Employer of Record · EOR Vietnam
Your company is based overseas, you want to hire people who work in Vietnam, but you have no legal entity here. Nhan Kiet becomes the employer of record: we sign the employment contract, pay social insurance, file personal income tax and run monthly payroll. You keep full control over the work and day-to-day management.
Who it is for
The common thread: you need people working in Vietnam, but setting up an entity here is too slow, too expensive or simply not necessary yet.
Technology companies hiring Vietnamese developers, engineers and operations staff to work remotely for headquarters in the US, Europe or Singapore.
You want to hire 1–5 sales representatives, technical consultants or market managers before committing to a full investment and a local company.
Deployment projects, quality inspection or supplier oversight in Vietnam running 6–24 months — when the project ends, everything closes down cleanly.
Your entity is still going through the licensing process but your hires need to start now — an EOR bridges the transition period.
How it works
You keep full professional authority; Nhan Kiet shoulders every legal and administrative obligation in Vietnam.
Both sides agree the scope, the salary for each role, the benefits package and the service fee. The contract is signed remotely, in English or bilingually.
An employment contract compliant with Vietnamese law, personal tax code registration, social insurance enrolment and a payroll bank account for each employee.
They report directly to your manager and use your tools and processes — exactly like an in-house team member.
Nhan Kiet pays salaries, remits insurance and taxes on time, and sends you a transparent breakdown: gross salary, insurance contributions, tax and service fee.
Annual leave, sick leave and maternity benefits per Vietnamese law; at the end, Nhan Kiet handles the termination formalities, closes the insurance book and finalises tax exactly as the regulations require.
A straight comparison
Nhan Kiet spells out the strengths and the limits of every option, including the ones that are not our own service.
| Criterion | Set up your own entity in Vietnam | Hire freelancers | Nhan Kiet EOR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to start | 2–6 months | A few days | 5–7 working days |
| Up-front cost | High: capital, licences, accounting, office | Close to zero | No entity set-up cost |
| Legally valid employment contract | Yes | No — service contract only | Yes, signed by Nhan Kiet |
| Social and health insurance for staff | You handle it | None | Paid in full by Nhan Kiet |
| Personal income tax | You file it | The worker self-files — error-prone | Filed and remitted by Nhan Kiet |
| Risk of worker reclassification | None | High — back-payments and penalties possible | None |
| When you want to stop | Dissolving the entity: complex and slow | Stop immediately | End the service agreement |
| Best suited to | Large scale, long-term investment, a factory | Short-term, occasional work | 1–50 employees, compliant and fast |
If you plan to build a factory or hire more than 100 people long term, setting up your own entity is usually the better economics — Nhan Kiet is happy to advise and hand over when you reach that stage.
All inclusive
Frequently asked questions
An Employer of Record (EOR) is a model in which Nhan Kiet becomes the legal employer on paper, signing the employment contract directly with your Vietnamese staff, while your company keeps full control over their day-to-day work and professional management. The key difference: an EOR is for companies that do NOT yet have a legal entity in Vietnam, whereas a PEO (Professional Employer Organization) is a co-employment model and requires you to already have a company in Vietnam. If you are not yet registered as a business in Vietnam, the EOR model is the right fit.
Yes, through an EOR. A foreign company with no legal entity in Vietnam cannot sign employment contracts on its own, cannot register employees for social insurance and cannot file personal income tax for Vietnamese employees. With our EOR service you sign a service agreement with Nhan Kiet, Nhan Kiet signs the employment contract with your staff and carries out every obligation in Vietnam. You do not need to set up a company, open a bank account or register as an employer.
The biggest risk is worker reclassification. When someone works full time, on your schedule and under your direction, the authorities may determine that this is an employment relationship rather than an independent service contract, leading to back-payment of social insurance and personal income tax with interest, plus penalties. On top of that, workers without a formal contract tend to be less committed, and you have no legal basis to protect your intellectual property or enforce confidentiality. An EOR puts the relationship on its true footing and makes it fully compliant.
Typically 5–7 working days from the moment both sides agree the service contract and you provide the candidate's details. Compared with setting up your own legal entity in Vietnam — usually 2–6 months for the investment registration certificate, business registration, company seal, bank account, tax registration and social insurance registration — an EOR is far faster and carries no ongoing cost of maintaining an entity.
You do, entirely. The employee reports directly to your manager, works to your processes and tools, and joins your meetings and performance reviews just like an in-house team member. Nhan Kiet only takes on the employer-of-record side: employment contract, payroll, social insurance, personal income tax, annual leave, sick leave and maternity benefits, and termination formalities when needed.
The cost has three transparent parts on a single monthly invoice: the employee's gross salary as agreed with you, the mandatory employer-side insurance contributions (21.5% of the salary used as the contribution base) and the EOR service fee per person per month. No company set-up fee, no cost of maintaining an entity, no hidden charges. Call 0908 636 108 for a quote based on your headcount and expected salary levels.
🎁 New client offer: bulk ID-to-tax-code verification · validation of employee bank account numbers · your first 50 electronic employment contracts free — see the details
Tell Nhan Kiet the headcount, the roles and your expected salary range — we will send a detailed quote together with a draft service agreement in English.
