I am a student at Saigon University, class 2016-2020. Because I still have not completed one subject at school, I cannot graduate on time. So, I want to ask if I am subject to postponement of military service in this case? This is the question of N. T. Q. sent to LawNet.
Article table of contents
LawNet would like to answer this question as follows:
Students who graduate late cannot postpone their 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 are 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.
Thus, in your case, your university course is actually 4 years but you owe courses so your graduation time is later than expected, this will not be used as a reason to postpone military service. This means that while you are studying for 4 years at university, you will be temporarily discharged from military service according to regulations, but if the period of 4 years is exceeded due to any reason (not except for the reason of being in debt), the military service will not be suspended. Therefore, in case you have a call to military service, you still have to perform military service according to regulations.
Failure to perform military service can result in a fine of up to VND 4 million or imprisonment of up to 5 years
According to Articles 4, 5, 6 of Decree No. 120/2013/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government, fine levels for evading military service are specified as follows:
- A fine ranging from VND 200.000 to VND 600.000 shall be imposed upon failure to apply for initial registration for conscription.
- A fine ranging from VND 500.000 to VND 1.000.000 shall be imposed upon failure to be present at the time or location for preliminary selection stated in the call to preliminary selection for conscription without a legitimate reason.
- A fine ranging from VND 1.500.000 to VND 2.500.000 shall be imposed upon failure to be present at the assembling time or location stated in the enlistment order without a legitimate reason.
- A fine ranging from VND 2.000.000 to VND 4.000.000 shall be imposed upon alteration of health classification results by persons undergoing health examination for the purpose of conscription evasion.
Besides, according to Article 332 of the Criminal Code 2015 of Vietnam, any person who fails to comply with regulations of law on conscription, defies an enlistment order or military training order despite the fact that he/she has incurred an administrative penalty or has an unspent conviction for the same offense shall face a penalty of up to 02 years' community sentence or 03 - 24 months' imprisonment.
Thus, in case you are not allowed to postpone your military service and have an act of evading military service when you have your enlistment certificate, you can be fined up to VND 4 million and imprisoned up to 5 years if you commit the above violations.
Ty Na
