Temporary Residence Registration in Vietnam: Who Files It, and By When (2026)

You don't file your own temporary residence declaration. Your accommodation does, to the local police. Online, it is filed as soon as you arrive. On paper, it is delivered within 12 hours of arrival (24 in remote areas). Your part is to show your passport and residence papers; if you do not, you can be fined.

If you are a foreigner staying at a hotel, guesthouse or rental in Vietnam, you do not do this paperwork yourself, because it goes through the person running the accommodation. This page says “declared” for what is also called registered: your temporary residence must be declared through the person who directly manages or runs the accommodation, to the local commune-level police (ward, commune or special-zone police, or a police post).

Which case are you?

• If you are checking in at a hotel, guesthouse or rental → show your passport (or other valid international travel document) and your papers related to residence in Vietnam. The accommodation must require them before it agrees to let you stay, and it files the declaration, not you.
• If you are renting an apartment or house → the landlord counts as the accommodation provider and files the declaration. The filer is the accommodation’s owner, its legal representative or an authorised person. You show your passport and residence papers, and the clock runs from the moment you arrive at the address.
• If you want to know how fast it must be filed → online, as soon as you arrive; on paper, the form is first sent to the police at once. It must then be delivered within 12 hours of your arrival, or 24 in remote areas. This deadline is the accommodation’s, not yours.
• If you are moving to a new place or your passport details change → the declaration is filed again through the accommodation.
• If your accommodation is run by an individual (not a company) and fails to declare you → that individual host is fined 3,000,000-5,000,000 VND for 1 to 3 undeclared guests. You can be fined in the same range if you did not show your passport or papers to the accommodation.
• If police visit and you are not registered → the accommodation is fined for not declaring you. Decree 282/2025/NĐ-CP fines a guest for not presenting papers to the accommodation or to an officer, or for not carrying them. The decree names no fine for a guest who presented papers but was not declared. See police checks on foreigners in Vietnam.
• If you want to stay longer in Vietnam → this declaration is not an extension; your sponsor files that, see how to extend a visa in Da Nang.

Still open: whether a guest who showed their papers can still be fined when the accommodation skips the declaration. Whether a guest gets a copy of the confirmed form is open too.

Who actually declares you

The accommodation is responsible for filing the declaration, either electronically or on a paper form, and the law defines the person who declares as its owner, its legal representative, or an authorised person. Before it agrees to let you stay at all, it has to ask for your passport (or other valid international travel document) and your residence-related papers.

Booking through an online platform does not change who files: the accommodation’s owner, legal representative or authorised person still files.

The deadline and how it’s filed

If the accommodation files electronically, Circular 87/2026 requires the declaration as soon as you arrive. If it uses a paper form instead, it must fill in Form NA17 completely and accurately, and it is the accommodation, not you, that fills it in.

The accommodation must first send the form to the commune-level police straight away, by a suitable means of communication, and then hand it in directly within 12 hours of your arrival, or within 24 hours in remote areas.

Online filing has its own government procedure, code 1.001437. Filed that way, the declaration is accepted 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and no fee is published for it. Commune-level police take paper forms around the clock too.

Who keeps the confirmed form

When a paper declaration is used, the police check it, ask for anything missing, confirm it and make a copy. They hand the confirmed form straight back to the declarant, who is legally the accommodation’s owner, legal representative or authorised person, not you personally. That provision names no copy for the guest, so the record of where you were declared sits with the accommodation that filed it.

Proof you were declared, and an accommodation that will not file

Keep proof. On a paper filing, the commune-level police confirm the NA17 form, keep a copy and hand the confirmed form back to the person who filed it, who is the owner, the legal representative or someone they authorise, not you. So the proof sits with the accommodation; ask it for a photo of the confirmed form. An electronic filing must be made as soon as you arrive, and the police system accepts it around the clock.

Signs of a compliant accommodation:

• It asks to see your passport and residence papers before you stay.
• It files electronically, or fills in form NA17 completely.
• A paper form is sent to the police straight away, and the form itself delivered within 12 hours, or 24 in remote areas.

If the accommodation says no filing is needed. You cannot file on your own, because the declaration is the accommodation’s job and the fine for skipping it falls on the accommodation too. A guest who does not show papers to the accommodation is fined under the same clause as an accommodation that skips the filing for 1 to 3 guests. If the accommodation refuses to file, stay somewhere that does.

If anything changes

If you change where you are staying, or, if you hold a permanent residence card, stay somewhere other than the address on it, the declaration is filed again through the accommodation, and the same applies if your passport details change.

The rule behind this, and what changed in 2026

The underlying duty comes from Law 47/2014/QH13, Article 33, in its latest consolidated text. How the declaration is carried out sits in a separate circular: Circular 87/2026/TT-BCA, in force from 24 July 2026, replaced the older Circular 53/2016/TT-BCA.

Fines for not declaring

An accommodation run by an individual is fined for not declaring guests:

• 3,000,000-5,000,000 VND for 1 to 3 undeclared foreign guests.
• 10,000,000-15,000,000 VND for 4 to 8 undeclared foreign guests.
• 15,000,000-20,000,000 VND for 9 or more undeclared foreign guests.

An organisation that commits the same violation is fined double these rates. A household or registered household business is fined at the individual rate.

The first of the three bands above also applies to you as a guest. If you don’t present your passport or Vietnam-residence papers to the accommodation so it can complete the declaration, you face the same 3,000,000-5,000,000 VND band under that clause.

If police check and you are not registered

As of 18 July 2026, police may carry out regular or surprise residence inspections at rented homes and tourist accommodation, under rules from 1 July 2026. A foreigner must present a passport or international travel document and the papers related to residence in Vietnam when an authority asks. Who is fined depends on what failed:

A missing declaration is the accommodation’s offence. For what officers check and what to show, read police checks on foreigners in Vietnam.

How this differs from extending your stay (gia hạn tạm trú)

This declaration is not the same thing as extending your temporary stay, which is a separate procedure. You must ask your inviting or sponsoring organisation or individual to file it with the immigration authority or the competent Ministry of Foreign Affairs office. See how to extend a visa in Da Nang for how that process works, and Vietnam immigration fees for what it costs.

How this differs from a temporary residence card

It’s also not the same as a temporary residence card (TRC). The immigration authority, or the competent Ministry of Foreign Affairs office, issues the card to a foreigner permitted to reside in Vietnam for a fixed period, and it is valid in place of a visa.

You apply through its own procedure, which states a processing time of 5 working days from the day the office receives the complete file. Read temporary residence card in Vietnam: how to get one in Da Nang for that procedure. Or start from the Da Nang immigration office guide and the visa cluster hub for everything else in this area.

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Not confirmed: Whether you can be fined yourself if you present your documents and the accommodation still fails to declare you.

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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