Family & Spouse Visas in Vietnam
Sponsoring a partner, children, or parents
Family routes rest on the sponsorship of a Vietnamese citizen or of a foreigner already holding a work permit or residence card. The most valuable provision is not a visa at all: overseas Vietnamese and their foreign spouses and children can obtain a visa exemption certificate valid for up to five years, which removes the visa requirement entirely and is consistently underused.
| Relative of a Vietnamese citizen | TT visa, sponsored by the citizen or permit holder source |
| Dependant of a worker | TT visa for spouse and children under 18 |
| Visa exemption certificate | Up to 5 years, for overseas Vietnamese and their spouses and children source |
| Stay per entry under exemption | Commonly up to 6 months at a time |
| Spouse of a citizen | Within the work permit exemption categories source |
The TT category
The TT visa is issued to the spouse and to children under eighteen of a Vietnamese citizen, and to the same relatives of a foreigner who holds a work permit or a temporary residence card. It is sponsored, so the file is filed by the Vietnamese relative or by the employer, and the duration granted follows the sponsor's own status.
A TT holder is commonly granted a temporary residence card rather than repeated visa extensions where the underlying status is long enough. The card does not by itself authorise employment, with the notable exception that a spouse of a Vietnamese citizen falls within the work permit exemption categories and can therefore work without a permit once the exemption is confirmed.
The five-year visa exemption certificate
This provision is the strongest family-based option in Vietnamese law and the least used. People of Vietnamese origin who hold foreign nationality, together with their foreign spouses and children, may apply for a certificate of visa exemption valid for up to five years, subject to the remaining validity of the passport.
The holder enters without applying for a visa each time and is commonly permitted a stay of up to six months per entry, extendable inside the country. It does not confer residence or the right to work, and it does not lead to permanent residence, but for a family with Vietnamese ancestry it removes the single largest recurring friction of living in the country.
Applications are made through Vietnamese diplomatic missions abroad or through the immigration authority inside the country, with evidence of Vietnamese origin — old identity papers, birth records, family registers — or of marriage to a person of Vietnamese origin.
What family status does not do
- It does not shorten the permanent residence conditions for most applicants, which continue to require long continuous residence and a sponsor.
- It does not create an automatic right to work, other than through the spouse-of-citizen exemption.
- Vietnam does not generally accept dual nationality, so naturalising through marriage normally requires renouncing the existing nationality, subject to narrow exceptions granted by the President.
- Children born in Vietnam to two foreign parents do not acquire Vietnamese nationality by birth.
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Official sources
Checked against these pages in September 2026. Fees and processing times change without notice — confirm before you act.