The HCM City Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said that it will dismiss workers who deliberately drag out work permit proceedings.

The HCM City Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC), EuroCham and the department on March 7 organized a meeting on the granting of work permits to foreign laborers.

Eurocham’s Dang Tuyet Vinh said many member enterprises have complained that it takes them too much time to follow procedures to obtain work permits for foreign workers in Vietnam.

Vinh cited Decree 152/2020 on foreign workers working in Vietnam which stipulates that after receiving dossiers, state agencies have to give answers within five days. 

However, many members of EuroCham have had to wait 2-3 months, and some of them received work permits after 4-5 months.

Trung Khuat, acting chair of EuroCham’s subcommittee for human resources and training, said the online dossier submission through the national public service portal poses obstacles to enterprises. 

In general, companies only receive notices from the system after 2-3 weeks.

Some officials say they don't have the applications. As a result, when companies send staff to get results, state officials ask the company to follow procedures from the very beginning.

EuroCham’s deputy chair Jean-Jacques Bouflet said that applications for work permits for foreign workers in Vietnam are facing serious difficulties. 

At present, European investors rank first among investors in Vietnam. He suggested simplifying procedures and shortening the time for following procedures to create favorable conditions for foreign investors to get work permits in Vietnam, thus helping the country become an attractive destination for investors.

In reply, Nguyen Van Lam, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, said the department will discover and handle the cases where applications are settled after 3-4 months.

“If investors name the officers who handle the cases and deliberately draw out the proceedings, we will fire them immediately,” Lam said.

He said that it once happened that when enterprises submit dossiers, officers told them to submit three additional kinds of documents, and when they came back, officers told them to submit the fourth. The problem will no longer exist as the department has found and stopped it.

In 2022, his department received and handled 28,149 dossiers related to foreign workers, including 15,400 dossiers explaining the demand for using workers. It granted work permits to 10,800 workers, and re-granted work permits to 1,126 cases.

Tran Chung