Teaching English in Da Nang: Legal Steps for Foreigners

To teach English in Da Nang you need two separate things: a teacher qualification that meets the centre standard and a work permit your employer applies for unless you are exempt. Working on a tourist visa breaks the rule that your activity must match your purpose of entry, and deportation is a possible additional penalty.

Two rules apply together: Article 18 of Circular 21/2018/TT-BGDĐT sets who counts as a qualified centre teacher, and Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP sets the work permit your employer applies for. Teaching on a tourist entry or visa exemption is a fineable breach, with fines from VND 15 million to 25 million depending on the breach.

The surprise is that the circular’s bar is a college degree, while the work permit’s expert route asks for a university degree plus 2 years of relevant experience, so check the permit test first. Read literally, a teacher with only one year of experience meets neither the expert test nor the technical worker test.

What standard must a foreign teacher meet at a language centre?

A foreign teacher qualifies by meeting one of three standards, each starting from a college-level degree.

• A college-level or higher foreign-language teaching degree.
• A college-level or higher foreign-language degree plus a suitable language-teaching certificate.
• A college-level or higher degree, a language proficiency certificate at level 5 or above of the Vietnamese 6-level framework (or equivalent), and a suitable language-teaching certificate.

A native-speaker teacher of a given language has a shorter test, and it is the one most applicants meet first.

Giáo viên là người bản ngữ dạy ngoại ngữ (đối với từng ngoại ngữ cụ thể): Có bằng cao đẳng trở lên và chứng chỉ đào tạo dạy ngoại ngữ phù hợp.

A native-speaker teacher of a foreign language (for each specific language) needs a college degree or higher and a suitable foreign-language teaching certificate.

Circular 21/2018/TT-BGDĐT, Điều 18 khoản 5

The same article counts full-time teachers, contract teachers, Vietnamese teachers, native-speaker teachers and foreigners as centre teachers. This circular replaced the 2011 regulation on foreign-language and IT centres, so a guide that cites the 2011 text is citing a replaced document. We recommend asking each centre which of the three routes it applies to you.

Do you need a work permit to teach in Da Nang?

Yes, unless one of the exemptions in Article 154 of the Labor Code applies.

The permit test is separate from the centre’s standard, and the expert route is the one a degree-holding teacher usually looks at first.

Có bằng đại học trở lên hoặc tương đương và có ít nhất 2 năm kinh nghiệm làm việc phù hợp với vị trí công việc mà người lao động nước ngoài dự kiến làm việc tại Việt Nam;

An expert includes someone with a university degree or equivalent and at least 2 years of work experience relevant to the job they are expected to do in Vietnam.

Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP, Điều 3 khoản 3 điểm a

A technical worker is someone trained for at least 1 year with at least 2 years of relevant experience, or someone with at least 3 years of relevant work experience. Side by side, the two tests look like this.

Checked November 2026.

Two exemptions come up most often for teachers, and neither is a general teaching route. A manager, executive, expert or technical worker who works in Vietnam for under 90 days in total within one calendar year is exempt. Someone confirmed by the Ministry of Education and Training to enter Vietnam to teach, research or transfer an international education programme is also exempt. Read the full rules in our work permit guide.

What goes into the work permit dossier?

Decree 219/2025/NĐ-CP has applied since 7 August 2025, and under it the dossier starts with the employer’s written report explaining its need for a foreign worker and requesting the permit. Your part is the personal papers.

• A criminal-record certificate, or a certification that you are not serving a sentence, have no unspent conviction and are not under criminal investigation, issued no more than 6 months before filing.
• A health certificate from a qualified medical facility; a foreign-issued one is accepted where Vietnam and that country or territory recognise each other’s certificates, and it must be no more than 12 months old.
• Proof that you are an expert: a degree, certificate or confirmation of university graduation or equivalent, plus your foreign employer’s written confirmation of your years of work experience.
• Consular legalisation of foreign-issued papers unless a treaty, reciprocity or the law exempts them, followed by translation into Vietnamese and certification.

Start the legalisation early, because it comes before the filing window opens.

Steps from job offer to legal teaching

1. Confirm you meet one of the three centre standards.
2. Work out your permit route: expert needs a university degree or equivalent plus at least 2 years of relevant experience, and the technical worker route is set out separately.
3. Collect the criminal-record and health papers above, then legalise and translate the foreign-issued ones.
4. Your employer files the dossier 60 to 10 days before you start, at the Public Administrative Service Center in the place where you will work.
5. The agency approves and issues the permit within 10 working days of a complete dossier, or gives a written refusal with reasons within 3 working days.
6. Take the permit to the visa step: a permit holder is normally issued an LĐ1 or LĐ2 visa.

Where do you apply in Da Nang?

In Da Nang your employer files at the Public Administrative Service Center, while the Department of Home Affairs (So Noi Vu) holds the authority to grant the permit.

The provincial People’s Committee is the authority for permits at the location where you will work, and a city decision effective 7 November 2025 delegates that power citywide to the Department of Home Affairs. The office is in the city administrative centre on Tran Phu Street.

Which visa and residence card come with a work permit?

An LĐ2 visa goes to a foreigner required to hold a work permit, and LĐ1 goes to one with confirmation of exemption.

Both symbols qualify the holder for a temporary residence card, and the card for LĐ1 and LĐ2 has the same cap as the visa and the permit.

Checked November 2026.

If you arrive on an e-visa, the law lets you change the visa’s purpose once you hold a work permit or confirmation of exemption, so the permit comes first and the new visa follows. Another is when an organisation invited or sponsored you to work and you hold one of the same two documents. Card details are in our temporary residence card guide, and the symbols are explained in the visa types list.

What happens if you teach on a tourist visa?

A foreigner who practises a trade in Vietnam without permission from the competent authority is fined VND 15,000,000 to 20,000,000.

The fines stack up by what you did, and deportation sits behind them.

A penalty decree in force since 10 September 2026 sets the worker and employer amounts. Its figures are individual rates, and an organisation is fined double. Deportation is a possible additional penalty for a foreign worker who works without a permit or exemption certificate, or uses an expired one. For the wider picture on working while on a tourist visa, see remote work on a tourist visa.

Checked November 2026.

Where do you look for a centre?

The Da Nang Department of Education and Training publishes a directory of education units with a foreign-language and IT centre category.

That directory (opens in a new tab) has no licence numbers, so it tells you a centre exists, not whether it will hire you legally.

Because your employer files the dossier and filing happens 60 to 10 days before your start date, we recommend asking any centre early whether it will file a work permit for you. A centre that says you can start on your tourist visa is one to skip.

↑ Contents

Not confirmed: Which TEFL or TESOL certificates count as "suitable", and whether one counts toward the technical worker's training year. Whether the Ministry-confirmed exemption covers ordinary centre hires. The teacher standard at foreign-invested schools.

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.

Spotted an error? Report it.