DN Business Visa and e-visa rotation (Vietnam): Requirements
Vietnam residence route
DN Business Visa and e-visa rotation
What most foreign residents actually use, in the absence of a retirement category.
- Income threshold
- No income test
- Minimum age
- None
- Validity
- Up to 90 days for the e-visa, up to 12 months for a sponsored DN visa.
- Permanent residence
- None.
- Processing
- Days
The financial test in detail
No income test. A DN visa requires sponsorship by a Vietnamese company. The 90-day e-visa is available to Americans online without sponsorship.
What the status gives you
- Renewal
- In practice by leaving and re-entering, or through in-country extension where permitted. Policy on this has changed repeatedly.
- Work rights
- Not without a work permit.
- How much time you must spend there
- Not applicable.
- Citizenship
- None.
- Government fees
- Visa: 25 USD. The e-visa fee is about 25 dollars for single entry and 50 dollars for multiple entry.
Your document checklist for this route
3 documents in total, of which 0 need authentication: 0 through the U.S. Department of State and 0 through a Secretary of State.
- U.S. passport Identity and the physical book the visa is placed in. Lead time: Routine renewal takes weeks; check current published times
- Passport-format photographs Every application. Specifications differ by country and are enforced strictly. Lead time: Same day
- National long-stay visa application form The core filing. Almost always country-specific and often only valid if printed from the consulate portal. Lead time: Same day
Why applications on this route fail
- This is a rotation, not a residence. It gives you no security of tenure, no route to permanent status, and no protection if the policy changes, which it has done more than once.
- Do not build a retirement around it without accepting that you may have to leave at short notice.
Apply here
- Vietnam official e-visa portal The only legitimate e-visa site. Many lookalike sites charge large mark-ups.
- 1 Obtain the record Order certified copies from the issuing authority. Do not use photocopies, scans or hospital souvenir certificates.
- 2 Notarise if required Letters and affidavits need a notary acknowledgement before any state can authenticate them. Government-issued vital records do not.
- 3 County clerk (some states) A handful of states require the county clerk to certify the notary commission before the Secretary of State will act.
- 4 Authenticate State-issued documents go to the Secretary of State of the issuing state. Federal documents go to the U.S. Department of State Office of Authentications.
- 5 Apostille or legalise Hague Convention destination: an apostille finishes the chain. Non-Hague destination: the document then goes to that country embassy or consulate for legalisation. For Vietnam the apostille ends the chain.
- 6 Certified translation Translate the document together with its apostille. Translating first means paying twice.
- 7 File with the consulate Book the appointment at the consulate with jurisdiction over your state of residence and bring originals plus copies.
The expensive mistake: translating before the document is authenticated. The apostille or legalisation certificate is itself part of what the receiving government reads, so it has to be inside the translation. Do it the other way round and you pay for the same translation twice.
DN Business Visa and e-visa rotation: common questions
How much income do I need for the DN Business Visa and e-visa rotation?
There is no published income test on this route. No income test. A DN visa requires sponsorship by a Vietnamese company. The 90-day e-visa is available to Americans online without sponsorship.
Can I work on this visa?
Not without a work permit. This is the field applicants most often misread, and in several countries remote work for a U.S. employer counts as work performed locally.
What documents need an apostille?
For this route we count 0 documents needing authentication: 0 federal, through the U.S. Department of State, and 0 state-issued, through the Secretary of State of the issuing state. Vietnam is a Hague Convention country, so an apostille completes the chain.
How long does it take?
Days
How much time must I spend in the country?
Not applicable.
Does it lead to permanent residence?
Permanent residence: None.. Citizenship: None..
Verified Sep 7, 2026
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We will send your plan and document checklist as a plain-text email you can forward to a spouse or an attorney. No account, no drip sequence.
This resource is provided free by Federal Apostille as an educational tool. It is not legal, tax, immigration or financial advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created by using it. Immigration rules, income thresholds, fees and processing times change frequently and often without notice, and consulates apply them differently. Always confirm current requirements with the official government source and the specific consulate that has jurisdiction over your U.S. state of residence before you act. Every figure on this site carries the date we last verified it and a link to the primary source.
