In today’s globalized world, it has become more common that people from different cultural backgrounds travel, and meet their spouse. Their children were born with happiness however they would face difficulties when applying for birth certificate for the newborn in Vietnam.

For the parents, the difficulties of registering birth certificate in Vietnam could range from the choice of name, nationality, or whether or not the child is born out of wedlock, if some papers needed notarization or legalization not not, would DNA tests would be required to confirm the father for the child in case of doubt.
What is the authority that issue birth certificate in Vietnam?

When a child between a foreigner and a Vietnamese is born in Vietnam, according to the regulation on the registration and management of civil status, the Department of Justice will be the Vietnam government agency issuing the birth certificate.

The parents need to fill in the standard forms and provide the birth documents from hospital, marriage status documents, personal identification papers and other supporting documents depending on various situations so as the government offices could check and validate.

In cases where parents choose foreign nationality for the child, they must obtain the agreement of the parents about the choice of nationality. The valid agreement of the parents about the choice of nationality shall be certified by the local authority.

After receiving an application dossier for birth certificate for newborn in Vietnam, civil status officials of the Department of Justice records in the birth registration and original birth certificate. The director of the Department of Justice shall sign and issue an original birth certificate for the newborn. Copies of birth certificates are issued at the request of the applicant.

For children born out of wedlock, if the father is not identified, the information about the father in the birth registration book and birth certificate are left blank. When the father officially agrees to recognize father for a child, he has to carry out the procedure at the Vietnam’s provincial Department of Justice. The birth certificate could also be revised to reflect the father’s details into the new birth certificate. This birth certificate will be very important when the father applies foreign citizenship for the child.

The child can be named according to parental choice to be recorded on the birth certificate.
How a law firm could help the client to get a birth certificate in Vietnam?

Most of the time, the application for birth certificate could be done by parents themselves. But for children born out of cross marriage, there could be challenges as mentioned above. The challenges arisen might be from the lacking of understanding or the unclear regulations or the difference of cultures, practices, languages. The lawyers in Vietnam could evaluate the situations and assist the client to prepare the documents according to the requirements of law, go through the procedures of notarization and translation if needed, and assist the client in explaining the situation to the government officer.

Nguồn: https://antlawyers.vn/library/how-to-apply-for-birth-certificate-in-vietnam.html

The application for birth registration with foreign elements is prescribed by the Law on Civil Status 2014; Decree 123/2015/ND-CP; Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP. Person who requests birth registration with foreign elements will have to submit documents to the People’s Committee; whom will receive the applications and check the validity of the documents in the applications.

In case the child’s parent chooses a foreign citizenship for the child upon birth registration, besides the written consent to such choosing, a confirmation that such choosing conforms to the foreign country’s law from the competent authority of the foreign country is required. If there is no confirmation from the competent foreign authority, the civil registration authority shall register the child’s birth but leave the nationality section in the birth certificate and birth register blank.

The officer in Civil Status will record the birth registration information in the birth registration book and sign in the book with the person that has the request. The Justice Division shall report to the Chairman of the district-level People’s Committee to issue the birth certificate to the person who requests birth registration. In case one of the parents chooses Vietnamese nationality for their child, the officer doing the Civil Status work will update the birth registration information to obtain the personal identification number.

The birth registration for children with foreign elements should be carried out according to the provisions of the Law on Civil Status and related documents. Vietnamese law always creates favorable conditions for couples to make birth certificates for children with foreign elements.Nguồn: https://antlawyers.vn/library/how-to-register-a-birth-for-a-child-between-vietnamese-and-foreigner-in-2022.html

According to the regulations, the authority whom issue copy extract of birth certificate will not depend on the place of residence of the person having the right to request, hence the requester can apply for a copy of extract birth certificate at civil status management agencies nationwide. However, at present, because the electronic civil status database system has not been synchronized nationwide, the request for issuance of a copy of civil status extract is still within the competence of the People’s Committee of the province, commune where the birth was originally registered. The birth certificate extract from the original has the same value as the original.

Applying for a copy of extract birth certificate is an administrative procedure. Specifically, the person who wishes to apply for a copy of extract birth certificate can do this by himself or authorize another person to carry out this procedure. In addition, the requester can apply in person or send it by post or submit an application online through the national public service portal.

In addition, the application for a copy of extract birth certificate must also comply with the regulations. Accordingly, the dossier includes: (i) Declaration; (ii) The original of one of the identification papers to prove identity; (iii) Power of attorney or documents proving the kinship relationship. The authorization must be made in writing and authenticated according to the law. In case, authorizing a relative, the authorization document does not need to be notarized or authenticated, but documents relating to the relationship with the authorizing person is needed. If the documents are in a foreign language, they must be translated into Vietnamese and notarized or authenticated by the translator’s signature as prescribed by law.

Within three working days from the date of receipt of the dossier, the civil status registration and management agency will verify the dossier and compare the information in the electronic civil status database. If the request for certification is correct, a document certifying civil status information shall be returned to the requester. In case of having to check and verify, the time limit can be extended but not exceeding ten working days. If the birth registration data is not found, the civil status agency will normally send a written reply with the content not found in the data.

Registrationof Birth in Vietnam