Vietnam golden visa: no, it has not launched

Vietnam has not launched a golden visa. As of 26 September 2026 there is no decree, no application channel and no fee for one. The "golden visa" in the headlines is a proposal that a tourism advisory body sent to the Prime Minister in March 2025, and it has not moved into law since.

What Vietnam has done is pass several real visa changes in the last eighteen months. Those changes cause most of the confusion, because each one was written up somewhere as the golden visa finally arriving. We sort them out below, with a date for every rule, so you can tell which one applies to you and which one is only a headline.

Does Vietnam have a golden visa in 2026?

No. The long stay golden visa exists only as a recommendation. On 29 June 2026 there was still no decree number and no National Assembly schedule, and we see no sign that it will launch in 2026. On 20 August 2026 the legal options for a long stay still did not include a golden visa.

A visa in Vietnam becomes real when a law or a government decree with a number creates it, and when the Immigration Department opens a way to apply. The golden visa has neither. Until it has both, we would not plan a move, a budget or a lease around it.

What was actually proposed, and by whom?

The Tourism Advisory Board proposed it, and that board is not an immigration authority. On 25 March 2025 it wrote to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, asking for a golden visa valid five to ten years, to be piloted in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phu Quoc and Da Nang. The letter reached the press on 16 April 2025. By July 2025 the idea had settled into this shape: a renewable five to ten year visa for people making economic, scientific or cultural contributions, broader than the existing investor categories.

The board's argument was about tourism. It warned that Thailand and Malaysia already offer long stay options and that Vietnam risked falling behind in the luxury travel market. That is a lobbying position, not a rule. The Tourism Advisory Board can recommend. Only the National Assembly and the Government can legislate.

What are the Vietnam golden visa requirements?

There are none, because there is no golden visa. The 2025 proposal did not publish an investment amount, an income floor or a list of documents, and no ministry has issued implementing rules since. Any website that lists "Vietnam golden visa requirements" with a price is describing something else, usually one of the investor visas below, or inventing the numbers.

This matters for your money. If an agent offers to process a Vietnam golden visa, ask for the decree number and the government page where the application is filed. Without both, you are being sold a different visa under a nicer name, or nothing. We would end the call there.

Is the Vietnam investor visa a golden visa?

No, but it is the closest real thing. Vietnam has issued investor visas for years, and a good share of "golden visa" articles describe them without saying so. The four tiers, as they stood in July 2025:

These visas are tied to real capital in an operating Vietnamese business, not a fee paid to a portal. As of April 2025, the existing DT classes require active business involvement, unlike the passive investment behind European golden visas. Calling DT3 a golden visa is not quite false. Describing it without its VND 3 billion floor is how people end up on a sales call. If you run a company and want to build something in Vietnam, look at these visas. If you want a residence permit in exchange for a transfer, they are the wrong tool.

Is the five year talent card the golden visa?

No. The talent card is a real document with a narrow list of holders. Decree 221/2025/ND-CP, signed on 8 August 2025 and in force since 15 August 2025, created a special visa exemption card valid up to five years, with multiple entries. The categories, as listed in November 2025: academics and scientists, highly skilled digital technology professionals, investors and executives of major companies, public figures in culture, arts and sport, and guests invited by approved institutions.

Each stay on the card is capped at 90 days, and its validity must end at least 30 days before the passport does. A draft of the same scheme circulated in 2025, and coverage of that draft fed a lot of "ten year golden visa" headlines. Earning well from a laptop does not put you on the list. We cover the card in more depth in our post on whether Vietnam has a digital nomad visa yet.

Is the UD1 visa a golden visa or a nomad visa?

Neither. Law 118/2025/QH15, in force since 1 July 2026, added UD1 and UD2 to Vietnam's immigration law. UD1 is for high quality personnel in the digital technology industry, UD2 for their spouses and children under 18, with visas of up to five years. Processing is capped at three working days. UD1 is not aimed at remote workers, freelancers or self employed people with foreign clients. A Vietnamese sponsor stands behind every file, so without a Vietnamese employer you can stop reading about UD1.

How do you check a Vietnam golden visa headline?

Four questions sort almost any screenshot in a couple of minutes:

1. Does the article name a law or decree number? No number usually means a proposal or a rewrite.
2. Has the effective date passed? A signed text with a future date is not yet something you can apply for.
3. Who is the source? A tourism board, a hotel group or a visa agency can recommend or sell. Only the Government, the National Assembly and the Immigration Department decide.
4. Is there an application channel? Real visas are filed on a government portal or through a named sponsor, and the fee is published.

Run the golden visa through that list and it fails at the first question. Run the talent card through it and it passes, but only for people in its categories. UD1 passes too, for sponsored hires.

What can a remote worker use today?

For nearly everyone, the e-visa. The Vietnam Immigration Department portal issues it to every nationality for up to 90 days, at USD 25 for single entry or USD 50 for multiple entry, processed in three working days. The fees come from Circular 28/2026/TT-BTC, effective 1 April 2026. It cannot be extended inside Vietnam, so plan your exit before you plan your second quarter.

Some passports skip the visa for 45 days. Resolution 44/NQ-CP covers 12 countries, including Germany, France and the United Kingdom, for any purpose from 15 March 2025 to 14 March 2028. Resolution 229/NQ-CP covers 12 more European countries, tourism only, from 15 August 2025 to 14 August 2028. Americans and Australians are on neither list, as our post on the Vietnam visa exemption list explains.

Our visa check tool sorts your passport against these dated rules in under a minute, and the destination comparison sets Vietnam next to Thailand and Portugal, where long stay visas do exist.

If a golden visa arrives with a decree number and an application page, we will rewrite this post the same week. Until then: the e-visa is 90 days, the talent card is for listed talent, UD1 is for sponsored hires, and the golden visa is a proposal.

Updated on 26 September 2026. Rules and prices change: confirm with the official source linked above before you act.