Declare temporary residence for foreigners

When foreigners enter Vietnam, besides having to have a visa/temporary residence card to be able to reside in Vietnam legally, they also need to declare their temporary residence to the police of communes, wards, towns or police stations where foreigners stay (including tourist accommodations, guest houses, housing areas for foreigners to work, study, medical examination and treatment establishments, private houses,… collectively referred to as “accommodation establishment”). The declaration of temporary residence must be made within 12-24 hours (depending on the region) from the time the foreigner arrives at the Accommodation.

The responsibility for declaring temporary residence belongs to the representative of the accommodation establishment or an authorized person who is assigned to directly manage and operate the accommodation establishment. For accommodation establishments whose owners do not reside there, but are rented by foreigners for long-term stay or whose houses are purchased by foreigners, the person named in the lease or house purchase contract has responsible for making declaration of temporary residence for foreigners temporarily residing at such Accommodation (collectively referred to as “Owner of Accommodation”).

Be noted that, although the declaration of temporary residence is the responsibility of the Accommodation Owner, failure to declare temporary residence will affect many administrative procedures related to foreigners because the Form of Declaration about Temporary residence for foreigners with a valid term and certified by a competent police agency is one of the required documents when carrying out these procedures, such as:  

• Procedures for issuing new visa/temporary residence cards. 
• Procedures for granting Vietnamese judicial record cards to foreigners; and 
• Affect the process of granting work permits to foreigners in case foreigners do not have a Vietnamese criminal record card (and do not have a criminal record card issued by a foreign country to replace it).

In addition, depending on each case, both the Owner of the Accommodation and the foreigners may be sanctioned for administrative violations; foreigners can be deported from Vietnam. The foreigners, hence, need to work on this issue with the owner of the accommodation establishment so that he/she can promptly declare their temporary residence to avoid affecting the work of foreigners in Vietnam.