Is it compulsory to register marriage when making a girlfriend pregnant in Vietnam?

Is it compulsory to register marriage when making a girlfriend pregnant in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 8 of the Law on Marriage and Family in 2014 stipulating conditions for getting married as follows:

1. A man and a woman wishing to marry each other must satisfy the following conditions:

a /The man is full 20 years or older, the woman is full 18 years or older;

b/The marriage is voluntarily decided by the man and woman;

c/ The man and woman do not lose the civil act capacity;

d/ The marriage does not fall into one of the cases prescribed at Points a, b, c and d, Clause 2, Article 5 of this Law.

2. The State shall not recognize marriage between persons of the same sex.

As regulations above, except the conditions of age and civil act capacity, the marriage must be voluntarily decided by the man and woman.

Therefore, it is not compusory for the man to marry the woman when the man makes the woman pregnant.

Is it permissible to register birth certificate including information of the father when the man and the woman haven't registered their marriage in Vietnam?

Pursuant to Article 15 of the Decree 123/2015/NĐ-CP stipulating birth registration for children with unidentified parents as follows:

1. The People’s Committee of commune where the child resides shall apply for birth registration for the child with unidentified parents.

2. If a child’s father is unidentified, the family name, race, native place, nationality of the child in the application for birth registration shall be determined according to respective information of his/her mother; the child’s father section in vital records and birth certificate shall be left blank.

3. If the father, at the time of application for birth registration, applies for recognition of father-child relationship as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 25 of the Law on civil status, the People’s Committee shall both process the recognition and birth registration; birth registration contents shall be determined as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 4 of this Decree.

4. In case of a child whose mother is unidentified, if his/her child applies for both birth registration and recognition of parent-child relationship, Clause 3 of this Article shall apply; the child’s mother section in the vital records and birth certificate shall be left blank.

5. Procedures for birth registration for children with unidentified parents other than those who are abandoned shall be consistent with Clause 3 Article 14 hereof; the phrase “children with unidentified parents" shall be specified in the vital records.

In addition, pursuant to Article 12 of Circular 15/2015/TT-BTP stipulating the combination of birth registration and recognition of parents and children as follows:

When registering the birth of a child and someone requests the registration to recognize the father, mother or child, the civil status registration agency shall jointly handle the birth registration procedures and the procedures for registration of father, mother and child recognition as follows: after:

1. A dossier includes:

a) The birth registration declaration form and the declaration of father, mother and child recognition according to the prescribed form;

b) Birth certificate or papers replacing the Birth Certificate as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 16 of the Law on civil status;

c) Evidence to prove the parent-child relationship as prescribed in Article 11 of this Circular.

2. Other papers, the order of settlement shall comply with the provisions of Clauses 1 and 2, Article 16 and Article 25 of the Law on civil status in cases falling under the competence of the commune-level People's Committees; according to the provisions of Clauses 1 and 2, Article 36 and Article 44 of the Civil Status Law in cases falling under the jurisdiction of the district-level People's Committees.

Contents of birth registration are determined according to the provisions of Article 4 of Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP. Birth certificate and extract of registration for recognition of father, mother and child shall be issued to the requester at the same time.

According to the above regulations, if you have not yet registered your marriage, you can still make a birth certificate for your child with the father's information, but you must carry out additional procedures to recognize the father for the child. The adoption of a father for a child can be done in conjunction with birth registration for the child.

What are procedures for birth registration when the father and mother are Vietnamese and haven't registered their marriage?

Pursuant to Article 16 of the Law on Civil Status in 2014 stipulating birth registration procedures as follows:

1. Birth registrants shall submit declarations made according to a set form and birth certification papers to the civil status registration agency. If having no birth certification paper, a document of a witness certifying the birth shall be submitted; if there is no witness, there must be a written pledge of the birth; for birth registration for abandoned children, there must be a written record certifying the child’s abandonment made by a competent agency; for birth registration for children born by surrogate mothers, there must be a document proving the surrogacy as prescribed by law.

2. Immediately after receiving full papers specified in Clause 1 of this Article, if seeing that the birth declaration is complete and proper, justice and civil status officers shall record birth registration contents under Clause 1, Article 14 of this Law in the civil status books and update them in the electronic civil status database and the national population database for getting personal identification numbers.

Justice and civil status officers and birth registrants shall together sign in the civil status books. Chairpersons of commune-level People's Committees shall grant birth certificates to birth registrants.

3. The Government shall stipulate in detail the birth registration for abandoned children and children whose parents have not yet been identified due to surrogacy; and the determination of native places for abandoned children and children with unidentified parents.

The above is the law on birth registration procedures at the commune-level People's Committee. For unmarried cases, in addition to doing additional procedures to confirm the father for the child, all other procedures are carried out in accordance with the above provisions.

Best regards!