1. Step 1:

a/ For an employee currently paying social insurance premiums: The employer shall submit a dossier as prescribed to the social insurance organization to which it/he/she pays social insurance premiums; and receive back the processed dossier from the social insurance organization for handover to the employee.

b/ For a person who participates in social insurance on a voluntary basis, person who has his/her compulsory social insurance premium payment period reserved or voluntarily resumes payment of compulsory social insurance premiums by himself/herself, or person who is waiting until reaching the pension eligibility age or monthly allowance eligibility age under Decree No. 09/1998/ND-CP: To submit a dossier as prescribed to the district- or provincial-level social insurance agency of the locality where he/she is residing.

The employee shall receive dossier-processing results in person; in case of impossibility to come to receive results in person, he/she shall make a letter of authorization according to form No. 13-HSB (original) or contract of authorization in accordance with law for his/her lawful representative to receive results.

2. Step 2:

- After receiving a complete dossier from an employer or employee, a district-level social insurance agency shall transfer the dossier to the concerned provincial-level social insurance agency; and receive the processed dossier from the provincial-level social insurance agency and return it directly to the employee or to employer for the latter to hand it over to the employee.

- When receiving the dossier from the employee or employer, the district-level/provincial-level social insurance agency shall compare uncertified copies against their originals and then return the originals directly to the employee or to the employer for the latter to hand them over to the employee.  

- Employers shall submit dossiers and receive results by post;

- Those who participate in social insurance on a voluntary basis, those who have their compulsory social insurance premium payment periods reserved and voluntarily resumes payment of compulsory social insurance premiums by themselves, and those who are waiting until reach the pension eligibility age or monthly allowance eligibility age under Decree No. 09/1998/ND-CP, shall submit dossiers directly at the single-window sections of district-level social insurance agencies or the dossier receipt and result return sections of provincial-level social insurance agencies.  

1. Social insurance book (original);

2. Depending on each case, a dossier must also comprise the following documents:

a/ For employees currently paying compulsory social insurance premiums:

- Decision on work stoppage for enjoyment of retirement benefits (original), made according to the form issued together with the Government’s Decree No. 46/2010/ND-CP of April 27, 2010, or Form No. 12-HSB;

- Record of assessment of working capacity loss, made by a medical assessment council (original), certificate of serious disability (equivalent to working capacity loss of between 61% and 80%) or certificate of extremely serious disability (equivalent to working capacity loss of 81% or higher) as prescribed in Circular No. 37/2012/TTLT-BLDTBXH-BYT-BTC-BGDDT, for those who retire due to reduction of working capacity;

- Written certification of infection with HIV/AIDS due to occupational incidents or risks issued by a competent agency, for those who retire due to infection with HIV/AIDS as a result of occupational incidents or risks.

b/ For persons who participate in social insurance on a voluntary basis and persons who have their social insurance premium payment periods reserved (including also those who are serving imprisonment sentence, those who had leaved the country illegally and then return for residence in a lawful manner, and persons who have their missing declaration cancelled by court):

- An application made according to Form No. 14-HSB (original);   

- Record of assessment of working capacity loss, made by a medical assessment council (original), certificate of serious disability (equivalent to working capacity loss of between 61% and 80%) or certificate of extremely serious disability (equivalent to working capacity loss of 81% or higher) as prescribed in Circular No. 37/2012/TTLT-BLDTBXH-BYT-BTC-BGDDT, for those who retire due to reduction of working capacity;

- Letter of authorization (Form No. 13-HS, original), for those who are serving an imprisonment sentence which starts from January 1, 2016, onwards;

- Certificate of completion of imprisonment sentence or paper on early release from prison or decision on exemption or suspension from execution of judgment, for those who started serving their imprisonment sentence in the period from January 1, 1995, to December 31, 2015;

- Paper on returning to the country for legal residence issued by a competent agency, for those who have illegally leaved the country;

- Legally valid court ruling cancelling a missing declaration decision, for those who have been declared missing and now return.

c/ For those who have obtained decisions on or certificates of work stoppage to wait until reaching pension eligibility age or monthly allowance eligibility age under Decree No. 09/1998/ND-CP:

- Decision or certificate of work stoppage to wait until reaching pension eligibility age or monthly allowance eligibility age under Decree No. 09/1998/ND-CP (original); in case such a certificate is lost, the applicant shall make an application (form No. 14-HSB), clearly stating that the certificate of work stoppage pending settlement of social insurance benefits has been lost;

- Record of assessment of working capacity loss, made by a medical assessment council (original), certificate of serious disability (equivalent to working capacity loss of between 61% and 80%) or certificate of extremely serious disability (equivalent to working capacity loss of 81% or higher) as prescribed in Circular No. 37/2012/TTLT-BLDTBXH-BYT-BTC-BGDDT, for those who retire due to reduction of working capacity;

- Letter of authorization (Form No. 13-HS, original), for those who are serving an imprisonment sentence which starts from January 1, 2016, onwards;

- Certificate of completion of imprisonment sentence or paper of early release from prison or decision on exemption or suspension from execution of judgment, for those who started serving their imprisonment sentence in the period from January 1, 1995, to December 31, 2015.

Notes: If it is not required to submit original documents, applicants may submit originals, originals enclosed with copies for comparison, certified copies or copies issued on the basis of information from original books.  

Within 20 days after receiving a complete dossier as prescribed 

A. Conditions for entitlement to pensions for employees who are currently paying compulsory social insurance premiums and persons who have their compulsory social insurance premium payment periods reserved:

1. Employees specified at Points a, b, c, d, g, h and i, Clause 1, Article 2 of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance, except those prescribed in Section 3 below, who stop working after having paid social insurance premiums for full 20 years or more, will be entitled to pensions if falling into one of the following cases:

a/ Being aged full 60, for men, or 55, for women;

b/ Being aged between full 55 and full 60, for men, or between full 50 and full 55, for women, and having practiced or performed heavy, hazardous or dangerous occupations or jobs or extreme heavy, hazardous or dangerous occupations or jobs on the lists promulgated by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs or the Ministry of Health for full 15 years or having worked in areas with a region-based allowance coefficient of 0.7 or higher for full 15 years;

c/ Being aged between full 50 and full 55 and having paid social insurance premiums for full 20 years or more, including at least full 15 years of performing pit coal mining jobs;

d/ Being infected with HIV/AIDS due to occupational incidents or risks.

2. Employees specified at Points dd and e, Clause 1, Article 2 of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance, who stop working after having paid social insurance premiums for full 20 years or more, will be entitled to pensions if falling into one of the following cases:

a/ Being aged full 55, for men, or 50, for women, unless otherwise prescribed by the Law on Officers of the Vietnamese People’s Amy, the Law on the People’s Public Security Force or the Law on Cipher;

b/ Being aged between full 50 and full 55, for men, or between full 45 and full 50, for women, and having practiced or performed heavy, hazardous or dangerous occupations or jobs or extreme heavy, hazardous or dangerous occupations or jobs on the lists promulgated by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs or the Ministry of Health for full 15 years or having worked in areas with a region-based allowance coefficient of 0.7 or higher for full 15 years;

c/ Being infected with HIV/AIDS due to occupational incidents or risks.

3. A female employee who works on a full-time or part-time basis at a commune, ward or township will be entitled to pension if at the time when she stops working, she has paid social insurance premiums for between full 15 years and under 20 years and is aged full 55.

B. Conditions for entitlement to pension upon working capacity loss

1. Employees specified at Points a, b, c, d, g, h and i, Clause 1, Article 2 of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance who stop working after having paid social insurance premiums for full 20 years or more, will be entitled to pension at the levels lower than those who meet conditions for entitlement to pension prescribed at Points a and b, Clause 1, Article 54 of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance if falling into one of the following cases:

a/ From January 1, 2016, men aged full 51 and women aged full 46 and suffering from working capacity loss of 61% or higher will be entitled to pension upon working capacity loss. These age thresholds will annually increase by 1 year so that from 2020 on, a person who suffer from working capacity loss of 61% or higher will be entitled to pension upon working capacity loss only when he/she reaches full 55, for men, for full 50, for women;

b/ Being aged full 50, for men, or full 45, for women, and suffering from working capacity loss of 81% or higher;

c/ Suffering from working capacity loss of 61% or higher and having practiced for performed extreme heavy, hazardous or dangerous occupations or jobs on the lists promulgated by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs or the Ministry of Health. 

2. Employees prescribed at Points dd and e, Clause 1, Article 2 of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance who stop working after having paid social insurance premiums for full 20 years and suffer from working capacity loss of 61% or higher will be entitled to pensions at levels lower than those who meet conditions for entitlement to pension prescribed at Points a and b, Clause 2, Article 54 of the 2014 Law on Social Insurance if falling into one of the following cases:

a/ Being aged full 50, for men, or full 45, for women;

b/ Having practiced extreme heavy, hazardous or dangerous occupations or jobs on the lists promulgated by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs or the Minitry of Health for full 15 years.

C. Persons participating in social insurance on a voluntary basis will be entitled to pension if fully meeting the following conditions:

1. Being aged full 60, for men, or full 55, for women;

2. Having paid social insurance premiums for full 20 years or more.

D. Conditions for entitlement to pensions for those who are waiting until reaching pension eligibility age and commune cadres prescribed in Decree No. 09/1998/ND-CP who are waiting until reaching allowance eligibility age:

1. Being aged full 60, for men, and full 55, for women, for workers who have paid social insurance premiums for 15 years or more and stopped working to wait until reaching pension eligibility age before January 1, 2013. 

2. Being aged full 55, for men, and full 50, for women, for commune cadres who have paid social insurance premiums for 15 years or more and stopped working to wait until reaching monthly allowance eligibility age.