Birth Registration Certificate in Vietnam

Question 1: I ("foreigner") and my spouse ("Vietnamese") do not have the marriage registration certificate in Vietnam yet. However, we have a baby, and can we submit the Birth Registration Certificate to the competent agency in Vietnam?

Answer:  Yes, you can.

According to Article 15 of Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP, dated May 28, 2020, you can combine birth registration with parent-child relationship recognition:

The People's Committee of the district where the Vietnamese parent lives shall handle the application for birth registration and parent-child relationship recognition.

An application for birth registration in combination with parent-child relationship recognition consists of the following:

a) A birth registration application and an application for parent-child relationship recognition made using the prescribed forms;

b) A certificate of live birth or an equivalent document per regulations in Clause 1 Article 16 of the Law on Civil Status;

c) Proof of parent-child relationship:

- Written confirmation of the father-child or mother-child relationship from a competent domestic or foreign regulatory body, organization, health authority, or testing authority;

- In case there is no proof of the parent-child relationship, the parent shall draw up a confirmation of their parent-child relationship with at least 2 witnesses of their parent-child relationship.

 

Question 2:  I ("foreigner") and my wife/my spouse ("Vietnamese") have a common baby. I want my baby to have both Vietnamese Nationality and my Nationality. Is that possible?

Answer: You can only choose one Nationality for Birth Registration in the Vietnamese competent agency. According to Article 36 of the Law on Civil Status relating to Birth registration procedures:

Birth registrants shall submit the following papers: 

(i) Declaration and

(ii) Birth certification papers;

(iii) A document on the parents' agreement on the citizenship selection for their child. If the parents choose foreign citizenship for their child, their agreement document must contain a certification of a competent foreign state agency of which they are citizens.

 

Question 3: I ("foreigner") and my wife ("foreigner") have marriage registration certificates in Vietnam. We have a common child. Can we submit a birth registration certificate in Vietnam?

Answer: Yes, you can.

Competence to register birth:

According to the Article 35 of Law on on Civil Status, District-level People's Committees of places of residence of fathers or mothers shall register birth for children in the following cases:

1. Children born in Vietnam:

a/ Having a parent being a Vietnamese citizen and the other being a foreigner or a stateless person;

b/ Having a parent being a Vietnamese citizen residing in the country and the other being a Vietnamese citizen residing abroad;

c/ Having both parents being Vietnamese citizens residing abroad;

d/ Having both parents being foreigners or stateless persons.

Therefore, in case both of you are foreigners and have a baby, you can submit for birth registration in Vietnam.

2. The application consists of documents as follows:

Birth registrants shall submit the following papers: 

(i) Declaration and;

(ii) Birth certification papers;

(iii) A document on the agreement of the parents on the selection of citizenship for their child. If the parents choose foreign citizenship for their child, their agreement document must contain a certification of a competent foreign state agency of which they are citizens.

3. Duration: around 5-10 working days.

 

Question 4:  I am a foreigner and am living outside Vietnam. I have just found out that my girlfriend has a baby with me. I want to submit the application for parent-child recognition in the competent agency. Can I authorize you to assist me to do it?

Answer: I can not do it on your behalf at the competent agency.

According to Article 2 of Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP, dated May 28, 2020, relating to the Authorization of civil registration:

"1. An applicant for issuance of a copy of a civil status extract, issuance of a marital status certificate or registration of a vital event listed in Article 3 of the Law on Civil Status (hereinafter collectively referred to as "civil registration application") may authorize another person to carry out such application; excluding marriage registration, marriage re-registration and recognition of the parent-child relationship, which may not be authorized but one party may submit an application to the competent civil registration authority without written Authorization from the other party.”

 

Question 5: I am a foreigner, and I have a relationship with a Vietnamese woman. After the baby was born, she left, and I am taking care of my baby. Could I submit the application for birth registration in Vietnam?

Answer:  Yes, you can.

According to Article 16 of Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP dated May 28,2020 relating to Parent-child relationship recognition and civil status revision in some special cases:

“1. In case a man and a woman cohabit and have a child without marriage registration and the child lives with the father, if the father cannot contact the mother upon application for father-child relationship recognition, the mother's opinion may be excluded from the application for father-child relationship recognition.

If the certificate of live birth and personal documents of the mother are available, the mother field shall be filled out based on the certificate of live birth and personal documents of the mother. Otherwise, this field shall be filled out based on information provided by the father; and the father shall take responsibility for such information.

An application for birth registration in combination with parent-child relationship recognition consists of the following:

a) A birth registration application and an application for parent-child relationship recognition made using the prescribed forms;

b) A certificate of live birth or an equivalent document per regulations in Clause 1 Article 16 of the Law on Civil Status;

c) Proof of parent-child relationship:

- Written confirmation of the father-child or mother-child relationship from a competent domestic or foreign regulatory body, organization, health authority, or testing authority;

- In case there is no proof of the parent-child relationship, the parent shall draw up a confirmation of their parent-child relationship with at least 2 witnesses of their parent-child relationship.

The People's Committee of Province, where the child resides shall apply for birth registration for the child with unidentified parents.

 

This  Advice includes information obtained or derived from a variety of publicly available sources. DB Legal has not sought to establish the reliability of these sources or verified such information. The information contained in this Advice is of a general nature only. It is not meant to be comprehensive and does not provide professional advice. You should not act upon the information contained in this advice without obtaining specific professional advice. Whilst every care has been taken in preparing this document, DB Legal makes no guarantee, representation or warranty (expressed or implied) as to its accuracy or completeness, and under no circumstances will DB Legal be liable for any loss caused by reliance on any opinion or statement made in this document. Except as specifically indicated, the expressions or opinions are those of DB Legal only and are subject to change without notice. This document shall not be copied, reproduced, transmitted or further distributed by any recipient. The materials contained in this document were assembled in June 2023 and were based on the laws enforceable and information available at the time.

 

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