Hire a Japanese Chef in Hanoi: Permits, Pay, Two Cities

Hanoi's Japanese community is still growing, up 3.6% to 5,853, while Ho Chi Minh City fell 5% and also absorbed two neighbouring provinces in 2025. A two city group still files wherever its head office is registered, now processed by the provincial Department of Home Affairs rather than the old labour department. Budget the VND 5,310,000 Region 1 floor for the Vietnamese team and plan on bringing the chef in from elsewhere.

1. Hanoi in numbers, against a merged HCMC

• 5,853 Japanese nationals lived in Hanoi on 1 October 2025, up 3.6% on the year (MOFA).
• Ho Chi Minh City had 9,249, down 5.0%. Vietnam overall had 16,636, down 4.4%.
• MAFF counted 1,820 Japanese restaurants in Vietnam in 2025, up 200 on 2023. No official breakdown by city exists.

Hanoi is gaining Japanese residents while the national total and Ho Chi Minh City both fall. For a restaurant, a growing expatriate base helps demand. It does little for supply: 5,853 people is still a small community, and almost all Japanese nationals in Vietnam are long term residents tied to a job or family, not a pool of chefs free to join your kitchen. Plan on bringing a chef in from Japan or another city.

Ho Chi Minh City's number looks worse on paper, but it is now measured against a bigger city. On 1 July 2025 Vietnam merged Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau into Ho Chi Minh City as part of cutting 63 provinces to 34 nationwide; Hanoi was not part of any merger. We could not confirm whether the 9,249 figure reflects HCMC's old or new boundary, so treat the Hanoi-HCMC comparison as directional rather than exact for this one year.

2. A two city group: which office handles the permit

Many Japanese restaurant groups in Vietnam start in one of the two big cities and expand to the other. Decree 219/2025/ND-CP decides where the paperwork goes, and it has not changed on this point even after the 2025 merger and the move to the Department of Home Affairs described below:

• Work permits are granted, extended and revoked by the provincial level People's Committee (Article 4). A Hanoi restaurant's dossier goes to Hanoi.
• Where a foreign worker works in several provinces, the People's Committee of the province where the employer's headquarters is is competent. A company headquartered in Hanoi that sends a chef to open a branch in the enlarged Ho Chi Minh City deals with Hanoi, not HCMC, and the reverse applies to an HCMC headquartered group opening in Hanoi.

That makes the head office address a practical question, not just a legal one, and it is worth revisiting after the merger: if your group's registered headquarters used to sit in what is now part of the enlarged HCMC, check whether that changes which office is competent for a Hanoi branch's chef.

3. The permit life cycle

For most Japanese chefs the category will be technical worker: at least 1 year of training plus 2 years of relevant experience, or at least 3 years of experience in the job (Article 3(4)). The evidence is documentary, so collect dated letters from previous employers before you file. Since 1 March 2025, under Decree 25/2025/ND-CP, the office that processes the dossier is the provincial Department of Home Affairs, in place of the former Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, submitted through the Public Administration Service Centre or online; expect a short adjustment delay while the changeover beds in, and confirm the current channel before filing.

4. Fees, visa and residence card after the permit

A work permit alone does not let the chef work; it clears the way for the entry visa and, after arrival, a temporary residence card (TRC) matching the permit's term. Build the following into the schedule after the permit is issued:

• Entry visa. Applied for at a Vietnamese embassy or consulate once the work permit is granted, or on arrival at certain checkpoints with a pre-approved entry letter; either route needs the issued work permit as supporting evidence.
• Temporary residence card. Filed with the immigration authority after arrival, typically valid for the same period as the work permit (up to 2 years), and this is the document that lets the chef re-enter Vietnam freely without a new visa each trip.
• Health insurance. Vietnamese law requires compulsory health insurance for employees on an indefinite or 1 year plus contract; confirm your Hanoi payroll provider enrols the chef alongside Vietnamese staff.

We could not confirm a single current fee schedule that covers the work permit, entry visa and TRC together; each is billed separately and rates are set locally or by embassy, so ask your immigration adviser for the current total before budgeting the hire, rather than relying on a fixed figure here.

5. Pay floors for the Hanoi team

Hanoi is in Region 1 for minimum wage purposes. From 1 January 2026, under Decree 293/2025/ND-CP, the Region 1 minimum is VND 5,310,000 a month or VND 25,500 an hour, up 7.2% (JETRO). JETRO notes that areas within the same province can fall into different regions, so confirm your district in the decree's annex.

These floors apply to the Vietnamese team working alongside the Japanese chef, not to the chef. We found no official wage survey for a Japanese chef's pay in Hanoi specifically; see sushi chef salary by country for the official figures that exist elsewhere in the region, and budget the Hanoi chef's package (salary, housing, flights) against that regional context rather than the Vietnamese minimum. Most of the kitchen will be Vietnamese, and their skills decide how much the chef can delegate; see training local staff in Japanese cuisine.

6. Recruiting a chef who is not in Hanoi yet

Since the chef will usually come from Japan or another country, the hiring process runs at a distance:

• Advertise where Japanese chefs look. See where Japanese chefs look for jobs abroad and writing a job ad for chefs in Japan.
• Test skills remotely. A video cooking test and a structured interview filter out weak fits before you spend on flights. See skills tests for remote hiring.
• Check the paperwork early. Ask at the first interview whether the candidate can document 3 years of kitchen work. Without that, the technical worker route is hard.
• Sell the city honestly. Hanoi's growing Japanese population is a small, tight community rather than a big expatriate hub like the old Ho Chi Minh City. Describe housing, hours and the team the chef will lead so they know what to expect.

7. Checklist

1. Confirm where your headquarters is registered and which People's Committee handles the permit, rechecking this if your group's structure crosses the 2025 merger boundary.
2. Collect the chef's experience letters and training certificates, with translations.
3. File between 60 and 10 days before the start date, through the provincial Department of Home Affairs.
4. Budget the entry visa and temporary residence card as separate, locally billed items after the work permit.
5. Set Vietnamese staff pay at or above the Region 1 minimum for your district.
6. Diary the permit expiry and the 45 to 10 day extension window.

Also in Vietnam: hiring a Japanese chef in Ho Chi Minh City. In the region: Bangkok.

General information checked in September 2026 against the text of Decree 219/2025/ND-CP and Decree 25/2025/ND-CP, JETRO summaries, immigration law firm advisories and Japanese government statistics, not legal or immigration advice. Local practice in Vietnam can change without new legislation and is still settling after the 2025 administrative reorganisation. Confirm requirements with the Hanoi authorities or a Vietnamese lawyer before applying.