Birth registration for children with foreign elements shall be carried out at the competent district-level People’s Committees. Cases of birth with foreign elements based on the Law on Civil Status 2014 include children born abroad who have not yet been registered for birth and reside in Vietnam; if the child is born in Vietnam, one parent is a Vietnamese citizen and the other is a foreigner or stateless person; one parent is a Vietnamese citizen residing in the country and the other is a Vietnamese citizen residing abroad; father and mother are Vietnamese citizens residing abroad; whose parents are foreigners or stateless.
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.