2020 ("Decision 1246") to grant more flexibilities for the mandatory quarantine. Specifically, a person subject to quarantine is entitled to request to be quarantined at a permitted hotel to enjoy better facilities and would need to bear all accommodation expenses during the quarantine period.

By law, this requires the individual to simply (i) fill in a Request Form under Annex 2 of Decision 1246; and (ii) submit same to immigration authority. However, we note that the procedure for this step is neither transparent nor well-organized and unlikely to be workable in practice on an ad-hoc basis. It is thus necessary to ensure that arrangements are confirmed directly with the relevant provincial authorities of the port of entry.

For more information, please contact Giles at GTCooper@duanemorris.com or Le Nhan at NTLe@duanemorris.com or any of the lawyers in our office listing. Giles is Chairman of Duane Morris Vietnam LLC and branch director of Duane Morris' HCMC office.