Chương I Nghị định 123/2015/NĐ-CP hướng dẫn Luật hộ tịch: Những quy định chung

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope

This Decree provides guidelines for the Law on Civil Status in terms of registration of birth, marriage, management and use of vital records in the stage that database of electronic civil status and national database of inhabitants has not been commenced nationwide (hereinafter referred to as transitional stage); birth registration for abandoned children, children whose parents have not yet been identified, children born from surrogacy; registration of birth, marriage, recognition of parent-child relationship, registration of death at border areas; issuance of certificates of marital status; birth registration for children who were born overseas without birth registration and reside in Vietnam; marriage registration with foreign elements at the People’s Committees of districts; document in vital records marriage, divorce, marriage annulment of Vietnamese citizens that have been processed at competent authorities overseas, re-registration of birth, marriage, death; placement of justice and civil status public employees in charge of full time job and measures for implementing the Law on civil status.

Article 2. Regulations on presentation/submission of applications for civil status registration, issuance of copies of civil status documents

1. An applicant for civil status registration or issuance of copies of civil status documents shall present the original of one of the following documents: passport, ID card, or another document containing photo and personal information that has been issued by a competent authority and remaining valid (hereinafter referred to as identity paper) for the identity verification purpose.

In the transitional stage, the applicant for civil status registration shall present documents proving his/her place of residence.

2. An applicant for birth registration shall submit the original of certificate of live birth or an equivalent document as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 16 of the Law on civil status; an applicant for death registration shall submit the original of death notice or an equivalent document as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 34 of the Law on civil status and Clause 2 Article 4 hereof; an applicant for marriage registration shall submit the original of certificate of marital status as prescribed Section 3 Chapter III hereof.

3. Any document written in foreign language to be used for civil status registration in Vietnam shall be translated to Vietnamese; the translation shall be notarized or the translator's signature shall be certified as prescribed by law.

4. Any document issued or certified by the competent authority of a neighbor country of Vietnam (hereinafter referred to as neighbor country) to be used for civil status registration as prescribed in Point d Clause 1 Article 7 of the Law on civil status shall be exempt from consular legalization. It shall be translated to Vietnamese with the translator’s commitment to the correct contents.

5. Any copy in the application for civil status registration is a copy issued from the master register or certified from the original as prescribed by law; if an applicant submits a non-certified copy, he/she must present the original for collation.

Article 3. Submission and receipt of application for civil status registration

1. An applicant for marriage registration, recognition of parent-child relationship, or marriage re-registration may submit a relevant application at the Registry of civil status (hereinafter referred to as Registry) in person; an applicant for other civil status affairs may submit a relevant application to the Registry in person, by pose or online.

The application for civil status registration shall be made in 1 copy.

2. The receiving person shall verify if documents are appropriate to the application form and they are all valid; in case of insufficient application, the applicant is required complete the application. In case of sufficient and satisfactory application, the receiving person shall make a receipt note specifying an appointment to give processing results.

If the applicant submits copies issued from the master register or certified from originals, the receiving person may not require the presentation of the originals; if the applicant submits copies and present their originals, the receiving person shall collate them and bear signatures in the copies to certify that these documents have been collated.

If specific documents to be presented are prescribed by law, the receiving person may not require any other copies of these documents.

3. If an applicant who submits an application by post and wishes to receive processing results by post and is not exempt from fees and charges for giving processing results by post, he/she shall also pay an amount of civil status registration charge or civil status copy issuance charge. The receiving person shall specify the method of giving processing results in the receipt note.

The method of giving processing results by post shall apply to applications for recording civil status affairs that are processed by foreign competent authorities, including birth registration; marriage; guardianship; recognition of parent-child relationship; identification of parent-child relationship; adoption; civil status change; death registration; divorce; unlawful marriage annulment; and applications for issuance of civil status copies as prescribed in Article 63 of the Law on civil status.

4. If an application for civil status registration is subject to verification as prescribed in the Law on civil status and this Decree, the time for submitting the application and receiving processing results shall not be included in the time limit for processing such application.

Article 4. Birth registration and death registration contents

1. Birth registration contents shall being determined as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 14 of the Law on civil status the following regulations:

a) The child’s full name; race shall be determined subject to agreement of the parents as prescribed in civil law and specified in the application form for birth registration; if the parents do not or fail to reach an agreement, common practice shall prevail;

b) The child’s nationality shall be determined as prescribed in law on nationality;

c) The personal identification number of the person whose birth is registered shall be issued upon the birth registration. Procedures for issuance of personal identification numbers shall be consistent with the Law on identification numbers and the Decree on guidelines for the Law on identification numbers, in accordance with the Law on civil status and this Decree;

d) Date of birth shall be determined according to solar calendar. The child's place of birth, sex shall be determined according to the certificate of live birth issued by a competent health facility; in case of absence from a certificate of live birth, the equivalent document shall be determined as prescribed in Clause 1 Article 16 of the Law on civil status.

If a child was born at a health facility, the health facility’s name and name of the administrative division of commune/district/province where the health facility is located shall be specified in the place of birth. If a child is born outside a health facility, the name of the administrative division of commune/district/province where the child was born.

dd) Native place of the person whose birth is registered shall be determined as prescribed in Clause 8 Article 4 of the Law on civil status.

2. Essential contents of an application for death registration as prescribed the Law on civil status: The deceased’s full name, year of birth, personal identification number (if any); place of death; cause of death; date and time of death by solar calendar; and nationality (if the deceased is a foreigner).

Death registration contents shall be determined according to the death notice or equivalent document issued by the following competent authority:

a) If a person dies at a health facility, the head of health facility shall issue a death notice;

b) If a person dies as a result of enforcement of a death sentence, the President of the Board of death sentence shall issue a document certifying the enforcement of death sentence instead of a death notice;

c) If a person is given a declaration of presumed death by a court, the effective judgment/decision shall replace a death notice;

d) If a person dies in a vehicle, dies from accident, is killed, dies suddenly or dies with doubt, a document certifying the death issued by a police authority or findings of forensic examination agency shall replace a death notice;

dd) If a person dies from another cause other than those prescribed in Points a, b, c, and d of this Clause, the People’s Committee of commune where he/she dies shall issue a death notice.

Article 5. Issuance of certificate of live birth, death notice and provision of birth and death statistics

1. A health facility, upon issuance of a certificate of live birth or a death notice and a competent authority, upon issuance of a document equivalent to death certificate prescribed in Clause 2 Article 4 of this Decree shall give a notice of birth and death statistics to the competent Registry as prescribed in the Law on civil status for prompt, sufficient, and accurate statistics as prescribed by law.

2. The Ministry of Health shall provide health facilities with guidelines for issuance of certificates of live birth and death notices, and provision of birth and death statistics to the competent Registry as prescribed in Clause 1 hereof.

Article 6. Validity of birth certificate

1. Birth certificate is an original document on civil status of an individual.

2. All documents of an individual containing full name, date of birth, race, nationality, native place, parent-child relationship shall be consistent with his/her birth certificate.

3. If an individual’s document contains information different from his/her birth certificate, the head of agency that has managed or issued such document shall make appropriate amendments in accordance with the birth certificate.

Article 7. Conditions for changes and correction of civil status affairs

1. An application for change of full name of a person less than 18 years of age prescribed in Clause 1 Article 26 of the Law on civil status shall be subject to his/her parents’ consent which is specified in such application. An application for change of full name of a person aged 9 or older shall also be subject to his/her consent.

2. Civil status correction prescribed in the Law on civil status means correction of personal information in vital records or originals of civil status documents which have been carried out only when there are substantial grounds to prove presence of mistakes at the civil status official’s faults or at the applicant’s faults.

Article 8. Recruitment, placement, and training for civil status officials

1. From January 1, 2016, the competent person may solely recruit new civil status officials that meet standards as prescribed in the Law on civil status.

2. According to the statutory number of officials, public employees of commune prescribed by the Government, each People’s Committee of province or central-affiliated city (hereinafter referred to as People's Committee of province) shall, upon placement of civil status officials, give priority to full-time civil status officials in communes, wards and towns which are commune-level administrative divisions class 1, class 2, populated and have a great number of civil status affairs.

3. The Ministry of Justice shall formulate a training program for civil status affairs and regulate issuance of certificates of training in civil status affairs to civil status officials.

Each People's Committee of province shall formulate and implement the plan for training in civil status affairs provided for civil status officials in the province.