Circular 02: Prescribing the retention period for each type of consular dossier

To be specific:, according to Clause 2, Article 14 of Circular 02/2020/TT-BNG, effective from April 1, 2020, the retention periods for specific types of records are regulated as follows:

Illustration (source internet)

- Records of issuing, renewing, amending, and supplementing diplomatic passports, official passports, and issuing notes for visa applications shall be numbered sequentially and stored for 08 years.

- Records of issuing, amending, and supplementing ordinary passports shall be stored for 10 years.

- Records of issuing laissez-passer shall be stored for 03 years.

- Records of issuing AB stamps shall be stored for 02 years.

- Records of issuing visas for foreigners shall be stored for 01 year; telegrams for visa issuance shall be stored for 05 years.

- Records of issuing Visa Exemption Certificates and telegrams for issuing Visa Exemption Certificates shall be stored for 05 years.

- Decisions on the return to Vietnamese nationality, decisions on renunciation of Vietnamese nationality, and the list of persons who have renounced Vietnamese nationality shall be permanently stored. For cases where nationality restoration or renunciation is not approved, the Representative Office shall permanently store the Ministry of Justice’s or Consular Department’s notification documents and the Representative Office’s notification documents to the applicant, while related documents shall be returned to the applicant. For cases pending nationality restoration or renunciation, the Representative Office shall continue to store these records until a decision is made.

- Records of resolving nationality and civil status procedures shall be permanently stored. If these records have been digitized and stored electronically, they may be destroyed after 05 years from the digitization date. The destruction of records, post-digitization for electronic storage, shall be conducted as per the regulation in Article 15 of this Circular. Electronic data of the records resolving nationality and civil status procedures shall be permanently stored.

- Civil status registers shall be permanently stored.

- Records of consular certification and legalization: stored for 10 years for consular certification/legalization registers, computer management software, and records of fraudulent or incorrectly issued documents, related verification documents; stored for 03 years for other consular certification/legalization records.

- Notarization records shall be stored for at least 20 years.

- Certifying records: stored for 02 years for certifying signatures and translator signatures; permanently stored for Certifying Registers.

Upon the expiration of the retention period as regulated, the Consular Department, Ho Chi Minh City Department of Foreign Affairs, and Representative Offices shall establish a Document Destruction Committee to inventory the records to be destroyed, and create a Record Destruction Minutes specifying the quantity and types of records destroyed. The destruction of records shall be conducted in accordance with archival regulations.

More details can be found in: Circular 02/2020/TT-BNG, effective from April 1, 2020.

Thu Ba

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