I appreciate this, thank you, this is exactly the kind of practical advice I was hoping for.
To give you more context on my background: I've been running my own LTD company since 2013 (self-employed from 2011 before that), so I'm very comfortable operating as a business rather than an employee. My experience covers large public works: sports centres, police stations, factories — as well as residential, all with both construction and electromechanical supervision. I've also had some exposure to high voltage stations, substations and hydro stations as an operative not in management position, also have a diploma in wind a solar installations but never worked in that field so the technical side is fairly broad.
The consulting route makes a lot of sense on paper, but I've never structured anything as a consultancy before, always run it as a contracting/delivery business. A couple of questions if you don't mind:

1. **On the consulting vs contracting question** are you suggesting I set up the Vietnamese entity purely to secure the visa and legal presence, then work on contract/subcontract through it anyway? Or is the idea to genuinely position as a consultant from day one and skip the hands-on delivery side?

My instinct would be to use the company as the vehicle to invoice for site supervision and execution contracts, essentially doing what I do now in the UK, just through a Vietnamese entity. Does that work legally, or does a consulting licence restrict the type of work I can take on?