According to Article 41 of the 2012 Advertising Law, foreign advertising enterprises are allowed to establish representative offices in Vietnam. First, the foreign advertising enterprises shall directly submit 1 set of documents requesting the issuance of a License to establish a Representative Office to the People’s Committee of the province/city directly under the Central Government where the Representative Office is located.

Within 10 days from the date of receipt of a complete and valid dossier, the Provincial People’s Committee shall consider and issue a License to establish a Representative Office and send a copy of the license to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. In case the dossier is invalid, within 3 days from the date of receipt of the dossier, the Provincial People’s Committee shall send a written request to the foreign advertising enterprise to supplement and complete the dossier.

Components of the application dossier:

1. Request for a License to establish a Representative Office signed by the authorized representative of the foreign advertising enterprise pursuant to the form prescribed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism;
2. A copy of the business registration certificate or equivalent documents of the foreign enterprise certified by the competent authority where the enterprise is established or registered for business;
3. Audited financial statements or other equivalent documents proving the existence and operation of the foreign advertising enterprise in the most recent fiscal year;
4. The documents specified in Points 2 and 3 above must be translated into Vietnamese and certified by a Vietnamese diplomatic representative agency or consular agency abroad and consular legalization must be carried out in accordance with the provisions of Vietnamese law.

Representative offices are allowed to operate when they have a license from the People’s Committee of the province where the foreign enterprise requests to establish a representative office. Representative offices are only allowed to promote advertising, not directly provide advertising services.