Decree No. 143/2018/ND-CP dated October 15th, 2018 of the Government on elaborating on Law on Social Insurance and Law on Occupational Safety and Hygiene regarding compulsory social insurance for employees who are foreign nationals working in Vietnam

According to Clause 1 Article 2 of this Decree, foreign workers shall be required to participate in the compulsory social insurance (SI) in Vietnam when they sign employment contracts valid for at least one year and obtain work permits, practicing certificates, practicing licenses issued in Vietnam. This regulation means that any foreign worker that signs an employment contract for less than 1 year shall be exempt from participation in compulsory SI.

In addition, according to Clause 2 Article 2 of this Decree, foreign workers shall be also exempt from participation in compulsory SI in Vietnam when they are "intra-company transferees” as stipulated in Clause 1 Article 3 of Decree No. 11/2016/ND-CP or they “reach retirement age”.

SI contribution rates and benefits with regard to foreign workers are basically similar to those applied to Vietnamese workers. However, firstly, employers shall make a SI contribution in proportion to 3% of each foreign worker’s payroll, on which the social insurance payment is based, to pay into the sickness and parental insurance benefit fund and 0.5% of the payroll to pay into the occupational accident and disease benefit fund.

With regard to 22% paid into the retirement and death insurance benefit fund (employers pay 14% and foreign workers pay 8%) shall be only carried out from January 1st, 2022 (Article 13).

In case a foreign worker enters into multiple employment contracts, both the employee and the employer shall only have to pay SI contributions as agreed upon in the first employment contract. If wishing to participate in the occupational accident and disease insurance fund, the employee shall be required to pay SI contributions per each employment contract (Clause 4 Article 13)

Because foreign workers shall pay to retirement fund by 2022, thereby the retirement benefit shall be only calculated from 2022. Entitlement conditions and rates are similar to those given to Vietnamese workers. Particularly, with regard to one-off SI benefit entitlement, foreign workers must not wait for 1 year but they may receive one-off SI benefit entitlement right after their employment contracts are terminated (Article 9).

This Decree takes effect from December 1st, 2018.

The regulations provided in Article 9 (retirement benefit) and Article 10 (death benefit) of this Decree shall enter into force from January 1st, 2022.