EIA and environmental permits in 2026: who needs them…

Environmental Protection Law No. 72/2020/QH14 has been amended several times, most recently by Law No. 146/2025/QH15 (passed 11 December 2025, in force 1 January 2026). It is accompanied by Decree 48/2026/ND-CP and Circular 09/2026/TT-BNNMT, both dated 29 January 2026, which amend Decree 08/2022/ND-CP and Circular 02/2022/TT-BTNMT. For factory projects the key changes are: the environmental impact assessment (EIA) runs alongside the feasibility study, the EIA can be filed together with the project appraisal, and the environmental permit dossier is shorter.

EIA and environmental permits in 2026: who needs them, dossiers and time limits after Law 146/2025, photo 12

Part 1. Environmental impact assessment

Who needs an EIA?

EIAs are required for group I projects and some group II projects under the classification in Article 28 of the Environmental Protection Law (Article 30(1)). Grouping depends on scale, capacity, polluting activity type and environmentally sensitive factors (dense residential areas, drinking water sources, protected areas, forests, heritage and so on, under amended Article 28(1)(c)). The detailed lists by industry are in the appendices to Decree 08/2022/ND-CP as amended: [...] (check by industry and capacity for each project).

When and where?

The project owner carries out the EIA together with the feasibility study; each project has one EIA report (amended Article 31).
Where the feasibility study must be appraised by the construction authority, the owner may file the EIA together with the feasibility study; the EIA approval must come before the project is approved (amended Article 34(2)).
Appraisal authority: the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment for group I projects and some inter-provincial group II projects or projects approved in principle by the National Assembly or Prime Minister (amended Article 35); the provincial People's Committee for the rest.

EIA dossier and appraisal time

Item	Rule (Article 13a of Circular 02/2022, added by Circular 09/2026)
Dossier	(1) Request for EIA appraisal; (2) the project's EIA report
Filing	In person, by public postal service or online
Time limit	Up to 30 days for group I; up to 20 days for group II; up to 10 days where experts are consulted instead of a council (special public investment projects)
Method	Legal review, appraisal council, site survey, consultation of related agencies, council meeting, result notice

Projects under the special investment procedure do not prepare an EIA report (Article 28(2), 2025 Investment Law).

Part 2. Environmental permit

Who needs one?

Under Article 39(1) as amended by Law 146/2025/QH15, group I, II and III projects need an environmental permit if either:

they discharge wastewater, dust or exhaust gas that must be treated once in official operation; or
they import scrap as production material or provide hazardous waste treatment services.

Projects outside the permit regime may need an environmental registration (Article 49), unless exempt, for example projects with no waste or only small volumes treated on site (amended Article 49(2)).

Who issues it?

Ministry of Agriculture and Environment: projects whose EIA it approved; scrap-importing facilities and hazardous waste treatment facilities (amended Article 41(1)).
Chairperson of the provincial People's Committee: all other cases (Article 41(3)).

Environmental permit dossier checklist

Under Article 18b(1) of Circular 02/2022/TT-BTNMT (added by Circular 09/2026/TT-BNNMT):

Request for an environmental permit.
Environmental permit proposal report (main contents in Article 18a).
Copy of the feasibility study or equivalent document, except where the project already has an EIA approval decision.

Filing time and time limit

Case	When to file (Article 18b(2))
Project subject to EIA	After completing the whole project, an investment phase, or the waste-generating works with their environmental protection works
Project not subject to EIA	When the dossier is ready, at the owner's choice; if under construction, before operation

Time limit: up to 32 days (Ministry) or 30 days (province) from a complete, valid dossier (Article 18b(3)).
Within 7 days of a valid dossier, the authority publishes the proposal report online for at least 10 days (Article 18b(5)).
The authority forms an appraisal council; where the project has an approved EIA and no significant change, there is no site inspection.

Link to acceptance and putting into use

Article 29(4) of Decree 207/2026/ND-CP makes an environmental permit or registration (where required) a condition for putting works into use. Leave time for this step in the programme right after the wastewater and exhaust treatment systems are completed. See Completion acceptance and putting works into use.

Legal basis

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Note: This article is for general information, based on legislation in force on 25 October 2026, and is not legal advice for any specific project. Items marked [...] could not be verified against the official text and should be confirmed with the competent authority. Vietnamese legal texts are the authoritative versions.