For Japanese residents and business travelers in Vietnam, the burden of visiting government offices is about to change. The government has issued Decree 320, expanding the electronic ID app VNeID, and it will take effect on September 28, 2026. Once a document has been incorporated into the app, government agencies will be required to look it up in the system themselves, so people will no longer need to resubmit the same document at the counter. The foundation for procedures like passports, driver's licenses, and residence verification is shifting from paper exchanges to on-screen lookups.
Who does this affect? Residents holding a Vietnamese residence card or VNeID account, representatives and general-affairs staff at local company offices, and business travelers who deal with administrative procedures even on short trips. Expatriate staff in particular are closely tied to their company's various filings.
Decree 320 revises the existing Decree 69 and takes effect September 28
Decree 320 amends the existing Decree 69, which established the electronic ID. At its core is a thorough push toward "never make someone submit the same information twice." According to the original text, once a document is integrated into the app, the responsible agency must retrieve the information directly from the system rather than asking the individual to resubmit it. The system is moving toward reducing the piles of document copies stacked at government counters.
Under the old counter-based procedures, people had to prepare copies of their passport or residence verification every time they applied, and in some cases were even asked to have them notarized. Having to resubmit the same document department by department has eaten into residents' time. The arrangement envisioned under Decree 320 — where agencies look documents up in the system themselves — is meant to cut this duplication off at the institutional level.
In recent years, the Vietnamese government has been consolidating administrative procedures into VNeID. There's already a trend of shifting vehicle registration and inspection, along with immigration filings, into the app, and Decree 320 extends that trend, bundling together both individual and corporate documents at once. It rests on a design that links up databases that used to be scattered across different ministries, syncing them automatically whenever something changes.
Issuing agencies will also be required to update their data immediately whenever the content changes. The premise is that linked databases sync automatically. Completing procedures entirely through VNeID is already underway withunified immigration proceduresandobtaining a criminal record certificate, and Decree 320 is positioned to expand that scope considerably.
206 document types covered: 66 for individuals, 140 for organizations
The documents covered by the integration are wide-ranging. For individuals, there are 66 categories, including passports, driver's licenses, and residence verification. For companies and organizations, there are 140 categories, covering business registration certificates, import/export licenses, seal certification, and more. Together, 206 categories can now be handled within the app.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Effective date | September 28, 2026 |
| Decree | Decree 320 (amending Decree 69) |
| Individual documents | 66 categories (passport, driver's license, residence verification, etc.) |
| Corporate documents | 140 categories (business registration, import/export licenses, seal certification, etc.) |
| Total | 206 categories |
Online applications get reduced fees; pensions and allowances are paid via a "social welfare account"
There are changes on the cost side too. Administrative services processed online through the app will be eligible for reduced or waived fees. As for the conditions for zero fees — including how far this extends to foreigners —how VNeID fee waivers workis worth checking separately. The idea behind the fee reduction is that finishing things on-screen is cheaper and faster than standing in line, which fits Vietnam's reality of widespread smartphone-based identity verification. That said, documents not yet integrated into the app will continue to be handled on paper as before, so electronic and paper processes will coexist for the time being.
Another new feature is the "social welfare account." It lets people link a bank account, e-wallet, or mobile money service to receive pensions and various allowances. As far as the original text goes, no start date has been specified for this account feature. Nor can a blanket requirement — that everyone must link their bank, e-commerce, or social media accounts by some deadline — be confirmed from the text of Decree 320. For residents, not getting thrown off by an unverified deadline is what actually matters.
What Japanese residents and expatriate staff can do before it takes effect
There's preparation you can do now, before the system goes live.
- Complete Level 2 verification on your VNeID account and check that your passport and residence information are correctly reflected
- Check with your company's general affairs or legal team that corporate documents — business registration certificates, licenses, and the like — are up to date
- If you expect to receive a pension or allowance, organize the bank account or wallet information you'll register to the social welfare account
- Before assuming resubmission at the counter is unnecessary, check for yourself whether the document in question has actually been integrated into the app
For expatriate staff in particular, who handle procedures through their company, how far corporate documents have been integrated affects the speed of their own individual applications. If a business registration or license is still out of date, a system lookup will just return the old information, which is why doing a check before the law takes effect pays off.
Cutting down on paper won't happen instantly — there will be a lag before operations on the ground catch up. It's realistic to expect uneven handling at different counters right after the law takes effect.
Check which documents are integrated before the September 28 effective date
Decree 320 takes effect on September 28, 2026, integrating 206 document types — 66 for individuals and 140 for companies — into VNeID; once a document is integrated, resubmission at government offices is no longer required. Online applications get reduced fees, and pensions and allowances can be received via the social welfare account. However, no blanket deadline for linking bank, e-commerce, or social media accounts can be read from this text. The first step toward avoiding a wasted trip to the counter is checking your own VNeID and your company's documents before September 28.
