Will a torn marriage certificate terminate the marriage in Vietnam?

Will a torn marriage certificate terminate the marriage in Vietnam?

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 9 of the Law on Marriage and Family 2014, marriage registration is as follows:

1. A marriage shall be registered with a competent state agency in accordance with this Law and the law on civil status.

A marriage which is not registered under this Clause is legally invalid.

2. A divorced couple who wish to re-establish their husband and wife relation shall register their re-marriage.

According to Article 18 of the Law on Civil Status 2014, the procedures for marriage registration are as follows:

1. The male and female partners shall submit the marriage registration declaration, made according to a set form to the civil status registration agency and must be both present at the time of marriage registration.

2. Immediately after receiving complete papers specified in Clause 1 of this Article, if seeing that the marriage conditions are fully met in accordance with the Law on Marriage and Family, the justice and civil status officer shall record the marriage in the civil status book and together with the male and female partners sign in the civil status book. The male and female partners shall both sign the marriage certificate; the justice and civil status officer shall report to the chairperson of the commune-level People's Committee to organize the handover of the marriage certificate to the couple.

In case of necessity to verify the marriage conditions of the male and female partners, the time limit for settlement is 5 working days.

At the same time, according to Clause 1, Article 57 of the Law on Marriage and Family 2014, time of termination of marriage and responsibility to send divorce judgments or decisions is as follows:

1. The marriage relation shall terminate on the date a court’s divorce judgment or decision takes legally effective.

2. The court that has settled a divorce shall send the legally effective divorce judgment or decision to the agency registering such marriage for recording in the civil status register; the divorced partners; and other persons, agencies and organizations as prescribed by the Civil Procedure Code and other relevant laws.

In addition, Article 65 of the Law on Marriage and Family 2014, time of termination of marriage is stipulated as follows:

A marriage is terminated from the time of death of a spouse.

In case a court declares a spouse to be dead, the time of termination of the marriage is the date of death stated in the court’s judgment or decision.

Therefore, not having a marriage certificate is not a condition for terminating a marital relationship.

If one of you or both of you is the one who tore the marriage certificate, it will not affect your marriage relationship.

The marriage relationship is terminated only in 02 cases:

Either party requests a divorce or both parties consent to the divorce;

Due to the death of the husband or wife or declared dead by the Court.

Therefore, your marriage will only terminate when you fall into one of the above marriage termination cases.

How much is fine for tearing up a marriage certificate in Vietnam? 

Pursuant to the provisions of Article 45 of Decree 82/2020 /ND-CP, acts of violating the principles of civil status registration, management, and use of civil status documents; building, managing and exploiting civil status database subject to fines as follows:

1. Fine from 1,000,000 VND to 3,000,000 VND for acts of erasing, falsifying the content of civil status documents.

2. A fine of between VND 3,000,000 and 5,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:

a) Erasing, correcting, falsifying information in civil status books;

b) Correcting, falsifying information on the electronic civil status database or spreading computer programs that cause harm to the computer network and electronic means of the civil status database;

c) Providing untruthful information and documents to obtain other civil status registration.

3. A fine of between VND 5,000,000 and 7,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:

a) Threatening, coercing or obstructing the exercise of civil status registration rights and obligations;

b) Giving bribes to obtain civil status registration but not to the extent of criminal prosecution;

c) Giving bribes or promising material or spiritual benefits to obtain civil status registration;

d) Allowing others to use their civil status papers to commit illegal acts.

4. A fine of between VND 10,000,000 and 20,000,000 shall be imposed for one of the following acts:

a) Destroying civil status papers; civil status book;

b) Illegally accessing, stealing or destroying information in the electronic civil status database;

c) Taking advantage of civil status registration or evading the civil status registration obligation to enjoy preferential regimes, policies or other profit-seeking purposes.

5. Additional penalties:

a) Confiscate material evidence and means of administrative violations for violations specified in Point b, Clause 2, Points a and b, Clause 4 of this Article;

b) Confiscate exhibits that are papers and documents that have been erased or altered to falsify the content for violations specified in Clause 1 of this Article.

6. Remedial measures:

a) Recommend to competent agencies, organizations, and persons to consider and handle papers and documents that have been erased or modified to falsify the content specified in Clause 1 and Point a, Clause 4 of this Article;

b) Forcibly bear all costs for restoring the original state due to the commission of violations specified at Point b, Clause 2 and Point b, Clause 4 of this Article;

c) Forcible return of illegal profits obtained from committing violations specified at Point c, Clause 4 of this Article.

Therefore, the case of tearing the marriage registration certificate can be administratively sanctioned with a fine of between VND 10,000,000 and 20,000,000. In addition, a competent agency, organization or person must be requested to consider and handle the torn marriage certificate in Vietnam.

Best regards!