If a foreigner in Vietnam has multiple social insurance numbers, will it affect their ability to withdraw their social insurance contributions?

This is a fairly common situation for foreign workers who have worked for multiple companies in Vietnam.

Some change companies after a few years of work but are unaware that the new company has registered a different social insurance number. In some cases, changes in passports, English spelling, or nationality result in inconsistent personal information across different periods of employment. Only when preparing to withdraw their social insurance contributions do many discover they have multiple different social insurance numbers in the system. This causes considerable anxiety among foreign workers, who worry that their social insurance contribution periods may be separated, not added together, or that it will affect their rights when applying for a lump-sum social insurance payment in Vietnam.

1. Why are foreigners more likely to have multiple social insurance numbers created for them?

Unlike Vietnamese workers, who usually have stable personal data, the records of foreigners in Vietnam are more prone to discrepancies during the social insurance participation process.

In reality, even minor differences in how names are written on passports, changes to passport numbers, or changes to work permits can lead businesses to register additional social insurance numbers without detecting existing data.

Furthermore, many companies hiring new foreign workers often rely solely on current records without thoroughly checking the employee's previous social insurance participation history in Vietnam. This results in a situation where one person has multiple different social insurance numbers after several job changes.

2. Does having multiple social insurance numbers result in lost insurance contribution time?

According to the 2024 Social Insurance Law and current regulations on social insurance data management, each employee, in principle, only uses one unique social insurance number throughout their social insurance participation period in Vietnam.

However, if multiple numbers arise due to information discrepancies or duplicate registrations, the social insurance agency may review and synchronize the data based on the employee's actual records. The important thing is that all periods of social insurance contributions must be recorded in the system and there must be sufficient evidence to confirm they belong to the same employee. Therefore, having multiple social insurance numbers does not automatically result in lost social insurance participation time, but it may prolong the processing of claims if the data is not yet synchronized.

3. What commonly happens when preparing to withdraw social insurance contributions?

Many foreign workers only discover problems when preparing to submit their application for a lump-sum social insurance benefit. In some cases, one company uses an old social insurance number while another company registers a new one. Some only have records from their most recent company and no documents related to previous employment.

When social insurance data is not yet unified, the period of social insurance participation may be separated across multiple records. This requires the social insurance agency to spend more time verifying the information before processing social insurance benefits for the worker. In some cases, if the worker does not check beforehand and submits the social insurance withdrawal application immediately, the processing may require additional data or adjustments.

4. Can someone who has returned to their home country resolve the issue of multiple social insurance numbers?

This is a fairly common situation for foreign workers who have worked in Vietnam for a long time. After returning home, many discover they have multiple social insurance numbers or that their social insurance contribution periods are not fully displayed. In some cases, workers have changed passports, so their personal data between different periods of employment no longer completely matches.

In practice, reviewing and processing social insurance data can still be done from abroad through authorization if the conditions stipulated by Vietnamese law are met. However, cases with multiple social insurance numbers usually require more thorough verification of personal information, employment periods, and social insurance contribution data at each company.

Some cases involve duplicate numbers due to different spellings of English names. But there are also cases where multiple numbers arise due to passport changes, changes in nationality, or inconsistencies in registration data from previous companies. Furthermore, some individuals have worked in various provinces and cities across Vietnam, resulting in their social insurance data being managed by different social insurance agencies over different periods. This is why processing claims often requires a detailed review of each person's data status instead of applying a single procedure to all cases.

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