Moving to Vietnam (2026): Your First 30 Days in the Right Order, From Housing to SIM, Bank and Licence

Run your first month in this order: a short furnished base, the temporary residence declaration, a SIM, VNeID, a bank account, then the driving licence and your shipment. The order matters because each step produces the document the next step asks for, and a bank will usually want your signed rental contract as proof of address. Note one hard deadline from day one: your host, not you, files the temporary residence declaration, within 12 hours of your arrival (24 hours in remote areas) under the Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners (Law 47/2014, Article 33).

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Say you land on a Friday with two suitcases, a short-stay e-visa and your employer's address on an offer letter. That evening an agent sends apartment videos and the landlord asks for a long lease and a deposit. Sign nothing yet: you have no phone number, no bank account and no registered address, and all three come before a long lease.

What should the 30 days look like, week by week?

Treat the month as four blocks. Housing comes first only in the sense of a temporary base; the long lease belongs in week three, after you have seen the commute in rush hour.

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Why start in a serviced or furnished unit instead of signing a 12-month lease?

A short furnished start costs more per month and saves far more than it costs. You get to walk the alley in the morning, check flooding after rain and see whether the school run actually works before committing a deposit. Savills put the HCMC city-wide serviced-apartment average at VND 560,000 per sqm per month in Q2 2026, across roughly 7,000 units at about 84% occupancy. For anyone relocating to Hanoi, occupancy was above 80% across its tracked serviced market in the same quarter, so viewing slots go quickly in the autumn posting season.

Longer-term asking rents vary more by finish than by city. These are asking levels, not achieved deals.

Who registers your residence, and what if the landlord refuses?

The declaration duty sits with the person providing the accommodation, every time you move, including moves between two addresses in the same city. A temporary residence card does not remove it, and a Vietnamese friend or spouse cannot take it over on the landlord's behalf. Foreigners are not restricted to hotels; a private apartment or house is fine as long as the host declares you, and declarations can be filed online.

If a landlord says they "don't do paperwork", that is your signal to walk. No declaration means problems later with the bank, your work permit file and any visa extension. A landlord or agent may ask to see your visa or temporary residence registration when you sign the lease.

SIM, VNeID and bank account: what documents in what order?

This is where most people relocating to Vietnam lose a week. The sequence below reflects the current rules.

1. SIM. Since 15 April 2026, Circular 08/2026 requires your passport plus face verification at registration, so buy at an operator store, not a kiosk.
2. VNeID. Decree 320/2026 opened the national digital identity app to foreigners legally present in Vietnam from 28 September 2026. Register it with the number in your own name.
3. Bank account. Bring passport, visa or temporary residence card, your Vietnamese number and the signed rental contract, which banks commonly accept as proof of address. Holders of short-stay e-visas are often declined, so plan the account around your work-permit or TRC timeline rather than the other way round.

Driving licence, and shipping household goods to Vietnam

To ride or drive legally you need your home-country licence together with an International Driving Permit issued under the 1968 Vienna Convention. Permits issued under the 1949 Geneva Convention have no legal effect in Vietnam, which catches out many new arrivals from 1949-only countries; those drivers need a Vietnamese licence conversion instead. Riding uninsured and unlicensed is the single cheapest way to turn a minor accident into a very expensive month.

Time your container to land after the long lease is signed, not before. Storage and demurrage are predictable costs; a rushed 12-month lease chosen because your sofa is at the port is not.

How do you avoid losing the deposit?

The concrete loss here is the deposit, and it is usually lost to someone who was never the owner. Before any transfer, match the signatory's ID to the name on the property's Pink Book, or see a signed authorisation if an agent signs, pay into the owner's own account against a written receipt, and keep a deposit clause that states the return conditions and the notice period. There is no statutory minimum lease term in Vietnam; the contract governs repair duties and inclusions. Our desk can review a draft lease and the owner's documents before you pay.

FAQ

How much does a Vietnam visa cost?

There is no general tourist or retirement visa. The document people mean is the visa exemption certificate for foreign spouses and children of Vietnamese citizens. Everyone else relies on work permits plus a temporary residence card, or on repeated visa or e-visa cycles.

Can you live on USD 500 a month?

Not in a foreigner-standard apartment. In Da Nang's An Thuong and My Khe area, expat guides put a furnished 1BR at USD 380–550 a month in September 2026, so rent alone absorbs the budget before food, insurance and transport.

Is it still worth living in Vietnam as a foreigner?

For people with income earned here, the maths still works: serviced occupancy held above 80% in Hanoi in Q2 2026 per Savills, which tells you corporate demand has not left. Be honest about 2026 though. The sales market is in correction, rents in the better districts have not followed the headlines down, and English-language listings typically ask well above what the same unit asks in Vietnamese.

Is relocating to Ho Chi Minh City different from Hanoi for paperwork?

The national rules are identical. What differs is ward-level practice on landlord declarations and how fast an online filing is processed, which is why you confirm the declaration in writing in the lease.

Get these three answers in writing before you pay

• Who files the temporary residence declaration, and the commitment to do it within 12 hours of each move-in.
• The exact deposit return conditions, deductions and notice period.
• Whether the landlord will provide a signed lease copy and ownership documents you can present to a bank.

Message Tin Pham and the English desk on Zalo or WhatsApp for a 30-day relocation sequence you can tick off, a lease checklist in English, and current furnished and serviced options in the two or three districts you are shortlisting.