How to Move to Vietnam as a Remote Worker or Creative
Moving to Vietnam is logistically simpler than most people expect. The hard parts aren’t the forms or the bureaucracy — they’re the decisions. Which city? Which visa strategy? How much lead time do you need? What do you actually need to set up, and in what order?
This guide is a practical step-by-step for remote workers and creative people making the move. It assumes you’re planning a stay of 1–12 months, working for a foreign employer or your own remote clients, and approaching this seriously rather than as an extended backpacker trip.
Before You Leave: The 8-Week Checklist
The most common mistakes people make when moving to Vietnam are either (1) over-preparing things that can be handled on arrival, or (2) under-preparing the few things that genuinely need to be sorted in advance.
8 Weeks Out
Visa. Apply for the 90-day e-visa at immigration.gov.vn. Processing takes 3–5 business days — there’s no reason to leave this late. If you’re planning to stay longer than 90 days, research business visa sponsorship options before arriving. See the Vietnam Visa Guide for full details.
Health insurance. The one thing that cannot wait. International health insurance that covers Vietnam: SafetyWing, World Nomads, Cigna Global, AXA. Compare coverage carefully — some plans exclude pre-existing conditions or limit hospital choices. Purchase before departure.
Finances. Set up a Wise or Revolut account and load funds before you travel. These cards work at Vietnamese ATMs with minimal fees and will be your primary banking tool until you open a local account.
Vaccinations. Check travel vaccination recommendations for Vietnam: Hepatitis A and B, typhoid, and Japanese encephalitis for rural/farm areas. Your home country travel health clinic can advise.
4 Weeks Out
Accommodation for first 2 weeks. Book a hotel, guesthouse, or Airbnb for your arrival city — enough time to orient yourself and find a proper monthly rental. Don’t try to book monthly accommodation from abroad; Vietnam’s rental market moves fast and is better navigated on the ground.
Research your city. Read everything you can about where you’re arriving. Understand the neighborhood structure (especially important in Hanoi and HCMC, less so in smaller cities). Join expat/nomad Facebook groups for current on-the-ground intelligence.
Phone and data plan. Plan to buy a SIM at the airport — no advance preparation needed beyond knowing you want Viettel or Mobifone.
1 Week Out
Portable work setup. Pack what you need for a reliable work setup: laptop, charger, any monitor you travel with, noise-cancelling headphones for calls. Vietnam has universal plug sockets (Type A/C/D/G, 220V) but an adapter is sensible.
Offline resources. Download Maps.me or Google Maps offline for your arrival city. Download your bank app. Download the Grab app and set it up before arrival.
Arrival Week: The Priority Order
There’s a logical sequence to setting up in a new country. Following it reduces the first-week chaos considerably.
Day 1: Buy a SIM
Before anything else. Do it at the airport (Viettel counter in arrivals) or at the first phone shop you pass in the city. $5–8 gets you a month of data. Without mobile data, navigating the city is dramatically harder.
Day 2–3: Explore your neighborhood
Don’t rush to set up coworking or do admin tasks. Spend the first 2–3 days walking your neighborhood: finding your breakfast spot, understanding the market nearby, identifying the café you’ll use for morning coffee. This orientation is not a distraction — it’s the foundation of actually living somewhere.
Day 3–5: Find monthly accommodation
If you’re staying more than two weeks, start looking for monthly apartments. The local rental market (Facebook marketplace groups, walking neighborhoods and looking for rental signs, asking guesthouse staff for contacts) offers better value and more interesting options than Airbnb for monthly stays.
What to look for:
– Upload speed (ask specifically — vital for remote work)
– Air conditioning quality (you’ll use it constantly)
– Kitchen access if you want to cook
– Natural light
– Distance from a market and/or supermarket
Week 1: Coworking trial
Try 2–3 different coworking spaces in day-pass mode before committing to a monthly membership. Preferences for workspace environment are personal — the best reviews don’t tell you whether you like the desk height, the lighting, the ambient noise level.
Week 2: Banking setup
For stays of 3+ months, opening a local bank account is worth the effort. It makes paying rent, utility bills, and some services significantly easier. Requirements vary by bank: Vietcombank and Techcombank are generally the most accessible for foreigners.
For shorter stays, Wise/Revolut + cash is sufficient.
Choosing Your First City
If you don’t already know which city you’re moving to, here’s the honest comparative:
Da Nang if:
– You want the easiest onboarding
– Beach + city is important to you
– You want a large established nomad community
– You value reliable infrastructure above all
Hoi An if:
– You’re specifically a creative (visual, written, or craft)
– You want slower pace and historic atmosphere
– You’re fine with slightly smaller nomad community
– You plan to stay at least a month — Hoi An rewards longer stays
Hanoi if:
– You want cultural depth and a real capital city
– You want the most interesting creative scene
– You’re okay with cold winters (Dec–Feb)
– You want access to northern Vietnam for weekend exploration
Ho Chi Minh City if:
– You want the most cosmopolitan environment
– You want the widest food, arts, and nightlife scene
– You’re connecting with Vietnamese business or startup ecosystem
Most people come to Vietnam with a city in mind based on what they’ve read. That instinct is usually right — trust it, but go in knowing you can move after the first month.
Building Your Life in Vietnam
Finding Community
The first few weeks in any new place involve a degree of loneliness. This is normal and temporary if you’re intentional about it.
Practical community-building steps:
1. Work from a coworking space with a community vibe (Circo in Hanoi, Up in Da Nang) — regulars get to know each other
2. Join Facebook groups and Telegram channels for nomads in your city — introduce yourself, ask questions
3. Say yes to the first 5 social invitations you receive, even if you don’t feel like it — community forms in the early, slightly awkward moments
4. Find one activity you do outside of work — language exchange, yoga class, photography walk, cooking class
For creatives: Vietnam’s creative communities exist but require some hunting. The art spaces, craft villages, and maker communities don’t always have English-language presence. The effort to find them pays off significantly.
Setting Up a Work Rhythm
The temptation in a new country is to keep the routine you had at home, intact, just in a different timezone. This often fails — because the environment has changed, the rhythm should too.
A better approach: design a daily rhythm that fits the new city. In Da Nang, that might mean morning beach walk → coworking → beach/pool in late afternoon. In Hoi An, it might mean cycling to the market → working from a riverside café → evening Old Town walk. In Hanoi, it might mean egg coffee and early morning work session → midday lunch break that’s actually a meal → evening cultural activity.
The rhythm is part of the life, not just the backdrop to your actual life.
Language
You don’t need to speak Vietnamese to live well here — English is widely used in major cities and tourist areas, and Grab + Google Translate handles most logistics.
But learning some Vietnamese changes your experience significantly. Not just the practical benefits (ordering food precisely, directing drivers accurately, basic market interactions) but the cultural signal it sends — that you’re here to engage, not just to be serviced.
Basic Vietnamese to learn in your first month:
– Greetings: Xin chào, Cảm ơn (thank you), Không có gì (you’re welcome)
– Numbers and money
– Food vocabulary for the things you eat regularly
– Directional words for Grab and navigation
Language exchange platforms and cafés in every major city connect native Vietnamese speakers (who want to practice English) with native English speakers (who want to practice Vietnamese). This is free or cheap and a genuine community-building activity.
Common First-Year Mistakes to Avoid
Moving too often. The temptation to see everything in Vietnam is real and understandable. Resist it enough to actually put down roots somewhere. The depth of experience you get from staying 3 months in one place is impossible to get from 3 weeks in 12 places.
Staying only in expat bubbles. Vietnam’s expat infrastructure is excellent, which makes it easy to live entirely within it. The Western-food restaurants, the English-speaking gyms, the international-school social circuits. These are fine, but they’re not Vietnam. Make deliberate effort to engage beyond them.
Not getting health insurance immediately. This one has real consequences. Medical costs without insurance in Vietnam are significant. Don’t skip it or defer it.
Staying in Airbnb when you could have a monthly apartment. After the first two weeks, Airbnb rates are always more expensive than monthly rentals. Switch as soon as you’ve found a neighborhood you like.
Useful Resources
- Vietnam Visa Guide for Digital Nomads
- Cost of Living in Vietnam: Da Nang, Hoi An, Hanoi
- Best Coworking in Da Nang | Hoi An | Hanoi
- Vietnam SIM Cards and Internet
- Banking in Vietnam for Expats (coming soon)
Making the move to Vietnam for a longer stay? NextU is building community co-living spaces across Vietnam for remote workers and creatives who want workspace, community, and a meaningful living environment in one. Join the waitlist.
