Freelancing from Vietnam on a DTV: Invoicing Foreign Clients
How to bill foreign clients while living in Vietnam on a DTV: Wise, Payoneer, tax residency, and when to incorporate.
The DTV visa opened the door for a quietly large group: people who earn from clients outside Vietnam and want to live here legally without setting up a company. This guide is the practical "how do I actually get paid" answer.
What the DTV does and does not allow
The DTV is a residence permit, not a Vietnamese work permit. You may live in Vietnam and continue work that has no Vietnamese employer and no Vietnamese clients. Earning from foreign clients into a foreign bank account is the canonical use case. Earning from Vietnamese clients into a Vietnamese company is not what this visa is for — that needs a work permit or an LLC.
How most DTV holders get paid
| Route | Speed | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wise (multi-currency) | 1–2 days | 0.4–0.7% | Most common; receive USD/EUR/GBP locally, hold balances, convert when needed |
| Payoneer | 1–3 days | 1–2% | Useful for marketplaces (Upwork, Fiverr) |
| Stripe (foreign entity) | 2 days | 2.9% + fixed | If you have a US LLC or UK Ltd, run payments through it |
| Direct bank wire | 2–4 days | $25–50 + FX spread | Avoid; banks rape you on FX |
| Crypto | Same day | Varies | Legal grey area in Vietnam; converting back to VND is the friction |
Most freelancers route foreign-client invoices to a Wise account in their home currency, then move USD into a Vietnamese VND account at Vietcombank/Shinhan/HSBC when they need to spend.
Should you keep a foreign entity?
If you already have a US LLC, UK Ltd or Estonian e-residency company, keep it. Invoicing through it gives you:
- A professional invoicing identity clients prefer
- Stripe / merchant-processor access
- A clean separation between living costs and business books
- Ability to retain earnings outside Vietnam
The downside is dual-jurisdiction tax filings. For most non-US citizens this is fine because tax obligations follow residency, not company location. For US citizens it is unavoidable anyway (citizenship-based taxation).
Tax residency in Vietnam
You become a Vietnamese tax resident if you spend 183+ days in any 12-month period in Vietnam or have a registered permanent residence here. As a resident your worldwide income is potentially taxable at 5–35% PIT brackets. See the tax residency page and our PIT deep dive for what this looks like in practice.
If you stay under 183 days you are taxed only on Vietnamese-source income, at a flat 20%. Many DTV holders deliberately split time across Vietnam and a second country to stay non-resident, but be careful: the second country may then claim you. Tax homelessness is rarely as clean as it looks on YouTube.
When to switch from freelancing to an LLC
Set up a Vietnamese LLC if any of these apply:
- You want to hire Vietnamese employees on real contracts
- You want to invoice Vietnamese B2B clients with VAT
- You want a TRC pathway not tied to DTV renewals
- You are starting a physical business (cafe, gym, studio)
Otherwise the compliance cost (accountant, e-invoice, monthly filings) likely exceeds the benefit. See starting a company.
Practical setup most DTV holders use
- Keep a personal company in your home jurisdiction (or Wise Business sole-trader account)
- Invoice foreign clients through it
- Receive in Wise, hold USD
- Move VND to Vietcombank monthly for living expenses
- File home-country tax based on residency or citizenship rules
- Keep a clean log of days in Vietnam in case 183-day question ever comes up
Honest take
The DTV plus a foreign Wise setup is the cleanest expat-freelancer arrangement Vietnam has ever offered. Do not over-engineer. An LLC is for when you have local revenue or staff, not for vanity.
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