Is there a Circular guiding civil status registration and management at overseas Vietnam diplomatic missions from February 15, 2024 in Vietnam?

Is there a Circular guiding civil status registration and management at overseas Vietnam diplomatic missions from February 15, 2024 in Vietnam?

On December 29, 2023, the Minister of Foreign Affairs issued Circular 07/2023/TT-BNG regulating guidance on civil status registration and management at diplomatic missions and overseas Vietnam diplomatic missions.

The promulgation of Circular 07/2023/TT-BNG to provide detailed guidance on Article 3 and Article 53 of the 2014 Civil Status Law on the following issues:

- Civil status registration for Vietnamese citizens residing abroad;

- Re-register birth, marriage, and death certificates;

- Issuing a copy of the civil status extract;

- Issuing Certificate of Marital Status for Vietnamese citizens residing abroad;

- State management of civil status;

- Management of electronic civil status database, online civil status registration at diplomatic missions and consular representative agencies of Vietnam abroad (hereinafter referred to as representative agencies) according to regulations of the Law on Civil Status 2014, Decree 123/2015/ND-CP and Decree 87/2020/ND-CP.

Is there a Circular guiding civil status registration and management at overseas Vietnam diplomatic missions from February 15, 2024 in Vietnam? (Image from the Internet)

Which agency has authority to register civil status in Vietnam?

In Article 2 of Circular 07/2023/TT-BNG, there are regulations on the authority to register civil status as follows:

Authority to register civil status

1. The representative agency shall register civil status matters according to the provisions of Article 3 of the Civil Status Law, re-register birth, marriage, and death declarations; issue a copy of the civil status extract from the civil status book or electronic civil status database; issue Certificate of marital status to Vietnamese citizens residing abroad in accordance with Vietnamese law, the law of the receiving country and international treaties to which Vietnam is a member.

2. For countries where Vietnam has two or more representative agencies, the authority to register civil status belongs to the representative agency in the consular area where the requester resides.

3. For countries or territories that do not have a representative agency, civil status registration is carried out at the representative agency in the concurrent country or the most convenient representative agency.

Thus, the competent authority to register civil status in Vietnam is as follows:

- Representative offices;

- Representative agency in the consular area where the requester resides: for countries where Vietnam has two or more representative agencies.

- Representative agency in the concurrent country or the most convenient representative agency: for countries or territories that do not have a representative agency.

What principles must civil status registration meet in Vietnam?

Article 5 of the Law on Civil Status 2014 stipulates that principles of civil status registration:

1. Respect for and guarantee of personal rights of individuals.

2. All civil status events of an individual shall be registered in a full, prompt, truthful, objective and accurate manner; for cases ineligible for civil status registration as prescribed by law, heads of civil status registration agencies shall issue written refusal replies clearly stating the reason.

3. Civil status matters for which no settlement time limit is prescribed by this Law shall be settled within the day; for dossiers received after 15:00 hours which cannot be settled immediately, results shall be given in the following working day.

4. Every civil status event shall be registered at only one competent civil status registration agency in accordance with this Law.

An individual may make civil status registration at the civil status registration agency in his/her registered place of permanent or temporary residence or the place where he/she is living. For an individual who does not register in his/her place of permanent residence, the district-level People's Committee, commune-level People's Committee or representative mission which has registered such individual’s civil status shall notify the civil status registration to the commune-level People's Committee of the place where he/she permanently resides.

5. Once having been registered in the civil status book, every civil status event shall be fully and promptly updated in the electronic civil status database.

6. Contents of birth, marriage, divorce, death, civil status change, correction or supplementation, gender re-assignment and ethnicity re- determination of an individual in the civil status database are input information of the national population database.

7. Publicity and transparency shall be ensured in civil status registration procedures.

Note: Circular 07/2023/TT-BNG takes effect from February 15, 2024.

Best regards!