Myth 1: "You need a Vietnamese partner to own a company here."
Reality: Full foreign ownership is permitted in most sectors as the default position under the 2020 Investment Law. A local partner requirement applies only to a specific list of conditional or restricted business lines (which can include certain media, transportation, and select service categories) — not as a general precondition for foreign investment.
Myth 2: "You have to be physically in Vietnam to set up your company."
Reality: Most of the licensing and registration process can be completed under a power of attorney, without the investor's physical presence. The step most likely to require an in-person visit is bank KYC verification during corporate account opening — a single trip that can be scheduled once the entity is close to operational, not a prerequisite for starting the process.
Myth 3: "There's a fixed minimum capital you must inject to qualify."
Reality: There is no fixed statutory minimum for most business lines. Required charter capital is assessed case-by-case based on what the registered business plausibly needs to operate credibly, rather than a flat threshold applied uniformly across every sector.
Myth 4: "Opening a shop or selling online from day one is the fastest way in."
Reality: Retail — including direct-to-consumer sales via platforms such as Shopee or TikTok Shop — requires an additional Business Licence on top of standard registration, adding 23 to 61 working days. A B2B or wholesale-first structure is frequently operational well before an equivalent retail-first structure, with retail capability layered on afterward.
Why these assumptions persist
Several of these rules did apply, in stricter form, to earlier phases of Vietnam's foreign investment framework, or continue to apply in specific conditional sectors that get generalized in casual conversation to "Vietnam" as a whole. The practical risk is that an investor who plans around the outdated version of a rule — assuming a local partner is required, or that retail is the fast path in — adds months to a timeline that the current framework does not actually require.
