ĐĂNG KÝ KHAI SINH CHO TRẺ EM LÀ CÔNG DÂN VIỆT NAM SINH RA TẠI NƯỚC NGOÀI / BIRTH REGISTRATION FOR CH

Birth registration for Vietnamese children born abroad is conducted as per regulations of Circular No. 07/2023/TT-BNG dated December 29th, 2023, guiding the registration and management of civil status by overseas Vietnamese diplomatic missions and consular offices, effective February 15th, 2024, and relevant provisions. 

Birth registration is one of the civil status events of an individual according to point A, clause 1, Article 3 of the Law on Civil Status 2014. Accordingly, the birth certificate is a component of civil status registration—creating a legal basis for the State to protect lawful rights and interests of the individual and manage the population. Article 15 of the Law on Civil Status 2014 stipulates the birth registration responsibility for children: within 60 days after the birth of their child, the father or mother shall register the child’s birth; if the parents are unable to register their child’s birth, the grandfather or grandmother or another relative or the individual or organization that is nurturing the child shall register his/her birth.

First, the power over registration of birth for Vietnamese children born abroad  

According to Article 6 of Circular No. 07/2023/TT-BNG, the representative mission in the consular region where the child’s parent resides or where the child was born shall receive the registration of birth for that child who was born abroad, has his/her birth not yet registered at an overseas competent authority, and belongs to any of the following cases:

- His/her parents are Vietnamese citizens;

- His/her mother is a Vietnamese citizen but his/her father is a stateless person or vice versa;

- His/her mother is a Vietnamese citizen, but it is unable to identify his/her father;

- His/her parent is a Vietnamese citizen, the other is a foreigner, and the parents have made a written agreement to select Vietnamese nationality for their child upon the birth registration.

According to clause 2 of Article 2, clauses 1, 2, and 3 of Article 4 of the Law on Overseas Representative Missions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam 2009, the Representative missions include: 

• Diplomatic representative missions: Embassies.
• Consular representative missions: General Consulates and Consulates.
• Representative missions at international organizations: permanent missions, missions, permanent observer missions, and agencies that bear other names but perform the function of representing the Vietnamese State at intergovernmental international organizations.

According to clause 2 of Article 2 of Circular No. 07/2023/TT-BNG, in countries where two or more representative missions of Vietnam are situated, the representative mission in the consular region where the applicant resides shall have the power to receive civil registrations.

Besides, according to clause 3 Article 2 of Circular no. 07/2023/TT-BNG, in countries or territories where representative missions are not available, the civil registration shall be carried out at non-resident or convenient representative missions.

Second, application for birth registration for abroad Vietnamese children 

According to clause 1 of Article 7 of Circular No. 07/2023/TT-BNG, the applicant for birth registration must prepare the following documents: 

- Birth registration form (using the regulated form);

- Birth certification paper or other papers issued by overseas competent authorities to certify that the child was born abroad and verify the mother-child relationship. If the above documents are not submitted, the applicant must submit a document confirming his/her birth made by a witness. If there is no witness, there must be a written commitment to his/her birth.

- A written agreement made by parents on selecting Vietnamese nationality for their child in case the child’s parent is a Vietnamese citizen and the other is a foreigner.

If the application for birth registration is not submitted in person, the signature appearing on the written agreement on selection of the child's nationality must be legally authenticated.

- Document proving marital relationship in case the child’s parents have their marriage registered, unless the child's parents both are Vietnamese citizens with personal identification numbers (PINs) and have their marriage registered or recorded at a competent authority of Vietnam and the representative mission has connected with the electronic civil status database.

Note: According to clause 4, Article 4 of Circular no. 07/2023/TT-BNG, documents issued by competent authorities of a host country to use for carrying out civil registration procedures with representative missions do not require consular legalization. If the authenticity of a document is doubted, that document must obtain consular legalization by a competent authority. Documents issued by competent authorities of a third country to serve the civil registration carried out at representative missions must obtain consular legalization, and documents in foreign languages included in the applications for civil registration must be translated into Vietnamese or English; the translation must be notarized or have the translators’ signatures certified as regulated by law.

Third, the birth registration procedure for children who are Vietnamese citizens in foreign countries. 

According to Article 4 of Circular No. 07/2023/TT-BNG, the birth registration procedure for children who are Vietnamese citizens in foreign countries is as follows: 

Step 1: The applicant submits an application, including the mentioned documents above, to representative missions according to the regulations. An application for civil registration may be submitted in person, by post, or via the online civil registration system.

When requesting a representative mission to handle procedures for civil registration, the applicant must present the original of any of the following documents: passport or passport substitute, ID card, Citizen Identity Card or other unexpired documents with photo and personal information issued by competent authorities (hereinafter referred to as identity papers) to prove his/her identity, and document(s) proving his/her residence in the host country (if any). The representative mission shall check, make a photocopy and certify that photocopy after having compared it with the original thereof for archiving. If the application for civil registration is submitted by post, certified copies of the said documents shall be submitted.

If the applicant is a Vietnamese citizen and is granted an ID card with a personal identification number (PIN), the applicant may present the original of such a card in person or the photocopy of such a card by post or via the online civil registration system to prove his/her identity when the technical infrastructure allows the representative mission to connect to the National Population Database.

Pursuant to clause 1 of Article 2 of Circular No. 04/2020/TT-BTP, the applicant may authorize another person to conduct, but the authorization must be granted in writing and certified as per the law. Such certification is not required if the authorized person is a biological sibling, grandparent, parent, child, or spouse of the authorizing person.

Step 2: According to clause 2 of Article 7 of Circular No. 04/2020/TT-BTP, the consul shall check the application for birth registration upon receipt. If birth registration information is sufficient and valid, the consul shall record all birth registration information in the birth register and request the representative mission’s head to sign the birth certificate.

Step 3: Receiving results: 

According to clause 6, Article 4 of Circular No. 07/2023/TT-BNG, for registering birth, the applicants shall be present at representative missions to put their signature to civil status registers and receive results. 

Lawyer Thao Nguyen - FDVN Law Firm