The Ministry of Justice is finalizing a draft decree detailing a number of articles of the Law on Marriage and Family regarding marriage and family relations involving foreign elements.
Once promulgated, the draft decree, which is compiled by the omnibus law-making technique, would replace Government Decrees No. 68/2002/ND-CP of July 10, 2002, and No. 69/2006/ND-CP of July 21, 2006.
Under the 48-article draft, each partner of a to-be-married couple would submit a dossier comprising an application, valid papers proving his/her marital status, a health certificate and copies of the identity card or passport, for Vietnamese, or passport or other valid passport substitutes, for foreigners. Particularly for Vietnamese, a written certification of having been counseled on marriage and family relations with foreign elements would be required. As explained by drafters, this provision would help assure that Vietnamese citizens, especially women, are well prepared before they enter into a transnational marriage.
In case a Vietnamese citizen wishes to register his/her cross-border marriage at a foreign authority, he/she may need a certificate of no impediment granted by the Justice Department of the province or centrally run city where he/she is residing. Such a certificate would be issued within 10 working days after the applicant files a valid and complete dossier, provided he/she wins the interview conducted to clarify the purpose of his/her proposed marriage and passes the second-time verification of his/her marital status (the first-time verification is carried out by commune-level People’s Committees for grant of the certificate of marital status).
In order to assure conformity with the Law on Child Adoption, the draft law abolishes all provisions on child adoption of Decrees No. 68 and 69.
It also requires those who get overseas divorces under court judgments, divorce decisions or agreements or other divorce recognition papers granted by foreign authorities to submit certificates of recording of overseas divorce in civil status registration book.-