Da Nang for remote founders: visas, coworking and founder meetups (2026)

Da Nang suits founders who sell to customers outside Vietnam and want a cheap, easy beach city with good coworking and a small but active AI builder scene. Day passes start at 110,000 VND, and there's an AI meetup most Sundays. The two catches are visas and tax. Vietnam has no digital nomad visa, so you're working with a 90-day e-visa or a 45-day exemption, and Vietnam's new tax rules can make you resident through a long rental lease as well as through days in the country. Everything below was checked on 28 October 2026 against the official, venue or group page linked next to it.

Visas and residency routes a founder would actually use

Most remote founders in Da Nang use the e-visa or a visa exemption. Vietnam doesn't have a digital nomad or remote work visa, and none of the official pages we checked says either route covers working for a foreign company while you're in the country. The investor visas are for people putting capital into a Vietnamese business.

The e-visa

The Vietnam Immigration Department's e-visa portal says the e-visa "is valid for maximum of 90 days, single or multiple entry". You apply from outside Vietnam with a valid passport, and the fee is paid online and isn't refunded if your application is refused. The portal moved on 11 November 2024 to two new addresses, evisa.gov.vn and thithucdientu.gov.vn.

Vietnam's national tourism authority says the e-visa is issued to citizens of all countries and lists the fees:

• Single entry: USD $25, valid for up to 90 days.
• Multiple entry: USD $50, valid for up to 90 days.

The same page warns against third-party agencies charging inflated fees, so apply only on the official evisa.gov.vn domain. GOV.UK's travel advice adds a catch that trips people up: an e-visa restricts you to the entry and exit points you pick when you apply. Pick Da Nang airport if that's where you'll land.

Visa exemption

The tourism authority's visa page lists who can enter without a visa:

• 45 days: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Belarus, valid until 14 March 2028 under Resolution 44/NQ-CP. A separate tourism authority page says this runs from 15 March 2025 to 14 March 2028.
• 45 days: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland, valid until 14 August 2028 under Resolution 229/NQ-CP.
• 30 days: Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. Chile and Panama get 90 days.

Australia, the US, Canada and New Zealand aren't on the list, so those passports need the e-visa. The page also says anyone wanting to stay longer than 45 days must get an e-visa before arrival. For British passport holders, GOV.UK says the 45 days covers tourism or business, and that you should check your entry stamp shows 45 days from arrival before you leave the airport.

Investor visas (DT1 to DT4)

If you're putting money into a Vietnamese company, the investor visas apply. The English text of Law 51/2019/QH14, which amended Vietnam's immigration law, sets four tiers by contributed capital:

The immigration law has been amended since 2019, so get a Vietnamese lawyer to confirm the current thresholds before you invest. A DT visa is for running a Vietnamese investment, not a shortcut for a remote founder who sells overseas.

Which route fits

For work, the GOV.UK page says to check which type of visa or work permit you need with the Vietnam Immigration Department, and that people who work illegally or overstay can be stopped from leaving until they pay a fine. If you want other countries with a proper nomad visa, our digital nomad visas guide compares them.

Where founders work

Da Nang's coworking is cheap and mostly independent, and the spaces we checked cluster in Son Tra and Ngu Hanh Son, with one in the Hai Chau city centre. These spaces were checked on their own sites on 28 October 2026:

Notes from the pages themselves:

• Coworking Da Nang sells a 3-hour pass for 100k VND, a week for 1m VND and 10 separate days for 1.8m VND. All desks are flex desks, a fixed desk is an extra 1m VND a month, and weekly and monthly members get 24/7 access.
• Enosta Space lists three Son Tra locations, but only An Nhon 3 has coworking. That location has coworking, offices, an event space and a cafe, open 8 AM to 6:30 PM on weekdays and 8 AM to 5 PM on Saturdays.
• Seaview Coworking is open 24 hours, sells a week for 550,000 VND and rents monitors from 1mil VND a month. It also has one-month stay-and-work room packages from 8,500,000 VND.
• Hana's Coworking is open daily from 6 AM to 10 PM and sells a week for 550,000 VND. Its monthly membership is listed as "Fixed desk + 500k", so ask what that covers.
• ACE Coworking sells a week for 1,000,000 and 90 days for 8,500,000. Its page shows a "Refresh & Connect" break at 4 PM every weekday and social events like pickleball and bowling.
• Circo is the city-centre option with offices and meeting rooms. Meeting rooms start from 250,000 VND an hour and a virtual office from 875,000 VND a month.

Pick by where you're sleeping. Five of these six spaces are in Son Tra and Ngu Hanh Son, and Circo makes sense if you'd rather live in the Hai Chau city centre. Some sites show a new ward name and an older district name side by side, so use the map pin, not the address line.

Where founders meet

Da Nang's scene is small, and it leans towards AI builders and nomads rather than founder-only rooms. These groups had dated events on their own pages when checked on 28 October 2026:

• AI Fusion Labs Da Nang says it has 1,039 members on Meetup and 123 past events. It meets on Sundays from 11 AM at Webe Coffee in An Hai, Son Tra, with sessions on 18 October (9 attendees) and 25 October (8 attendees) and dates listed for 1, 8, 15 and 22 November. It's the most reliable weekly fixture.
• AI Tinkerers Da Nang is the hands-on builder night. It held an inaugural meetup on 15 August with Enouvo as venue partner, a global hackathon on 12 September and an October Builder Meetup on 18 October, and listed a December Builder Meetup on Tuesday 1 December 2026 from 8:30 AM when we checked on 26 October 2026.
• Nomads.com meetups run CO-WORK Tuesdays, which repeats every Tuesday (3 went on 27 October), and PITCH Fridays, which repeats every Friday at ACE Hub (5 went on 16 October). They're tiny, but the pitch session is one of the few founder-shaped formats in town.
• eChai Da Nang lists a Startup Mixer for 12 November 2026, 6 to 8 PM, which only goes ahead once 10 founders show interest (0 of 10 when checked), and another for Thursday 10 December. It's a free founder format worth backing if you want one to exist.
• Digital Nomads in Da Nang says it has 1,553 members and 270 past events. It ran Friday nights at My Casa in Son Tra two weeks apart, with 30 attendees on 21 August, but shows no upcoming events, so it looks paused.
• Da Nang Nomad Fest 2027 runs from 19 to 28 March 2027 for freelancers, solopreneurs and creators, with talks, workshops and a hackathon. Tickets are $197 early bird or $297 USD regular.

Two more to know. Entrepreneurs Back Room Da Nang runs entrepreneurs-only meetups, but it has 61 members, its last Da Nang session on 12 September had 4 attendees and nothing upcoming is listed, so it looks quiet. And The Workshop runs a weekly Tuesday improv jam and Friday karaoke, which is social rather than business, but an easy way to meet people in your first week.

If you can't find your people here, our guide to communities for remote founders covers online groups you can join before you land. If you want a bigger founder scene in the same time zone, see Bangkok for remote founders.

Business basics

The short version: keep your company and bank account outside Vietnam, sell to foreign customers, and count both your days and your lease.

Banking and getting paid

We couldn't load a Vietnamese bank's own page on opening an account as a foreigner when we checked, so we're not quoting requirements. Most remote founders keep their home business account or a multi-currency account and keep invoicing from their own company, which also keeps your business clean if you leave after a few months. Our guide to business accounts for remote founders compares the options.

Working legally

No official page we checked says an e-visa or exemption lets you work in Vietnam. GOV.UK tells visitors to check which visa or work permit they need with the Vietnam Immigration Department before working, and warns that people who work illegally can be held until they pay a fine. Taking a Vietnamese client or hiring locally is a different situation from serving overseas customers, so get local advice first.

Tax residency

Vietnam's Decree 253/2026/ND-CP, published in the Official Gazette on 16 July 2026 and in force from 1 July 2026, guides the new Personal Income Tax Law. It says you're resident if either of these applies:

1. You're in Vietnam for 183 days or more in a calendar year, or in 12 consecutive months from your first day in the country. The day you arrive and the day you leave each count as a day.
2. You have a regular residence in Vietnam. That includes rented housing where your leases add up to 183 days or more in the tax year, even across several places, and hotels and guesthouses count.

Residents are taxed on income arising inside and outside Vietnam, wherever it's paid. Non-residents are taxed only on income arising in Vietnam. The decree adds that if you have a regular residence in Vietnam but spend fewer than 183 days there, you're still resident unless you can prove tax residence in another country, usually with a residence certificate. The lease rule is the one that catches founders: a 12-month apartment lease can matter even if you leave for visa runs. Read our tax residency guide and talk to an adviser in both countries before you settle.

Time zones

Da Nang runs on Indochina Time, UTC+7, with no daylight saving. Other places change clocks around it:

• US Eastern: New York is on UTC-4 until clocks go back on 1 November 2026, then UTC-5, putting Da Nang 12 hours ahead. 9 AM in New York is 9 PM in Da Nang, so East Coast calls land in your evening.
• US Pacific: Los Angeles moves to UTC-8 on 1 November 2026, 15 hours behind Da Nang. 9 AM in Los Angeles is midnight in Da Nang, so plan on late nights or early mornings.
• Central Europe: Berlin is on UTC+1 until 28 March 2027, 6 hours behind Da Nang. 9 AM in Berlin is 3 PM in Da Nang, a good afternoon overlap. After 28 March the gap is 5 hours.
• Australia: Sydney is on UTC+11 until 4 April 2027, 4 hours ahead. Your 9 AM is 1 PM in Sydney, so your mornings overlap with their afternoons. After 4 April it's 3 hours.

Until 1 November 2026 the US is still on summer time, so New York is 11 hours behind Da Nang and Los Angeles 14. Our guide to running a team across time zones has meeting patterns that work.

Monthly cost band

Numbeo's crowd-sourced data puts a single person's monthly costs in Da Nang at about ₫11,667,594 excluding rent. A one-bedroom apartment averages ₫14,565,323 a month in the city centre and ₫9,375,894 outside it. The Numbeo page was last updated on 26 October 2026 and draws on 581 entries from 74 contributors in the past 12 months, and some comments on the page say the data is out of date. Treat it as a rough guide, not a budget.

Add a coworking month of 2,000,000 to 3,500,000 VND from the table above and you have a working estimate before flights, insurance and visa costs. Our health insurance guide covers that last piece.

Common mistakes

• Expecting a nomad visa. Vietnam doesn't have one. Plan around the 90-day e-visa or a 45-day exemption, and know neither is described as a work visa.
• Booking the e-visa through an agency. The tourism authority lists USD $25 or USD $50 and warns about inflated third-party fees. Use evisa.gov.vn.
• Picking the wrong entry point. An e-visa ties you to the entry and exit points you chose when you applied.
• Assuming your passport is exempt. Australian, US, Canadian and New Zealand passports aren't on the exemption list.
• Signing a long lease without thinking about tax. Rented housing on leases totalling 183 days in the tax year counts as a regular residence, which can make you resident unless you can prove tax residence elsewhere. Residents are taxed on income from outside Vietnam too.
• Forgetting to count arrival and departure days. Both count as days in Vietnam under the new decree.
• Waiting for a founder meetup to appear. The founder-only groups are small or quiet. Go to the AI meetups and the Friday pitch session, or back eChai's mixer.

Bring Remote Builders to Da Nang

Remote Builders runs city chapters: monthly nights for people building businesses remotely, each run by a member who lives in the city. Bali Startup & Tech in Canggu is chapter one. No city outside Bali has a chapter yet, Da Nang included. A chapter opens when a member who lives there applies to host and runs a first event, so if you're based in Da Nang, apply to host or read more on the chapters page.

To meet other remote founders before you land, join Remote Builders (it's free).