Resignation letter template

Under Article 35 of the Labour Code 2019 (Bộ luật Lao động 2019), an employee may terminate the contract unilaterally without giving a reason and without the company's consent; the only condition is giving the full notice period for the type of contract signed. The company may not be pleased, but it has no right to "refuse to let you go".

Indefinite-term contract

45 daysCalendar days, including days off

Contract of 12 to 36 months

30 daysCalendar days

Contract of under 12 months

3 working daysSaturdays and Sundays are not counted if they are days off

During probation

No notice neededArticle 27: either party may cancel without compensation

In some cases you may leave immediately without notice, also under Article 35:

• You are not assigned the work, workplace or working conditions that were agreed.
• You are not paid in full or not paid on time.
• You are mistreated, beaten, humiliated, subjected to forced labour or sexually harassed at work.
• You are a pregnant employee who must stop working on the instruction of a medical facility.
• You have reached retirement age, or the company gave untruthful information when the contract was signed.

The earliest leaving date is the date you hand in the letter plus the notice period. If you hand it in on 1 October under an indefinite-term contract, the earliest possible last working day is 15 November. You may ask to leave later than that if you want to finish a project or receive a quarterly bonus, but not earlier unless the company agrees in writing, in which case the two sides move to a mutual termination agreement.

1. 1
   Talk to your manager in person first

   A short conversation before you send the letter means your manager is not caught off guard, and it usually earns you goodwill during the handover. State your intended leaving date and what you will hand over.

2. 2
   Submit the letter in a way that leaves a time record

   If you hand in a paper copy, ask for a signed acknowledgement or take a photo; if you send it by email, keep the sent message. The date on the letter and the date you send it should match, because the notice period runs from the day the company receives the letter.

3. 3
   Confirm your last working day in writing

   Ask HR to reply by email confirming your leaving date, who will take over your work and the payment schedule. This is useful evidence if the notice period is disputed later.

One page is enough, in this order: the national name and motto (quốc hiệu, tiêu ngữ); the title of the letter; the addressees, namely the board of directors and your head of department; your details, job title, department and start date; your request to resign with your last working day; a brief reason; a handover commitment naming the recipient and the handover deadline; a thank-you; the date and your signature.

The law does not require a reason, but one polite line helps the letter get approved quickly and protects your image in your personnel file. The rule: talk about yourself, not about the company. Phrases such as "the environment is not a good fit" or "the pay is low" may be true but do not need to be written in the letter; the place to say such things is the exit interview, if the company holds one.

Article 48 of the Labour Code requires both parties to settle all related payments in full within 14 working days of the date the contract ends; the company must complete the procedure confirming your social insurance and unemployment insurance contribution periods and return any original documents it holds. Prepare this list before your last day:

• Handover minutes for work, accounts and equipment, signed by the recipient.
• A decision or notice terminating the labour contract that states the correct leaving date.
• Pay for the days worked in the final month and payment for untaken annual leave.
• Your social insurance book, closed off, or confirmation of your contribution history in the VssID app.
• Severance allowance, if you worked for a period before the company began paying unemployment insurance for you.
• A certificate of employment, useful for job applications and as proof of experience.

A note on severance allowance: because unemployment insurance has applied widely since 2009, people who started work after that date and whose employer paid insurance in full usually no longer receive it; compensation for losing a job comes instead from unemployment insurance, covered in the next section.

If you have paid unemployment insurance for at least 12 months within the 24 months before leaving and have not yet found a new job, you file a claim at an employment service centre within 3 months of the contract ending. The monthly benefit is 60% of your average salary subject to unemployment insurance over the last 6 months; 12 to 36 months of contributions entitle you to 3 months of benefit, then each further 12 months of contributions adds 1 month, up to a maximum of 12 months. These rules are carried over in the Employment Law 2025 (Luật Việc làm 2025), in force from 1 January 2026.

The claim consists of the standard application form, the original or a certified copy of the document ending your contract (a resignation decision, a termination agreement or the expired contract) and your closed-off social insurance book. This is why you need to collect all the documents listed in the section above before you leave the company. To estimate the amount and the number of months you are entitled to, use the unemployment insurance calculator.

• Handing in the letter and leaving the next day, or walking out because "the company won't sign the letter": the full notice period still applies, and the company's signature is not a condition.
• Writing negative reasons about your manager, colleagues or pay in the letter; the letter stays in your personnel file for a long time.
• Not keeping proof of the date you submitted the letter, so that in a dispute you cannot show you gave full notice.
• Deleting accounts and work data before the handover; this gives the company grounds to delay payment and the closing of your insurance book.
• Forgetting to ask for confirmation of your insurance contributions and a certificate of employment, and then lacking the documents to claim unemployment insurance.
• Signing a termination agreement stating that amounts have been "paid in full" before you have received the money.

The template at the top of the page has ready-made fields for your start date, desired leaving date, handover recipient and handover deadline; you just fill in your details, add a second language if the company is foreign-owned, then download it as Word or PDF, or print it to submit. The letter is saved in your account so that you can change the dates if your leaving schedule shifts after talking to your manager.