Certificate of Criminal Record: Purpose of Use

Article 7 of this Law stipulates that the following individuals, agencies, and organizations have the right to request the competent authority to issue a Judicial Record Certificate:

1. Vietnamese citizens and foreigners who have resided or are residing in Vietnam have the right to request the issuance of their Judicial Record Certificate;

2. Procedural agencies have the right to request the issuance of a Judicial Record Certificate to serve their investigative, prosecution, and trial activities;

3. State agencies, political organizations, and socio-political organizations have the right to request the issuance of a Judicial Record Certificate to serve their personnel management tasks, business registration activities, establishment, and management of enterprises, cooperatives.

The Judicial Record Certificate includes:

a) Judicial Record Certificate No. 1 issued to individuals, agencies, and organizations stipulated in Clauses 1 and 3, Article 7 of this Law;

b) Judicial Record Certificate No. 2 issued to procedural agencies as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 7 of this Law and issued at the request of individuals for them to know the contents of their judicial record.

The fundamental difference between these two certificates is that Judicial Record Certificate No. 1 only records unexpunged criminal convictions. If the convictions have been expunged, it states "no criminal conviction". Certificate No. 2 records all criminal convictions regardless of whether they have been expunged or not.

According to Article 45 of the Judicial Record Law, the procedure for individuals requesting the issuance of Certificate No. 1 is as follows:

1. The requester must submit a request form for the issuance of the Judicial Record Certificate along with the following documents:

a) A copy of the identity card or passport of the person to be issued the certificate;

b) A copy of the household registration book or certificate of permanent residence or temporary residence of the person to be issued the certificate.

2. The individual must submit the request form and accompanying documents at the following agencies:

a) Vietnamese citizens must submit at the Department of Justice where they have permanent residence; if they do not have a permanent residence, they must submit at the Department of Justice where they have temporary residence; if residing abroad, submit at the Department of Justice where they resided before leaving the country;

b) Foreigners residing in Vietnam must submit at the Department of Justice where they reside; if they have left Vietnam, they must submit at the National Judicial Record Center.

3. An individual can authorize another person to carry out the procedures for requesting the certificate. The authorization must be made in writing according to the law’s regulations; in cases where the requester is the parent, spouse, or child of the person to be issued the certificate, written authorization is not required.

According to Article 46 of the Judicial Record Law, the procedure for individuals requesting the issuance of Certificate No. 2 is implemented similarly to the provisions in Clauses 1 and 2 of Article 45 mentioned above but cannot be authorized to another person.

Source: vnexpress.net

>> CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE IN VIETNAMESE