I’m an Englishman and want to marry a Vietnamese lady. She divorced one year ago and is now living in Hanoi with her daughter. What are dossiers to submit for marriage registration if we want to make marriage registration in Vietnam? May her daughter go aboard with us?
You, as a foreigner who wants to make marriage registration in Vietnam, must submit a dossier to the Justice Department of province or centrally-run city where your partner resides. A marriage registration dossier comprises:
- The marriage registration declaration: Each partner has to make a marriage registration declaration, write your/her information and full name. In case you both are present when submitting the dossier, only 1 (one) marriage registration declaration is required, which contains information of both partners and full names. If the marriage registration declaration contains a competent Vietnamese agency’s certification of the involved persons’ marital status, the marital status certification is not required. If the marital status certificate is available, certification in the marriage registration declaration is not required.
Your partner’s marital status certificate or marriage registration declaration certifying the marital status must be issued within six months prior to the date of dossier receipt. The paper proving your single status must be issued by a competent authority of the country of which you are a citizen within six months prior to the date of dossier receipt.
In case the law of your country does not prescribe the grant of marital status certificates, such certificate may be substituted by a written affidavit of single status in accordance with the law of your country.
- A certificate of freedom to marry according to the law of your country; and a certificate issued by a competent Vietnamese or foreign health organization within six months prior to the date of dossier receipt, certifying that you do not suffer any mental disease or another disease which renders you incapable of perceiving or controlling your acts.
- A copy of your partner’s household registration book or temporary residence book; and a copy of your permanent residence card or temporary residence card or certificate.
In addition to the above papers, if your partner is currently serving in the armed forces or performing a job directly related to state secrets, she has to submit a document issued by the central- or provincial-level agency or organization certifying that her marriage with a foreigner neither affects the protection of state secrets nor contravenes sectoral regulations.
You and your partner must go to the intercountry marriage and family counseling and support center to get consultations and support if the age gap between you and your partner is 20 years or more or if you get married for the third time or have once married to and divorced a Vietnamese citizen; or if both of you do not know the family and personal backgrounds of each other as well as the language, customs, practices, culture and law on marriage and family of each country.
However, if she is good at English or you are good at Vietnamese and the results of the interview at the provincial-level Justice Department show that both of you know the family and personal backgrounds of each other as well as the language, custom, practices, culture and law on marriage and family of each country, the center’s certificate is not required.
Under Vietnamese law, papers made, issued or certified by competent foreign authorities must be consularly legalized, unless they are exempted from consular legalization under treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a contracting party or on the reciprocity principle. The papers in foreign languages must be translated into Vietnamese; and such translations must bear certified signatures of the translators as prescribed by law.
Therefore, copies of papers in your dossier must be legally certified. If such copies are not certified, their originals must be produced for comparison.
If according to the divorce decree, your partner has the right to custody of her daughter, she may take the girl aboard.-