Documenting the marriage registration in the Civil Status Book in Vietnam

Answer: Thank you for your email. For your question, DB Legal – Law Firm in Vietnam answers as follows:

According to Article 34 of Decree No. 123/2015/NĐ-CP dated November 15, 2015, on guidelines for Law on Civil Status ("Decree No. 123"), the conditions for documenting the marriage of Vietnamese citizens that have been settled at foreign competent authorities as follows:

"1. The marriage between Vietnamese citizens or a Vietnamese citizen and a foreigner that has been settled at a foreign competent authority shall be permitted to be documented in the vital records provided that both partners, at the time of marriage, meet all conditions for marriage and do not commit violations against the Law on marriage and family of Vietnam.

2. If the partners, at the time of marriage registration at the foreign competent authority, do not meet the conditions for marriage but do not commit any violation against the Law on marriage and family, and consequences have been remedied, or the marriage record is made for the purpose of protecting interests of Vietnamese citizen and children, at the time of requesting documenting in vital records, the marriage will be permitted to be documented in the vital records."

Therefore, based on the above regulations, you and your wife can register your marriage in America in the Civil status book in Vietnam.

Procedures for marriage record:

1. An application for marriage record shall be submitted by either one partner at the competent authority as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 48 of the Law on civil status, including:

a) An application form as prescribed;

b) A copy of the marriage certificate issued by the foreign competent authority; Papers granted, notarized, or certified by competent foreign agencies for civil status registration in Vietnam shall be consular legalized in accordance with Law unless they are exempted under a treaty to which Vietnam is a contracting party.

c) Apart from documents prescribed in Points a and b of this Clause, if the application is submitted by post, copies of documents prescribed in Clause 1 Article 2 of Decree 123 are also required; if the partner, being a Vietnamese citizen, obtained divorce or marriage annulment at the foreign competent authority, a copy of the record of such divorce or marriage annulment prescribed in Clause 2 Article 37 of Decree 123 is also required.

2. The time limit for marriage records is five working days from the date on which the Committee Division of Justice receives the application.

In case of necessity to verify, the processing time limit is ten working days.

3. Procedures for marriage records shall be consistent with Clause 2 Article 50 of the Law on civil status and the following:

a) If the application is considered satisfactory as prescribed in Article 34 of this Decree, the Chief of Committee Division of Justice shall document the marriage in the vital records and request the President of the People's Committee of the district to sign the original copy from the vital records to the applicant.

b) If the application is considered unsatisfactory as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 36 of Decree 123, the Chief of Committee Division of Justice shall request the President of the People's Committee of the district to refuse it.

Cases for refusal of marriage record

1. An application for a marriage record shall be refused in any of the following cases:

a) The marriage infringes the Law on marriage and family.

b) The Vietnamese citizen gets married to a foreigner at a foreign diplomatic mission or consular agent in Vietnam.

2. If the application for marriage registration is refused, the Committee Division of Justice shall provide the applicant with an explanation in writing.

 

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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