Guidance on death registration for individuals who have been deceased for a long time – This is one of the important new contents in Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP, replacing Circular 15/2015/TT-BTP, which details the implementation of certain provisions of the Civil Status Law and Decree 23/2015/ND-CP, effective from July 16, 2020.
Article table of contents
Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP: Guidelines for the death registration for deceased in Vietnam
To be specific, according to Article 13, Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP, the death registration is implemented according to the regulations at Section 7, Chapter II of the Civil Status Law and the following guidelines:
- In case of registering the death for deceased persons long ago without a Death Certificate or documents replacing the Death Certificate as regulated in Clause 2, Article 4 of Decree 123/2015/ND-CP, the requester must provide documents, materials, or evidence issued or legitimately confirmed by authorized agencies or organizations proving the death event.
- If the requester for death registration does not have documents, materials, or evidence proving as per the above regulations or the documents, materials, or evidence are not legitimate or do not ensure the value of proof, the civil status registration agency will refuse the death registration.
As of now, Circular 15/2015/TT-BTP does not regulate this content.
In particular, Clause 2, Article 4 of Decree 123/2015/ND-CP specifies about the Death Certificate and documents replacing the Death Certificate as follows:
Article 4. Determining the content of birth and death registration
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2. When registering death according to the Civil Status Law, the death registration content must include information: Last name, middle name, first name, year of birth of the deceased; personal identification number of the deceased, if any; place of death; cause of death; hour, date, month, year of death according to the Gregorian calendar; nationality if the deceased is a foreigner.
The content of death registration is determined according to the Death Certificate or documents replacing the Death Certificate issued by the following authorities:
a) For deceased persons at medical establishments, the Head of the medical establishment issues the Death Certificate;
b) For deceased persons executed by death penalty, the Chairman of the execution council issues a confirmation of execution replacing the Death Certificate;
c) For persons declared dead by the Court, the effective judgment or decision of the Court replaces the Death Certificate;
d) For deceased persons on transportation means, in accidents, murdered, sudden death, or suspicious death, the confirmation document from the police agency or forensic examination result replaces the Death Certificate;
đ) For deceased persons not falling into the categories specified at Points a, b, c, and d of this Clause, the commune-level People's Committee where the person died is responsible for issuing the Death Certificate.
Alongside this new point, Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP also abolishes some evidence proving parent-child relationships previously regulated under Circular 15/2015/TT-BTP. Specifically, Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP has removed the regulation that evidence proving parent-child relationships could be letters, photos, tapes, discs, and other items proving the father-child or mother-child relationship. In cases where there are no documents from medical entities, forensic agencies, or other competent agencies or organizations within or outside the country confirming the parent-child relationship, the parties involved will make a written oath regarding the parent-child relationship in accordance with the regulations, with at least two witnesses to the parent-child relationship.
Nguyen Trinh
