How to Open a Bank Account in Vietnam as a Foreigner (2026)

A foreigner opening a Vietnamese bank account needs a passport or another foreign-issued identity document. If you reside in Vietnam, add an entry visa, a Temporary Residence Card or other visa-equivalent document, or visa-exemption proof, under Circular 17/2024/TT-NHNN as amended by Circular 25/2025/TT-NHNN. The bank may ask for more but must say which.

A foreigner needs a passport or another foreign-issued identity document. If you reside in Vietnam, add an entry visa, a Temporary Residence Card or visa-exemption proof. Find your case below. The rules come from Circular 17/2024/TT-NHNN, the State Bank of Vietnam’s rule on opening and using payment accounts, as amended by Circular 25/2025/TT-NHNN.

Which case are you?

• If you live in Vietnam on a visa or visa exemption → bring your passport plus the entry visa or proof of visa exemption. The bank records the passport expiry date and the entry-visa number.
• If you hold a Temporary Residence Card → bring the card with your passport. The card is valid in place of a visa, so it counts as the visa-side document on the checklist. If you are permitted to reside for 12 months or longer, you count as a resident and can credit a foreign-currency account with salary, bonus or allowance.
• If you are a tourist on a short visa or e-visa → the circular adds a visa-side document only for a foreigner residing in Vietnam. Whether a bank accepts a tourist is not confirmed, so ask the branch before you go. If it says no, use cash from a foreign card at an ATM, see ATM fees for foreign cards, or transfers, see sending money to Vietnam.
• If you are abroad right now → the bank may verify your identity through a third party or another organisation. The identity document is still a passport or another foreign-issued identity document.
• If you want a joint account, or a child under 15 needs one → plan on a branch visit. Electronic opening does not apply to a joint account. A child under 15 opens through a legal representative, and electronic opening does not apply to that either.

Still open: whether a tourist counts as residing, whether a bank opens accounts for short-stay visitors, whether a bank offers electronic opening to foreigners. Ask the branch you pick.

Resident or non-resident — which one are you?

A foreigner permitted to reside in Vietnam for 12 months or longer is a resident. If you’re in Vietnam to study, receive medical treatment, or travel, you’re not a resident regardless of how long you stay.

The same applies if you work for a foreign diplomatic mission, consulate, a representative office of an international organisation, or a representative office of a foreign organisation in Vietnam. Anyone who doesn’t fall under that resident definition is a non-resident.

This test decides which foreign-currency and dong-account rules apply to you further down this page. It’s a separate question from tax residency, covered on the tax residency page.

Documents the bank needs from you

Under Circular 25/2025/TT-NHNN, the file for an individual client who is a foreigner must contain a passport, or another identity-proving document issued by a competent foreign authority. If you reside in Vietnam, you must additionally have an entry visa, a document with visa-equivalent value, or proof that you’re exempt from a visa.

The circular does not tie “reside in Vietnam” on this checklist to the resident test above. The circular also lists an electronic identity, accessed through a level-2 electronic identification account, as an alternative to the passport line.

Law 47/2014/QH13 defines a Temporary Residence Card as valid in place of a visa, so it satisfies that same line on the checklist. The same line also accepts an e-visa, the visa whose symbol is EV, or proof of a visa exemption.

A bank may require extra documents beyond these, but it must tell you which ones and give specific guidance.

The account record itself has to carry more than the opening documents:

• your full name, date of birth, nationality, occupation or position, and phone number
• your passport number or foreign-issued identity information, plus its issue date, issuing place and expiry date
• your foreigner identification number, if you have one
• your entry-visa number, or the number of the document substituting it, unless you’re visa-exempt
• your address of residence abroad, and the address you registered in Vietnam if you reside here
• whether you’re classed as a resident or a non-resident

Registering an address in Vietnam is its own step, covered in temporary residence registration for who files it and by when.

Individuals who can open a payment account at a bank or foreign bank branch include anyone aged 15 or older. They must not be restricted in, or deprived of, civil-act capacity under Vietnamese law. A person under 15, or restricted in or deprived of civil-act capacity, opens through a legal representative. A person with difficulty in cognition or controlling behaviour opens through a guardian.

What happens to the account when your identity papers expire?

Your account stays tied to your identity papers: the bank must track their validity period, and that of anyone else linked to the account, for as long as the payment account is in use. It must notify you at least 30 days before the expiry date.

Where your identity papers have expired, or their period of use has ended, the bank must suspend payment transactions and cash withdrawals on the account.

Branch or online (eKYC)? Plan on the branch

Electronic opening doesn’t apply to a joint payment account. It also doesn’t apply to a client who opens through a legal representative or guardian. That covers a child under 15 and a person restricted in civil-act capacity. Foreigners aren’t named in that list of exclusions, but whether banks offer electronic opening to foreigners is not confirmed, so plan on a branch visit.

Electronic opening falls under Article 15a or Article 16 of the circular. Any other way, the bank must meet a passport holder in person. It checks the passport and matches the holder’s biometric information against the data shown on it. Where the account holder is a foreigner who isn’t present in Vietnam, the bank may instead verify identifying information through a third party or by engaging another organisation.

Biometric checks

For electronic opening, the circular requires the bank to check the lawfulness and validity of your identification documents. The bank must also match the account holder’s biometric information against the encrypted chip of a police-issued identity card. The alternative is the holder’s own electronic identification account. Alternatively it may match biometric data it has collected and checked against one of those two.

Whether electronic opening is open to foreigners in practice is not confirmed; see the note under this article.

Foreign-currency accounts

If you’re a resident foreigner, Circular 16/2014/TT-NHNN lets you credit a foreign-currency account with money transferred in from abroad. You can also credit salary, bonus, or allowance payments, or foreign currency bought using lawful Vietnamese-dong income. You can debit it to withdraw foreign-currency cash or transfer money abroad.

If you’re a non-resident, you can credit a foreign-currency account with money transferred in from abroad, or with salary, bonus, or allowance payments. You can also credit it with foreign currency bought using lawful dong income. You can debit it to withdraw foreign-currency cash, transfer it abroad, or move it to another non-resident’s foreign-currency account.

For Vietnamese-dong accounts, a non-resident organisation or individual, and a resident individual who is a foreigner, can credit the account from:

• selling foreign currency to a licensed credit institution
• lawful dong income in Vietnam, including payment for goods or services, salary, bonus, allowance, and fees

The same account holders can debit it to pay for goods and services, or to withdraw cash to spend in Vietnam. They can also debit it to buy foreign currency at a licensed credit institution to send abroad.

The circular’s rules on payment accounts cover banks and foreign bank branches. For the other paperwork that tends to come up around the same time as a Vietnamese bank account, see driving in Vietnam as a foreigner. See also the rest of the money and paperwork cluster.

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Not confirmed: Whether a tourist on a short visa or visa exemption counts as "residing in Vietnam" on the document checklist, and whether each bank opens accounts for short-stay visitors. Ask the branch before you go. Whether banks offer electronic opening to a foreigner with an electronic identification account. Ask your bank.

General information checked against the sources listed above, not legal advice for your situation. Rules and office practice change; confirm with the immigration office or a licensed adviser before you act. See how guides are checked.

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