Vietnam: Answers to frequently asked questions about military service in 2020

1. Military service age

According to Articles 12 and 30 of the Law on Military Service 2015 of Vietnam, military service age is prescribed as follows:

- Male citizens turn 17 years old and above and female citizens turning 18 years old and above that have profession skills conformable with the requirement of People’s Army may serve military service in reserve force. These professional skills are specified in Decree No. 14/2016/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government.

- Citizens turning 18 years old shall be conscripted into the army. Age subject to conscription is from 18 to under 26 years old. 

- A citizen who enters university or college and postpones the conscription shall be subject to conscription until he/she turns 28 years old.

According to the above-mentioned regulations, male citizens aged 17 years or older are eligible to register for military service and the age requirement for military service is from 18 to 25 years old. A citizen who enters university or college and postpones the conscription shall be subject to conscription until he/she turns 28 years old.

2. Time for medical examination and conscription

According to Article 33 of the Law on Military Service 2015 of Vietnam, annually, citizens shall be conscripted and requested to perform military service in People’s Army or People’s Police in February or March; in case of necessity for defense purposes, the conscription shall be carried out the second time.

Correspondingly, Clause 4 Article 40 of this Law stipulates that the pre-enlistment check-up shall be conducted from November 01st to December 31st of every year. The order for medical examination shall be sent to the citizens at least 15 days before the date of examination.

3. Health criteria to select citizens to military service

According to Joint Circular No. 16/2016/TTLT-BYT-BQP, based on the score for 8 indicators of cardiovascular, eyesight, hearing, ear - nose - throat, dermatology, etc. in the military service health card to classify, specifically as follows:

- Type 1: 8 indicators all score 1;

- Type 2: There is at least 1 indicator with a score of 2;

- Type 3: There is at least 1 indicator with a score of 3;

- Type 4: There is at least 1 indicator with a score of 4;

- Type 5: There is at least 1 indicator with a score of 5;

- Type 6: There is at least 1 criterion with a score of 6.

Citizens selected for military service are citizens with health standards of type 1, 2, and 3. Citizens with health type 3 and eye disorders (1.5 dioptre myopia or higher, hypermetropia at all degrees) are not eligible to call for military service.

4. Cases of postponement of military service

According to Clause 1 Article 41 of the Law on Military Service 2015 of Vietnam guided by Article 5 of Circular No. 148/2018/TT-BQP of the Ministry of National Defense of Vietnam, the following citizens shall have their conscription postponed:

- Citizens whose health is unsatisfactory for active military service according to the conclusion of the pre-enlistment check-up board.

- Citizen being the only breadwinner who directly takes care of his relatives who lost working capacity or under working age; citizen being the only breadwinner in a family suffering serious damage to humans and property due to dangerous accidents, disasters, epidemics confirmed by the People’s Committees of the communes, wards, towns.

- Citizen who is a child of sick soldiers, people infected with dioxin and suffering labor capacity reduction from 61% to 80%.

- Citizen whose biological siblings is a non-commissioned officer/active duty enlisted soldier or a non-commissioned officer/enlisted soldier performing service in the People's Army.

- Citizens who subject to emigration or evacuation in the first 03 years to extremely disadvantaged communes according to the socio-economic development project of the State decided by the People's Committees of provinces or higher levels.

- Citizen who is an official or a youth volunteer assigned to an extremely disadvantaged socio-economic area according to the law provisions.

- Citizen who is studying at a compulsory education institution or receiving training or university level at a higher education institution or training of college level at a vocational education institution for a training course of a level.

5. Cases where citizens are exempted from conscription

According to Clause 2 Article 41 of the Law on Military Service 2015 of Vietnam guided by Article 5 of Circular No. 148/2018/TT-BQP of the Ministry of National Defense of Vietnam, the following citizens shall have their conscription exempted:

- Citizen who is a child of revolutionary martyrs or grade 1 wounded soldiers.

- Citizen who is a brother of revolutionary martyrs.

- Citizen who is a child of grade 2 wounded soldiers; a child of sick soldiers suffering labor capacity reduction of 81% or above; a child of people infected with dioxin and suffering labor capacity reduction of 81% or above.

- Citizen who is carrying out cipher activities and not a soldier or police.

- Citizen who is an official or a youth volunteer assigned to an extremely disadvantaged socio-economic area according to the law provisions for 24 months or more.

6. Benefits for citizens participating in military service

- Receive a monthly military allowance based on the salary coefficient multiplied by the base salary.

- Receive an additional 250% of the current military rank allowance if the active duty period is extended to 25 months or more.

- Female non-commissioned officers, soldiers are entitled to an incentive allowance equal to 0.2 times the base salary.

- Receive one-time discharge allowance, for each year of service in the Army, receive a subsidy equal to 02 months of base salary according to Government regulations at the time of demobilization.

- The active duty service period of non-commissioned officers and soldiers is counted as the period of social insurance payment as a basis for calculating social insurance benefits according to regulations.

- Non-commissioned officers and soldiers who have completed their active duty service in accordance with the Law on Military Service 2015 of Vietnam when discharged from the army are entitled to a job creation allowance equal to 6 months' base salary in accordance with the Government's regulations at the time of discharge.

- Given priority in job search support upon discharge from the military; entitled to extra points in admission and recruitment of officials and public employees; entitled to 100% of the salary and allowance of the recruitment grade corresponding to the training level during the probationary period.

- Organized to say goodbye before demobilization at the expense of 50,000 VND/person and sent off by the unit and brought back to the locality of residence according to regulations or provided with train fare, car fare (economy type), and travel allowance from the unit to the place of residence.

View details at All benefits for citizens participating in military service in 2019.

Duy Thinh

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