Opening a Vietnamese Bank Account as a Foreigner
A Vietnamese payment account is the hinge everything else turns on: salary, rent, utilities, e-wallets and eventually remitting money home. Foreigners can open one, but the account is tied to your identity papers and your permitted period of stay, and it only becomes fully usable after the bank has matched your ID document and captured your biometrics. This guide covers what banks actually ask for, how cards and e-wallets fit together, and what a bank needs to see before it will send money abroad for you.
Who needs this
- Foreign employees whose salary must be paid into a Vietnamese dong account under a local labour contract or an employer-of-record arrangement.
- Foreign directors, legal representatives and investors who need a personal account kept strictly separate from the company's account.
- Spouses, dependants and students on a temporary residence card who need to pay rent, tuition and daily expenses locally.
- Long-stay residents who want e-wallets, VietQR payments and automatic utility debits instead of paying everything in cash.
- Anyone preparing to leave Vietnam who needs to convert and remit accumulated salary or savings abroad through a licensed bank.
What to bring
- Original passport, valid, with the page showing your current entry stamp — banks work from the original, not a copy.
- Valid visa, temporary residence card, or a document of equivalent value evidencing your lawful stay in Vietnam.
- Proof of your address in Vietnam — typically the lease agreement or the temporary residence declaration confirmation.
- Work permit or written confirmation of work permit exemption, where the account is opened as a payroll or longer-term product.
- Labour contract or a letter from the employer, when the employer opens payroll accounts for a group of staff.
- Vietnamese personal tax code, if you already have one — several banks record it on the customer file.
- A Vietnamese mobile number registered in your own name, since OTP and app authentication are bound to it.
- Yourself, in person, for the face capture — biometric enrolment is part of opening the account, not an optional extra.
How it works
- 1
Choose the bank and the product first
Eligibility rules for foreign customers are set by each bank within the State Bank framework, so the same passport can be accepted at one bank and refused at another. Before you go, ask the branch three questions: what minimum remaining stay they require, whether they support English-language app and statements, and whether that branch handles outbound remittance for individuals. Fees, minimum balances and card limits are published by each bank — take them from the bank's own tariff, not from forums.
- 2
Line up your papers and check their end dates
Banks read the expiry date on your visa or temporary residence card and normally tie the account and card validity to it. Make sure the name on the passport, the work permit, the lease and any existing tax code match character for character, including the order of given and family names. A mismatch discovered at the counter costs a second trip; a mismatch discovered later blocks incoming transfers.
- 3
Open at the counter and complete biometric verification
Circular 17/2024/TT-NHNN on opening and using payment accounts requires the bank to match your identity document and verify biometric data before the account can be used for cash withdrawal and electronic payment transactions. Vietnamese citizens can do this from the chip in their ID card or through VNeID; foreign customers usually cannot, because passport data is not held in the national population database, so the face capture is done at the branch. Budget one visit and bring the originals.
- 4
Activate the card, the app and the OTP channel
Ask for the debit card and digital banking in the same session so you do not repeat the identity check. The app will bind to the Vietnamese mobile number you registered — if that SIM is in a colleague's or landlord's name, you will lose access the moment the relationship ends. Test a small transfer and a small ATM withdrawal before you rely on the account for rent.
- 5
Link VietQR payments and an e-wallet
Most day-to-day payments in Vietnam run over interbank QR transfers from the banking app, which works as soon as the account is fully verified. Decree 52/2024/ND-CP on non-cash payments requires an e-wallet to be linked to a Vietnamese dong payment account or debit card belonging to the wallet holder at a linked bank — so the wallet must be in your own name, matching your own account. Wallets run their own foreigner onboarding rules on top of that.
- 6
Build the file you will need to remit money abroad
Decree 70/2014/ND-CP, which implements the Ordinance on Foreign Exchange, allows foreigners with lawful income in Vietnamese dong to buy foreign currency and transfer or carry it abroad, and requires the licensed bank to examine the documents evidencing the source of that money before executing the transfer. In practice that means keeping your labour contract, payslips, bank statements and personal income tax records from day one. Start the file when you open the account, not in your last week in the country.
Where people get stuck
- Name inconsistency across passport, work permit, tax code and lease. Vietnamese systems store the full name as one string; a transposed given name or a dropped middle name is enough to have an incoming transfer returned.
- Treating biometric enrolment as optional. Until identity matching and biometric verification are complete, the account cannot be used for cash withdrawal and electronic payments — the app may open but transactions will fail.
- Forgetting that the account follows the visa. When the temporary residence card or visa expires, banks commonly restrict the account until you bring in the renewed document — renew at immigration, then update the bank the same week.
- Using a SIM registered to someone else for OTP. If the number is not in your name you cannot re-issue it, cannot recover the app after changing phones, and cannot prove ownership to the bank.
- Expecting to remit a large sum abroad on request. The bank must see documents supporting the lawful source of the funds; a balance with no contract, payslips or tax record behind it will not be released.
- Letting anyone else use your account, or paying a broker to open one for you. Renting out or lending a payment account is a serious offence in Vietnam and will cost you the account and more.
Common questions
Can I open an account on a tourist or short business visa?
The law does not bar it outright, but each bank sets its own minimum remaining period of stay and its own risk rules, and many will only open a usable account for holders of a temporary residence card or a visa with substantial validity left. Ask two or three banks directly rather than assuming — the answer varies by bank and sometimes by branch.
Can I open the account online with eKYC, without going to a branch?
Online onboarding in Vietnam is built around the chip-based citizen ID card and the VNeID electronic identification account, neither of which a foreign passport holder normally has. Because the bank must still verify biometrics against a valid identity document, foreign customers are in practice asked to come to a branch for the face capture. Some banks let you pre-fill the form online and only attend for verification.
How much of my salary can I send home each month?
There is no single published personal ceiling to quote. Under Decree 70/2014/ND-CP the licensed bank examines the documents you present and releases what your evidence of lawful income supports, so the practical limit is the amount your contract, payslips, statements and tax records can substantiate. Confirm the document checklist with your own bank before the transfer date, as banks differ in what they ask for.
Do I need a Vietnamese tax code before I open the account?
Not to open the account itself, but you will need one for personal income tax, and several banks record it on the customer file. More to the point, the tax records generated under that code are the cleanest proof of lawful income when you later want to remit money abroad, so it is worth registering early rather than at the end of your assignment.
Official sources
- State Bank of Vietnam — official portal
- State Bank of Vietnam — what is new in the rules on opening and using payment accounts (Circular 17/2024/TT-NHNN)
- National Public Service Portal
- Official Gazette — Decree 52/2024/ND-CP on non-cash payments (e-wallets and payment accounts)
- Official Gazette — Decree 70/2014/ND-CP implementing the Ordinance on Foreign Exchange
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