Vietnam: Shall a personal identification number be issued to a child whose family name is in a foreign language? What are the cases of deactivation of personal identification numbers?
In Vietnam, can parents give the family name of their child in a foreign language?
Under Article 26 of the Civil Code 2015 on the right to have family and given names:
Right to have family and given names
1. Each natural person has right to have a family name and a given name (including a middle name, if any). The family and given names of a person shall be the family and given names in the birth certificate of such person.
2. The family name of a person shall be passed from his/her biological father's or mother’s as mutually agreed between the parents; if the parents fails to agree, the person’s family name shall be determined according to customary practices. If the father of such person is undetermined, his/her family name shall be passed from his/her natural mother’s.
If an abandoned child whose natural parents are unidentified is adopted, his/her family name shall be passed from his/her adoptive father’s or mother’s as mutually agreed between the parents. If the child has either an adoptive father or an adoptive mother, his/her family name shall be passed from such person’s.
If an abandoned child whose natural parents are unidentified and he/she has not been adopted but has been fostered by a foster establishment or a , his/her family name shall be determined at the request of the head of such foster family or at the request of the person registering the birth of the child.
Biological father and mother specified in this Code means a father and mother determined at the event of parturition; intended father and mother and the resulting child as prescribed in the Law on marriage and families.
3. The naming is restricted in case it violates lawful rights and interests of other people and contravenes basic principles of civil law prescribed in Article 3 of this Code.
The name of each Vietnamese citizen must be in Vietnamese or other ethnic minority languages of Vietnam and not include any figure or any symbol other than a letter.
4. Each natural person shall enter in and perform his/her civil rights and obligations following his/her family and given name.
5. A person may not use his/her code name or pen name to cause damage to the lawful rights and interests of other people.
At the same time, according to the provisions of Article 16 of the Vietnamese Nationality Law 2008 on the nationality of children either of whose parents are Vietnamese citizens:
The nationality of the children either of whose parents is a Vietnamese citizen
1. A child born inside or outside the Vietnamese territory either of whose parents is a Vietnamese citizen and the other is a stateless person at the time of his/her birth or whose mother, at the time of his/her birth, is a Vietnamese citizen and whose father is unknown, has Vietnamese nationality.
2. A child either of whose parents is a Vietnamese citizen at the time of his/her birth and the other is a foreign national has the Vietnamese nationality if so agreed in writing by his/her parents at the time of birth registration. In case a child is born in the Vietnamese territory but his/her parents fail to reach an agreement on the selection of his/her nationality, the child has Vietnamese nationality.
From the above regulations, the naming is restricted in case it violates the lawful rights and interests of others and contravenes basic principles of civil law specified in Article 3 of this Code.
Simultaneously, the name of each Vietnamese citizen must be in Vietnamese or other ethnic minority languages of Vietnam and not include any figure or any symbol other than a letter.
Comparing with the information provided by customers, the following cases may occur:
- If the child follows the mother's nationality (i.e. Vietnamese nationality), the child's family name in a foreign language is not restricted, but the name must be in Vietnamese or another ethnic language of Vietnam; the name must not include any figure or any symbol other than a letter.
- If the child follows the nationality of the father (i.e. French nationality), the child's family name will not be governed by Vietnamese law of Vietnam but comply with the provisions of the law of the country that such child bears nationality.
Note: In case a child is born in the territory of Vietnam but the parents cannot agree on the choice of nationality for the child, such child has Vietnamese nationality.
Shall a personal identification number in Vietnam be issued to a child whose family name is in a foreign language?
According to Article 13 of Decree 137/2015/ND-CP, a personal identification number is a natural number sequence of 12 debits, with a structure of 6 digits: the century of birth code, gender code, year of birth code of the citizen, code of province/municipality or country code where the citizen’s birth has been registered and 6 random digits.
Under Article 12 of the Law on Citizen Identification 2014 on personal identification numbers:
Personal identification numbers
1. A personal identification number shall be established from the national population database and used for the connection, update, sharing and exploitation of citizen’s information in the national population database and specialized databases.
2. Personal identification numbers shall be uniformly managed nationwide by the Ministry of Public Security; each Vietnamese citizen shall be granted with one number which is not identical to another’s number.
3. The Government shall stipulate the structure of a personal identification number; and the order and procedures for grant of personal identification numbers.
Thus, the issuance of personal identification numbers to citizens whose birth has been registered and family name is in Vietnamese.
Thus, personal identification numbers will still be issued to children whose family names are in foreign languages because their parents are foreigners but have Vietnamese nationality.
The issuance of personal identification numbers to children will comply with the provisions of Article 14 of Decree 137/2015/ND-CP and Article 15 of Decree 137/2015/ND-CP (amended by Clause 9 Article 1 of Decree 37/2021/ND-CP).
What are the cases of deactivation of personal identification numbers in Vietnam?
According to Article 16 of Decree 137/2015/ND-CP, in case of detecting that the issued personal identification number has errors due to incorrect entry of information about citizens, the head of the agency managing the national database on the population of the Ministry of Public Security shall issue a decision on the deactivation of personal identification number of the citizen.
At the same time, the agency managing the national database on the population of the Ministry of Public Security will re-issue another personal identification number to such citizen.
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