Laos Investor Stay Permit

Laos has no packaged investor residence programme with a published price. Residence rights flow directly from investment status: under the Law on Investment Promotion, foreign investors and their family members have the right to reside in Lao PDR in accordance with their investment terms, and foreign professionals and experts in accordance with their employment contracts (Article 71, Law on Investment Promotion (Amended) 2024, No. 62/NA; Lao Trade Portal text of the 2016 law). The operative document is the Stay Permit Card (SP Card), issued alongside a business visa to investors holding an investment licence, concession licence or enterprise registration certificate, with applications processed through the Investment One-Stop Service Office of the Investment Promotion Department at the Ministry of Planning and Investment for centrally approved projects and through provincial planning and public-security channels otherwise (Invest Laos — Visa and Stay Permit Card).

Duration is the key structural feature. Ordinary investors — including anyone operating a general business on an enterprise registration certificate without a government contract, plus directors, deputy directors and technicians — receive stay permit cards and multiple-entry visas valid for no more than one year, renewed year by year; provincial police headquarters issue cards of 6 to 12 months. Investors holding a concession agreement with the Government of Lao PDR for 10 years or more, together with their family members, qualify for stay permits and multiple-entry visas valid for 3 to 5 years, with validity trimmed to the remaining contract term where a concession is nearing expiry. Business-visa approval takes about eight official working days after One-Stop Service registration, and multiple-entry visa fees are nominal: LAK 300,000 (US$37.50) for three months, LAK 600,000 (US$75) for six months and LAK 1,200,000 (US$150) for twelve months (Invest Laos — Visa and Stay Permit Card).

The 2024 amendment of the Law on Investment Promotion added the most investor-migration-relevant provisions. Article 19(2) grants foreign investors special consideration for residence permits and multiple-entry business visas during their investment term, caps each multiple-entry visa period at five years, and states that qualified investors may apply for honorary citizenship in accordance with the relevant regulation. Article 64(3) goes further for the Special and Specific Economic Zones: foreign developers and investors in an SEZ or SpEZ and their family members receive special consideration for foreigner registration, stay permits and multiple-entry visas, with each visa period running up to ten years — and an individual foreigner who owns real estate in a zone and has paid in full an amount equivalent to at least US$100,000 receives a renewable 10-year multiple-entry visa (Articles 19(2) and 64(3), Law on Investment Promotion (Amended) 2024). Practitioners describe the same benefit — renewable 10-year multiple-entry visas for buyers of SEZ real estate above US$100,000, and shorter multiple-entry visas for leases beyond three months — across Laos's 21 zones, including the Vientiane-area Saysettha Development Zone, Thatluang Lake SEZ and Longthanh–Vientiane SEZ (VDB Loi on Lao SEZs; ASEAN–Japan Centre, Special Economic Zones in Lao PDR).

On the investment side there is no general minimum capital for a foreign-owned company: the LAK 1 billion (about US$120,000) floor of the 2009 law was removed by the 2016 Investment Promotion Law and formally abolished for company registration by Ministry of Industry and Commerce Notification No. 2633/Cabinet/MOIC of 7 November 2017, subject to sector-specific rules (Tilleke & Gibbins). What remains is a 30% capital-import rule within 90 days of licensing (remainder within one year, each tranche certified by the Bank of Lao PDR), tiered registered-capital minimums for concession projects (30% of total investment below US$50 million, scaling to at least US$25 million for projects above US$500 million), and an incentive threshold of LAK 1.2 billion of investment capital or the employment of 30 Lao technical staff or 50 Lao workers (Law on Investment Promotion (Amended) 2024, Articles 52–54; UNCTAD Investment Laws Navigator — Lao Law on Investment Promotion). Official sources do not describe any One Village One Product investor residence track.

Core investor eligibility

• Hold approved investment status in Lao PDR — an investment licence, a concession licence or concession registration certificate, or an enterprise registration certificate (Invest Laos)

• Be a legitimate investor under Lao law, with shareholders, directors and deputy directors named in the company's articles of incorporation as approved by the planning and investment or industry and commerce sector, and a clear record with no pending court proceedings (Decree on the Implementation of the Investment Promotion Law No. 119/PM)

• Enter Laos on the correct business visa: NI-B2 for investors who are shareholders and their family members; LA-B2 for directors, deputy directors who hold no shares, and technicians (Invest Laos)

• Shareholders must be certified by the Investment Promotion Department or by the provincial planning-and-investment and industry-and-commerce sectors; non-shareholding directors must first obtain a Work Permit Card from the Skill Development and Employment Department (Invest Laos)

Capital requirements

• No general minimum registered capital for foreign investors registering a company, following the 2016 law and MOIC Notification No. 2633/Cabinet/MOIC (7 November 2017); sector laws may still impose minimums (Tilleke & Gibbins)

• General business: import at least 30% of registered capital within 90 days of receiving the business operating or investment licence, the remainder within one year, each tranche certified by the Bank of Lao PDR (Law on Investment Promotion (Amended) 2024, Art. 53)

• Concession business: registered capital of at least 30% of total investment below US$50 million; at least 20% but not less than US$15 million for US$50–100 million; at least 5% but not less than US$20 million for US$100–500 million; at least 2% but not less than US$25 million above US$500 million (Law on Investment Promotion (Amended) 2024, Art. 52)

• Foreign shareholders in a joint venture must contribute at least 10% of total capital (UNCTAD Investment Laws Navigator)

• Investment incentives require minimum investment capital of LAK 1,200,000,000 (≈US$53,000 at Aug 2026 rates) or the employment of at least 30 Lao technical staff or 50 Lao workers on contracts of at least one year (UNCTAD Investment Laws Navigator)

Economic-zone route (10-year visa)

• Own real estate in a Special or Specific Economic Zone and pay in full an amount equivalent to at least US$100,000 to receive a renewable 10-year multiple-entry visa; family members of zone developers and investors also receive special consideration for foreigner registration, stay permits and multiple-entry visas of up to ten years (Law on Investment Promotion (Amended) 2024, Art. 64(3))

• Leasing zone real estate for more than three months supports a multiple-entry visa (VDB Loi)

Documents and process

• Ordinary stay permit card and short-term multiple-entry visa (3, 6 or 12 months): company proposal; the entry visa used (NI-B2 or LA-B2); copy of the foreign investment or concession licence; copy of the business operation or factory establishment licence; annual enterprise registration certificate; annual tax registration certificate; original passport; four 3×4 photographs (Invest Laos)

• 3-to-5-year stay permit card: the same file plus a concession agreement with the Government of Lao PDR with a duration of 10 years or more (Invest Laos)

• File through the Investment One-Stop Service Office (central/Vientiane Capital) or the provincial planning-and-investment sections; cards are issued by the Foreign Management Department of the Ministry of Public Security or provincial public-security headquarters; business-visa approval takes eight official working days (Invest Laos)

• Official visa fees: LAK 5,000 application form; LAK 300,000 (US$37.50) for a 3-month multiple-entry visa; LAK 600,000 (US$75) for 6 months; LAK 1,200,000 (US$150) for 12 months (Invest Laos)

• Statutory residence right: foreign investors and their family members have the right to reside in Lao PDR in accordance with their investment terms, not at administrative discretion (Law on Investment Promotion (Amended) 2024, Art. 71)
• Renewable 10-year multiple-entry visa for individual foreigners who fully pay at least US$100,000 for real estate in a Special or Specific Economic Zone, extending to zone investors' family members (Art. 64(3))
• Stay permit cards and multiple-entry visas of 3 to 5 years for investors holding a government concession agreement of 10 years or more, including family members (Invest Laos)
• Very low official cost: US$37.50–150 in visa fees depending on validity, and an eight-working-day business-visa approval window (Invest Laos)
• One-stop processing of visas, work permits and residence permits through the One-Stop Investment Service Office (Art. 80(12))
• Discretionary honorary citizenship: "qualified investors based on the relevant regulation may apply for an honorary citizenship", with the Government directed to define a separate implementing regulation for these supporting incentives (Art. 19, Law on Investment Promotion No. 62/NA, UNCTAD text)
• Property and land rights inside the investment perimeter: land leases and concessions of up to 50 years for zone development, the right to sublease or transfer granted land-use rights with zone-committee approval, and ownership of buildings on leased or concession land with the right to transfer them (Arts. 62, 64(2), 68(10)–(11))
• Zone tax incentives: profit-tax holidays of 6–17 years depending on sector, zero-rated VAT for fully export-oriented factories and 50% VAT reductions on infrastructure, electricity and water (ASEAN–Japan Centre; VDB Loi)
• No general minimum registered capital for foreign company registration since the 2017 abolition of the LAK 1 billion floor (Tilleke & Gibbins)

Naturalisation is governed by the Law on Lao Nationality, which requires an applicant to be at least 18, to respect the Constitution and laws, to speak, read and write Lao fluently, to show evidence of social and cultural integration and knowledge of Lao traditions, to be in good health without serious infectious disease or drug addiction, to have no imprisonment sentence, to renounce the previous nationality, to participate in the protection and development of the country, not to have harmed the national interest, to hold a profession and qualifications with a stable economic position, and to have established continuous permanent residence in Lao PDR for ten years before applying (Law on Lao Nationality (Revised), Lao Services Portal; Refworld text). The ten-year permanent-residence requirement makes tax residency in Laos unavoidable on any realistic path.

Laos does not authorise multiple nationality for its citizens, so naturalisation requires surrendering the existing passport — a decisive constraint for most investor-migration clients (Institute on Statelessness UPR submission on Lao PDR; Law on Lao Nationality, Art. 14 reported by J&C Group). The only investment-adjacent softening is Article 19(2) of the 2024 Law on Investment Promotion, which allows qualified investors to apply for honorary citizenship "in accordance with the relevant regulation"; the implementing regulation, its thresholds and whether honorary status carries a passport or renunciation relief have not been published in official sources (Law on Investment Promotion (Amended) 2024).

The legal basis is the Law on Investment Promotion (Amended) No. 62/NA of 28 June 2024 — Article 19 on residence permits, multiple-entry visas capped at five years per issue and honorary citizenship for qualified investors, Article 64(3) on economic-zone stay permits, ten-year multiple-entry visas and the US$100,000 real-estate visa, Article 71 on the right of foreign investors to residence, and Article 80(12) on One-Stop Investment Service Office processing. Article 101 sets entry into force at 1 October 2024 and replaces the Law on Investment Promotion No. 14/NA of 17 November 2016 and Law No. 80/NA of 4 December 2019; investors holding pre-existing incentive agreements with the Government are unaffected until those agreements end, and had 180 days to request incentives under the new law (UNCTAD Investment Laws Navigator, full text of No. 62/NA; Lao Trade Portal, 2016 law). One practitioner note dates practical effect to 16 December 2024 (British Chamber of Commerce Laos). Procedure is set by the Decree on the Implementation of the Investment Promotion Law No. 119/PM and Article 55 of the implementing decree, which routes investor business-visa and stay-permit applications exclusively through the Investment One-Stop Service Office (Lao Trade Portal; Invest Laos).

Administration is shared: the Investment Promotion Department of the Ministry of Planning and Investment operates the One-Stop Service and certifies investor and shareholder status; the Foreign Management Department of the Ministry of Public Security and provincial public-security headquarters issue Stay Permit Cards; the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handles multiple-entry visa applications submitted in person; and Special Economic Zones are governed by Decree on SEZs No. 188/PM of 7 June 2018 plus each zone's development agreement (Invest Laos; VDB Loi). Nationality matters fall to the Law on Lao Nationality (Lao Services Portal).