I am from the Republic of Korea and currently living in Vietnam with my Vietnamese girlfriend. We have not yet registered our marriage but already have a son who was born in Vietnam with a hospital’s temporary birth certificate.
What should we do to get an official birth certificate for our son with adequate parental information?
As you and your girlfriend have not yet registered your marriage, if wishing to get an official birth certificate for your son with your full name, you have to carry out procedures for birth registration for your son and registration for recognition of the father for him.
Under Article 35.1 of the 2014 Law on Civil Status (the Law), the district-level People’s Committee of the locality where you or your girlfriend is residing is competent to make birth registration for your Vietnam-born son, for you are a foreigner and your girlfriend is a Vietnamese citizen.
Article 43 of the Law stipulates: “District-level People’s Committees of places of residence of persons recognized as parents and children shall register for the parent and child recognition between Vietnamese citizens and foreigners; between Vietnamese citizens residing in the country and Vietnamese citizens residing abroad; between Vietnamese citizens residing abroad; between Vietnamese citizens also having a foreign citizenship and Vietnamese citizens or foreigners; and between foreigners either or both of whom permanently reside(s) in Vietnam.”.
As per the above provision, the district-level People’s Committee of your or your girlfriend’s place of residence is competent to make birth registration for the child together with registration for recognition of the father for the child.
Under Articles 36 and 44 of the Law, and Article 2.1 of its guiding text, Government Decree 123/2015/ND-CP dated November 15, 2015, you have to prepare all the following papers when requesting birth registration for your son together with registration for recognition of the father for him:
- A filled-in declaration form for birth registration;
- A filled-in declaration form for registration for recognition of the father;
- Your son’s temporary birth certificate issued by the hospital where he was born. In case such certificate is unavailable, you may submit a witness’s written certification of your son’s birth; in case of no witness, you must produce a letter of undertaking of your son’s birth.
- Your written agreement on choice of citizenship for your son. If you have chosen the Korean citizenship for your son, such agreement must bear certification by a competent authority of the Republic of Korea;
- Papers, objects or other evidences to prove the father-son relationship, including: papers of a Vietnamese or Korean health authority, assessment agency or competent agency certifying the father-son relationship. In case none of the above papers is available, you have to produce letters, films, tapes, discs, utensils or other objects evidencing the father-son or mother-son relationship and your and your girlfriend’s letter of undertaking that the child is your birth son, as certified by at least two of your relatives (under Article 11 of Minister of Justice Circular 15/2015/TT-BTP dated November 16, 2015, detailing a number of articles of the Law on Civil Status, and Decree 123/2015/ND-CP).
- A copy of the father’s passport or passport substitute or the original thereof (when requested).
In addition, you have to produce:
- Your or your girlfriend’s valid passport, people’s identity card, citizen identity card or another paper of equivalent validity, stuck with the holder’s photo and showing personal information, issued by a competent agency, depending on who undersigns the application for birth registration;
- Paper(s) evidencing the place of residence of either of you for use to determine the competence to make birth registration together with registration for recognition of the father for the child.
After submitting or producing the above papers to the competent agency, an official birth certificate with adequate parental information for your son will be issued.- (VLLF)
