Moving to Vietnam: what Overseas Vietnamese underestimate

Overseas Vietnamese who move to Vietnam to build a life and a business tend to underestimate four things: what local context costs to learn, how early taxes and structure matter, how expensive good people are, and how much the move asks of the whole household. None of them show up on a visit home.

Tuan Le knows them from the inside. Born in Da Nang and raised in Los Angeles, he first returned to Vietnam in 2010 and moved back for the long term in 2013, after working in advertising in Vietnam and Dubai. He is now CEO and Creative Director of The Lab Saigon and The Lab Concepts in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), with businesses across design, branding, interior architecture and food and drink, including Bakes and Matte Matcha Bar. How his first café led to all of that is the story of his OV Podcast episode. In an OV session in April 2026, he talked about the other side: what building a life here took.

His main point: Vietnam can change your life, but only if you treat it as a serious market and not as a sentimental shortcut. These are the lessons we would pass on to any Việt Kiều weighing the move.

Spend on context before you spend on the business

When Tuan moved back, he had ambition, overseas experience, taste and a plan. He did not have a network of operators who had already been through it, and some of his early mistakes were avoidable.

His first business had a budget of about $45,000, and $15,000 of it went on the logo: a third of the money before the business had proven anything. Branding later became one of his biggest strengths. The problem was the order.

“If somebody asks me how much I should spend on a logo, I say: do not spend one-third of your budget.”

Your first investment in Vietnam should go into understanding the market. Before you commit serious money, find answers to questions like these:

• What are market salaries for the roles you need?
• What are normal rents where you want to be?
• What do customers here pay for, and what do they skip?
• Which suppliers are reliable?
• Which legal and tax issues apply to you?
• Which assumptions from abroad do not translate?

The fastest way to answer them is to talk to people who have already paid for the lessons. A 30-minute conversation with the right operator can save months of confusion and wasted capital. In Vietnam, your network is a core part of how business gets done. If you are planning a company, our post on starting a business in Vietnam covers how to test the idea small first.

Do things properly from day one

Many newcomers hear the same message: things are flexible here, people work around rules, you can sort it out later. Tuan's advice is the opposite. If you plan to stay for the long term, make everything legal and compliant early. Hire the right accountant. Understand your taxes. Structure your companies properly. Do not assume shortcuts will stay cheap, because a shortcut that saves money now can cost much more later.

He learned parts of this late. He did not understand his tax exposure early enough, and he put several brands under one company before he saw how that would complicate raising money later. For a creative founder, the numbers were the hardest part:

“My biggest regret as a creative is not understanding finance earlier.”

His fix was to think in unit economics: what each store costs, what it earns, what margin it makes, and whether it can stand on its own. Taste can get you attention. Only the numbers show whether that attention turns into a business.

The broader lesson for anyone coming from abroad: Vietnam rewards flexibility, but flexibility is not the same as sloppiness. The operators who last adapt to local ways while still building to global standards.

Good people are not cheap

Vietnam is often sold as a place with affordable labor. In broad terms that may be true. Tuan's point is sharper: the best people are not cheap, because they have options. They can work for multinationals, fast-growing local firms, tech companies, consumer brands, agencies or employers abroad who hire remotely.

So if you want strong people, you are not competing with the average salary. You are competing with the best offer each of them has.

In Tuan's experience, the business moved forward each time a key person joined: a strong account lead, a finance person, a strategy person, a partner who took full ownership. Treat talent as what moves the business, not only as a cost.

Early on, he also overpaid some staff because he did not know local salary ranges. Know the market rate, then pay well for the people who matter most. If you are hiring, or looking for work yourself, OV Jobs lists roles in Vietnam picked for Overseas Vietnamese.

Moving to Vietnam is a household decision

For Tuan, the first three years were hard, and not only because the businesses were uncertain. His wife was adjusting to a country that was completely new to her. That put pressure on the relationship and on the question of whether they would stay.

“It wasn’t just the business. It was also culture shock for her. It’s not just the money. It’s also the culture.”

This is one of the least discussed parts of the move. A Viet Kieu coming back may feel some familiarity: the language, the food, family, childhood memories. A partner may not. Even a partner who is also Overseas Vietnamese can feel culture shock if they grew up abroad.

That does not mean the move will fail. It means it has to be planned as a household decision, not as one person's ambition. What helped Tuan and his family stay was three things working together:

• The businesses improved.
• They built a close group of friends.
• He had people inside the company he could trust.

Money alone was not enough, and neither was community or lifestyle alone. A life here becomes stable when work, friendships and support start to reinforce each other. Before you move, ask what your partner's work, friends and daily life will look like in the first year, not only yours.

If you are not sure yet, start with How to test a move to Vietnam before you make it.