marriage registration procedures in Vietnam

Question: Dear DTD law firm,

I am a Vietnamese citizen, married to my Indian husband and registered a marriage in Tamil Nadu – India.

At present, I and my husband are living and working in Singapore. We intend to come back to Vietnam to reside.

I want to carry out the procedure of Marriage recognition in Vietnam.

I would like to receive advice from DTD regarding this procedure.

Thank you!

Answer: With your question, DTD will reply as follow:

1. Legal grounds

• Article 48 of Law on Civil Status 2014
• Article 35 of Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP
• Clause 3, Article 2 of Decree No. 123/ND-CP
• The form enclosed with Circular No. 15/2015/TT-BTP
• Article 1 of Circular No. 179/2015/TT-BTC regulating the rate for civil status registration at the District-level People’s Committee.

1. Dossier-receiving authority:

District-level Justice Office of the locality where you reside.

1. The dossier consists of:

• The application form for Marriage recognition (pursuant to the form enclosed with Circular No. 15/2015/TT-BTP.
• A copy of the marriage certificate issued by foreign competent authority.
• A written authorization document pursuant to the law in case you want to authorize someone to carry out the Marriage recognition procedure. If the authorized person is your grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, child, spouse or sibling of the authorizing person, the written authorization document need not to be notarized or authenticated. However, there must be documents proving relationship with the authorizing person.
• A copy of one of the following documents for both man and woman: Passport, ID card, Citizenship card or other documents with photo and personal information issued by the competent authority which are still valid (hereinafter referred to as “identity documents”) to prove personal identity.
• During the transitional period, the applicant for civil status registration must provide documents as proof of residence.
• If the Vietnamese citizen divorced or revoked the marriage at a foreign competent authority, he or she must submit an excerpt which confirm the record in the Book of Civil Status regarding such incident (Excerpt on divorce)

1. Processing time limit

• 05 working days from the date when District-level Justice Office receipts the valid dossiers.
• In case verification is needed, the processing time limit must not exceed 10 working days.
• In case the District-level People’s Committee declines to record the marriage in the Book of Civil Status, the Justice Office must inform the applicant in writing.

1. The fee

Recording in the Book of Civil Status the civil status of Vietnamese citizen processed at foreign competent authority: no more than VND 75,000.

1. Number of dossier: 01 set of dossier.
2. Notes

• The documents submitted for civil status registration, particularly, the marriage recognition: documents in foreign language used for civil status registration in Vietnam must go through consular legalization process then must be translated to Vietnamese; the translated documents must be notarized or the translator's signature must be authenticated as prescribed by law.
• The applicant for marriage recognition must bring the original version of his/her identity document so that the person in charge of the procedure can check.