Company Seals in Vietnam: What the 2020 Enterprise Law Actually Changed
Vietnam's company seal (con dấu) went through one of the fastest liberalizations in the region — from a tightly policed specimen system to near-total company autonomy in the space of a few years. The paperwork culture, however, hasn't moved nearly as fast.
From police registration to company autonomy
Historically, Vietnamese company seals were made by licensed engravers and their specimens registered with the public security authorities. The 2014 Enterprise Law loosened this, and the Enterprise Law 2020 (in force since 2021) finished the job: companies now decide for themselves the form, content and number of their seals, and the old requirement to notify the specimen for public posting was dropped entirely. The law also explicitly recognizes digital signatures used as seals for e-transactions.
What remains fixed is convention: contracts, bank documents, tax filings and anything touching the government are expected to carry the company's red seal next to the legal representative's signature. An unstamped contract with a Vietnamese counterparty will, in practice, be sent back.
Design conventions
Despite the freedom, Vietnamese seals are strikingly uniform:
- Round, red ink, typically 34–36 mm across.
- Company name around the rim (upper arc), often with the enterprise code (mã số doanh nghiệp) and the province/city along the lower arc.
- The center carries the company's short name, "CÔNG TY TNHH…" designation, or a logo.
Structurally this is the same architecture as the Chinese company seal minus the star — the round corporate seal template adapts to it directly. You can compose the layout in the online seal generator, placing the enterprise code as the bottom arc text, and export a transparent PNG for digital use or SVG for an engraver.
Multi-page contracts: the giáp lai seal
Vietnamese practice stamps multi-page contracts across the page edges (đóng dấu giáp lai) so pages can't be swapped — the same perforation-seal technique used across East Asia. The PDF stamping tool reproduces this digitally: it splits the seal across page edges automatically. The physical convention is described in the perforated seal template.
Digital signatures are the real successor
Vietnam pushes e-invoicing and e-tax hard, and the Law on Electronic Transactions 2023 (effective mid-2024) strengthened the framework: certified digital signatures from licensed providers carry the weight that used to belong exclusively to the red seal, and are now mandatory in areas like e-invoices. A seal image pasted on a PDF is not that — it looks right, but the legal instrument is the certified signature. The distinction is the subject of electronic seal vs. electronic signature.
FAQ
Does a Vietnamese company still legally need a seal? The company controls its seals' form and number, but as seals are expected on bank, tax and contract paperwork, operating without one is not realistic.
Must the seal be registered with the police? No — the 2020 law removed specimen notification. The company manages its own seal usage rules.
Is a scanned seal on a PDF valid? For appearance and internal flows, yes; for legal effect in e-transactions, Vietnam looks to certified digital signatures. See are image seals legally valid?.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Verify current requirements with Vietnamese counsel or the business registration authority.