Cases of exemption from and deduction in adoption registration fees in Vietnam

Hello, Lawnet would like to answer the following:

1. What is adoption?

According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 3 of the Law on Adoption 2010, adoption is defined as follows:

“Adoption means the establishment of parent and child relationships between the adopting and adopted persons..”

- Purposes of adoption

Adoption aims to establish permanent parent and child relationships in the best interests of adopted persons, ensuring that adopted persons are nurtured, cared for and educated in the family environment.

- Principles of settlement of adoptions

+ When settling adoptions, the right of children to live in the family of origin must be respected.

+ Adoption must ensure the legitimate rights and interests of adopted and adopting persons, free consent, equality, non-discrimination between male and female and non-violation of law and social ethics.

+ Adoption by a person living abroad is allowed only when no domestic substitute family can be found.

2. Cases of exemption from and deduction in adoption registration fees in Vietnam

According to the provisions of Article 4 of Decree 114/2016/ND-CP, cases of exemption from and deduction in adoption registration fees include

- Domestic adoption registration fees shall be exempted in one of the following cases:

+ A stepfather or stepmother adopts a stepchild of his/her spouse; or an aunt or uncle adopts a niece or nephew;

+ A person adopts one of the following children: Disabled children, HIV/AIDS infected children or children suffering fatal disease/illness as prescribed in the Law on adoption and guiding documents;

+ A people with meritorious services to the revolution adopts a child.

- Intercountry adoption registration fees shall be deducted in one of the following cases:

+ A reduction of 50% in intercountry adoption registration fee shall apply to a stepfather or stepmother that adopts a stepchild of his/her spouse or an aunt or uncle that adopts a niece or nephew;

+ In case of simultaneously multiple adoption of biological brothers/sisters, a reduction of 50% in intercountry adoption fee shall apply to each of children excluding the first child;

+ In case of adoption falling into the both aforesaid cases prescribed in Point a and Point b of this Clause, the payer may select to apply the reduction in fees prescribed in either of those Points.

- Exemption from adoption registration fees shall apply to the cases of re-registration of adoption as prescribed in law on adoption.

Thus, the registration of adoption of her sister's daughter will be exempted from the domestic adoption registration fee or reduced by 50% for intercountry adoption registration fee

3. Fee collecting bodies

According to the provisions of Article 5 of Decree 114/2016/ND-CP, fee collection bodies include:

- People’s Committees of communes shall collect domestic adoption registration fees and fees collected from foreigners residing in border regions of neighbor countries that adopt Vietnamese children permanently residing in such border regions.

- Services of Justice shall collect fees from foreigners permanently residing in Vietnam that adopt children being Vietnamese nationals.

- Adoption Department of the Ministry of Justice shall collect intercountry adoption registration fees, excluding regulations in Clause 1 and Clause 2 of this Article; and fees for issuance or extension of operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies.

- Vietnam’s overseas representative bodies shall collect adoption registration fees at Vietnam’s overseas representative bodies.

Thus, the agencies that will collect the adoption registration fee include: People’s Committees of communes; Services of Justice; Adoption Department of the Ministry of Justice; Vietnam’s overseas representative bodies.

4. Judgments and Decisions on adoption

- Judgment 22/2019/HNGĐ-ST dated September 9, 2019 on applying for child identification and termination of adoption.

- Judgment 36/2019/HNGĐ-ST dated 31/07/2019 on the dispute of termination of adoption and certification of separate property.

- Decision 01/2017/QDHDĐ-ST dated September 5, 2017 on the request for recognition of termination of adoption and re-identification of the biological parent-chile relationship.

- First instance decision on the request to terminate the adoption No. 87/2019/QDST-HNĐD.

- Decision 292/2017/QDST-VDS dated December 4, 2017 on the request to terminate the adoption.

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