18 tips for doing business in Ho Chi Minh City that foreign companies learn the hard way

Before you arrive

• 1. Decide what you actually need to registerNot every activity needs a Vietnamese company on day one. A representative office can market, research and coordinate but cannot sign revenue contracts or issue invoices. A limited liability company with foreign capital can trade, hire and invoice, and it takes roughly one to three months depending on the business lines and the province. Many companies start by buying and renting through a local partner while the entity is registered, then switch contracts to their own tax code. Decide which of the three you need before you book flights, because it changes every step that follows.
• 2. Get your documents legalised earlyParent-company documents (certificate of incorporation, audited accounts, passport copies of the legal representative, board resolutions) usually need notarisation, consular legalisation and certified Vietnamese translation. That chain can take two to four weeks abroad and it blocks everything. Start it before the market visit, not after.
• 3. Budget in VND, quote in USD, sign in VietnameseDomestic contracts and invoices are in Vietnamese dong. Head office approvals usually happen in USD or the parent currency. The workable pattern is a USD quotation for approval, a Vietnamese-language contract with a bilingual annex, and a VND VAT e-invoice for payment. Agree the exchange-rate reference in the contract, not later by email.

Meetings, relationships and communication

• 4. The first meeting is about the relationship, the second is about the dealComing straight to price and terms reads as rushed. Expect an opening meeting that covers your company history, the team, the factory, and lunch. Business follows once people are comfortable. Budget one extra visit into the plan; it usually saves two rounds of email later.
• 5. Zalo is where business actually happensEmail is for formal documents. Day-to-day coordination, photos from the line, delivery confirmations and quick approvals happen on Zalo, and WhatsApp for foreign staff. If your procurement team refuses to use a messenger, expect slower answers than your competitors get. Save the numbers of the people who actually do the work, not only the manager.
• 6. Bring a decision maker, or say clearly who is oneVietnamese counterparts read seniority carefully. Sending someone who must check everything with head office is fine if you say so at the start and give a realistic turnaround. Silence after a meeting is usually interpreted as a soft no.
• 7. Write numbers down in both languagesConfusion between lakh-style groupings, dots and commas, and VND versus USD is the single most common source of quotation errors. Write 1.500.000 VND and USD 60 in the same line, in the contract and in the chat message.

Money, invoices and compliance

• 8. No VAT e-invoice, no expense claimUnder Decree 123/2020 almost every legitimate business expense in Vietnam comes with an electronic VAT invoice issued against your company tax code. If a supplier cannot issue one, the cost may not be deductible and your finance team will reject it at audit. Ask for the tax code and invoice capability before you order, not when you pay.
• 9. Keep the red-invoice details exactCompany name, address and tax code on the invoice must match your business registration character for character. A wrong district or a missing ‘Co., Ltd’ means a cancelled invoice and a re-issue, which takes days.
• 10. Open the bank account before you need itA foreign-invested company needs a direct investment capital account for capital contributions and a current account for operations. Both take longer than people expect, need the legal representative in person, and hold up the first payroll and the first supplier payment. Start in parallel with the licence, not after it.
• 11. Understand what your goods actually cost to landImport duty depends on HS code and origin, and Vietnam’s free-trade agreements (EVFTA, CPTPP, ATIGA, RCEP, UKVFTA) can cut duty to zero if you have a valid certificate of origin. Ten minutes of HS-code checking before you order can be worth several percent of the invoice. Ask suppliers for the HS code and CO/CQ documents in writing.

People and place

• 12. Plan around Tết, not into itTết, the lunar new year, stops the country for one to two weeks in late January or February, and the two weeks either side run at reduced speed. Factories lose staff who travel home and some do not return. Never schedule a commissioning deadline, an audit or a first shipment across Tết, and place orders for imported goods well before December.
• 13. Hire for English plus attitude, train the restTechnical staff in Ho Chi Minh City are capable and inexpensive relative to the region, but strong technical English is the scarce commodity. Companies that hire a good engineer with average English and invest in language training usually do better than those that pay a premium for fluent English and weaker engineering. Salaries move fast in electronics and semiconductor: benchmark twice a year.
• 14. Pick the district before you sign the office leaseDistrict 1 is the head-office address and the client-meeting address. Thảo Điền and Phú Mỹ Hưng are where foreign families live. Thủ Đức and the Hi-Tech Park sit next to the electronics plants. Bình Dương and Đồng Nai are where the factories are. A twenty-minute difference on the map can be an hour in traffic at 5pm, and it decides whether your staff stay. Our city guide has a page for each district.
• 15. House your team properly and they stay longerServiced apartments for short assignments, family apartments or houses for relocations. Ask whether the landlord can issue a VAT invoice to the company, and register temporary residence with the ward police within the legal window. This is an administrative detail that becomes a visa problem if ignored.

Operations and equipment

• 16. Do not import what you can rent locallyBringing an oscilloscope or a thermal camera through customs for a six-week commissioning job costs weeks of lead time, duty, and a temporary-import procedure. Renting the same instrument locally puts it on your bench the next day with a valid calibration certificate and a VAT invoice. Keep imports for what genuinely has no local source. See what we keep in stock.
• 17. Ask who issues the certificate, alwaysFor calibration, testing and inspection, the accreditation belongs to a specific laboratory and a specific measurement range, not to a company logo. Ask which laboratory issues the certificate and whether your measurement is on its published scope. Our guide to calibration services in Ho Chi Minh City explains how to check in ten minutes.
• 18. Build one relationship per function, then keep itOne customs broker, one equipment partner, one printer, one recruiter, one accountant. Vietnamese business runs on continuity: the second order is always easier than the first, and a supplier who knows your plant will solve a Friday evening problem that a marketplace vendor will not. Pay on time and you will be surprised what becomes possible.

The three mistakes that cost the most

1. Assuming the head-office timeline applies. Licences, bank accounts and legalisation each take longer than the equivalent step at home. Run them in parallel and add a buffer before Tết.
2. Paying without an invoice. It feels faster and it fails at audit.
3. Treating the first quote as the market price. Get two or three, ask what is included, and compare delivery and documentation rather than only the number.

FAQ