Guiding the procedures for permanent residence registration in Vietnam (latest)

DOWNLOAD: Notice of change in household registration or membership

DOWNLOAD: Written declaration of household members

DOWNLOAD: The household registration transfer paper

Step 1: Preparing application

According to Article 6 of Circular No. 35/2014/TT-BCA of the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam detailing a number of articles of the Residence Law 2006 of Vietnam, permanent residence registration dossiers include:

1. A notice of change in household registration or membership;

2. A written declaration of household members (in case such declaration is required);

3. The household registration transfer paper (in case such paper must be granted);

4. Papers and documents proving the lawful domicile as prescribed in Article 6 of Decree No. 31/2014/NĐ-CP of Vietnam’s Government detailing a number of articles and measures for implementation of the Residence Law, specifically as follows:

- Papers certifying the ownership rights to dwelling houses or papers on ownership rights to dwelling houses, issued by competent bodies in different periods;

- Papers on residential-land use rights under the provisions of land law (with dwelling houses on that land);

- Construction permits under the provisions of construction law (for cases requiring such permits);

- Contracts on purchase and sale of state-owned houses or papers on liquidation of state-owned houses;

- Contracts on house purchase or papers proving the hand-over of dwelling houses and acceptance of dwelling houses of enterprises which have the function of dealing in dwelling houses and invest in the construction thereof for sale;

- Papers on purchase, sale, donation, exchange, inheritance of dwelling houses, which are notarized or authenticated by People's Committees of communes, wards or townships (below referred to as commune-level People's Committees for short);

- Papers on donation of gratitude houses, charity houses, solidarity houses, on grant of dwelling houses or residential land to individuals or households relocated under the States plans or to other subjects;

- Papers of courts or competent state administrative bodies permitting the ownership of dwelling houses, which have already taken legal effect;

- Papers certified by commune-level People's Committees on dwelling houses, residential land free from disputes over the ownership rights to dwelling houses, the rights to use residential land, if one of the above-listed papers is unavailable;

- Papers proving the registration of ships, boats or other craft under their ownership and addresses of the original wharves of the craft used for lodging. If the registration papers are unavailable, there must be the certification by commune-level Peoples Committees that the ships, boats or other craft used for lodging belong to their ownership or certification of the sale and purchase, donation, exchange, inheritance of the ships, boats or other craft as well as their original wharves.

If the lawful domicile is a house leased, borrowed or permitted for stay from a person, this person shall write his/her consent to the permanent residence registration and his/her signature and full name in the notice of change in household registration or membership. In case this person has made a separate written consent to the permanent residence registration, such consent is not required to be indicated in the notice of change in household registration or membership. For lawful houses leased, borrowed or permitted for stay which are located in centrally run cities, commune-level People’s Committees’ certification of satisfaction of the average area condition prescribed by municipal People’s Councils is required.

In case paternal or maternal grandparents, parents, spouses, offspring, blood siblings and paternal or maternal aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews move to live together; minors whose parents have died or have no nurturing capacity, persons with disabilities who have lost their working capacity, or persons with mental diseases or other diseases which deprive them of the capacity to perceive or to control their acts move to live with their guardians, papers and documents proving the lawful domicile are not required but papers proving such ties or certification thereof by People’s Committees of communes, wards or townships are required.

Note: In addition to the papers and documents included in a permanent residence registration dossier prescribed above, the following papers are required for the cases below:

- Certificate of birth, for permanent residence registration of children;

- Written consent of parent(s) or certification of the commune-level People’s Committee, for minors who register their permanent residence with other persons but not their parent(s);

- Written request of the nurturing agency or organization, for persons nurtured or looked after at an agency or organization, or written request of the nurturing person certified by the commune-level People’s Committee, for those nurtured or looked after by an individual. The written request should clearly state basic information of each person, including full name, birth date, sex, native place, nationality, citizenship, religion, identity card number, former permanent residence place before moving to the new place, and address of the current domicile;

- Papers proving a person is a religious dignitary, priest, monk or full-time religious activist as prescribed by the law on beliefs and religions, for persons living in religious institutions; Religious dignitaries, priests, monks or other full-time religious activists who register permanent residence at religious institutions must possess papers proving their transfer of places of religious operation as prescribed by the law on beliefs and religions;

- Repatriation paper issued by a Vietnamese representative office overseas (for persons staying overseas) or a written approval of permanent residence by the Immigration Department (for persons temporarily residing in the country), enclosed with a paper of introduction issued by the Immigration Office of the locality in which such persons apply for permanent residence, for overseas Vietnamese who hold valid foreign passports or passport-substitute papers issued by foreign countries or do not hold passports but possess permanent residence papers issued by foreign countries and now return to Vietnam for permanent residence;

- Valid Vietnamese passport or passport-substitute paper bearing the verification mark of the border-gate immigration control force, for Vietnamese citizens settling down overseas who hold valid Vietnamese passports or passport-substitute paper and return to Vietnam for permanent residence;

- Paper proving Vietnamese citizenship, for naturalized foreigners;

- Paper of introduction or certification by the head of the directly managing unit (with signature, full name and seal), for officers, non-commissioned officers, professional army men, defense employees, defense workers; professional officers and non-commissioned officers, technical officers and non-commissioned officers, workers and employees of the People’s Police, who live in the barracks of the People’s Army or the People’s Police and register their permanent residence outside their barracks; household registration transfer paper, for those who have registered permanent residence outside their barracks and change their places of permanent residence;

- The household Registration book holder’s consent to permanent residence registration, signature, full name and date in the notice of change in household registration or membership, for persons permitted by household registration book holders to be added to their household registration books.

Step 2: Submitting application

According to Article 6 of Circular No. 35/2014/TT-BCA of the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam, applicant for permanent residence registration shall submit application at:

- Police offices of rural districts, urban districts and towns, for central-affiliated cities;

- Police offices of communes, townships, towns and provincial cities, for provinces.

Step 3: Handling application and issuing household registration book

According to Article 21 of the Residence Law 2006 of Vietnam, within 15 days after the receipt of complete dossiers, the competent agencies shall grant household registration books to permanent residence registration dossier submitters; in case of refusal to grant, they shall give written replies clearly stating the reasons therefor.

In the course of permanent residence registration, if errors are made in household registration books due to faults of registration offices, within 3 (three) working days after receiving a citizen’s request, the permanent residence registration office shall make adjustments in the household registration book corresponding to the original dossier.

Note:

According to Clause 3 Article 22 of the 7th Draft Law on Residence, which is discussed at the 14th National Assembly Session - 10th session, within 07 working days starting from the date of receipt of an adequate and valid application, the registration authority shall appraise and update information on the new permanent residence of the applicant to the residence database and notify the applicant of such update. Household registration books will be abolished and information will be updated to the residence database and the national database.

Concurrently, according to Article 38 of the 7th Draft Law on Residence, which is expected to be effective from July 01, 2021, there are 02 options as follows:

Option 1:

- Starting from July 01, 2021, issued household registration books and temporary residence registers may continue to be used and are equivalent to written confirmations of residence until December 31, 2022 inclusive.

- In cases where information in a household registration book or temporary residence register differs from information in the residence database, the latter shall be used.

- When a citizen carries out a residence registration procedure that changes information in their household registration book or temporary residence register, the registration authority shall revoke the issued household registration book or temporary residence register, update information in the residence database and not issue a new household registration book or temporary residence register or reissue the old household registration book or temporary residence register to the citizen.

Option 2:

- Legally valid papers and documents that have been issued using information from the household registration book remain legally valid.

- The household registration book is not valid for use in transactions and legal relations newly established since July 01, 2021.

Currently, there is still no official decision to approve the Residence Law 2020 nor agree on the plan to apply regulations on household registration books. Thus, the procedure for permanent residence registration will still be applied as is until the National Assembly agrees on this issue. As soon as official information is available, LAWNET will promptly update Customers and Members.

Le Vy

>> CLICK HERE TO READ THIS ARTICLE IN VIETNAMESE