Amendment of Consular Fee Rates according to Circular 156/2015/TT-BTC in Vietnam

According to Circular 156, the fee for processing Free Visa Granting Certification for Overseas Vietnamese, as specified in Section V, Part A of the Table of Fees and Consular Charges, has been abolished.

Regarding management and utilization, Circular 156 stipulates:

- The head of the Vietnamese representative agency abroad is responsible for considering and deciding to select a reputable bank to open the representative agency's account abroad to serve the agency's activities, ensuring the safety of the temporary deposit state budget fund at the Vietnamese representative agency abroad. This temporary deposit state budget fund is used to ensure regular operational expenses and must not exceed the maximum level of the allocated state budget expenditure estimate.

- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs directs the organization of accounting for consular fees and charges; when revenue arises, 70% of the actual consular fees, charges, and bank interest earned are deposited into the temporary deposit state budget fund;

- Periodically, in the first month of the following quarter (for the revenue arising in the fourth quarter of the current year, the procedure of including it in the state budget calculation is done in the first month of the first quarter of the following year - during the adjustment and finalization period), the Vietnamese representative agency abroad is responsible for depositing the collected consular fees, charges, and actual bank interest earned into the temporary deposit state budget fund.

- The remaining balance of the temporary deposit state budget fund is processed as follows:

• In cases where the remaining balance of the temporary deposit state budget fund < expenditure needs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs transfers funds (the difference) to the Vietnamese representative agency abroad to ensure expenditure needs.
• In cases where the remaining balance of the temporary deposit state budget fund > the allocated budget estimate of the Vietnamese representative agency abroad, then:
  • For locations where strong foreign exchange conversion is difficult, and transfer fees are high, the Vietnamese representative agency abroad is allowed to retain the balance of the temporary deposit state budget fund to ensure future operational expenses.
  • For locations where foreign exchange conversion is favorable, after December 31 of the implementation year and before January 31 of the following year, the Vietnamese representative agencies abroad will transfer the remaining funds in the temporary deposit state budget fund, which are not needed, to the centralized foreign exchange fund of the state budget opened at the State Treasury to account for the state budget revenue.

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