How to Register a Birth for a Child between Vietnamese and Foreigner in 2022?

Birth registration for children with foreign elements shall be carried out at the competent district-level People’s Committees. Cases of birth with foreign elements based on the Law on Civil Status 2014 include children born abroad who have not yet been registered for birth and reside in Vietnam; if the child is born in Vietnam, one parent is a Vietnamese citizen and the other is a foreigner or stateless person; one parent is a Vietnamese citizen residing in the country and the other is a Vietnamese citizen residing abroad; father and mother are Vietnamese citizens residing abroad; whose parents are foreigners or stateless.

The application for birth registration with foreign elements is prescribed by the Law on Civil Status 2014; Decree 123/2015/ND-CP; Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP. Person who requests birth registration with foreign elements will have to submit documents to the People’s Committee; whom will receive the applications and check the validity of the documents in the applications.

In case the child’s parent chooses a foreign citizenship for the child upon birth registration, besides the written consent to such choosing, a confirmation that such choosing conforms to the foreign country’s law from the competent authority of the foreign country is required. If there is no confirmation from the competent foreign authority, the civil registration authority shall register the child’s birth but leave the nationality section in the birth certificate and birth register blank.

The officer in Civil Status will record the birth registration information in the birth registration book and sign in the book with the person that has the request. The Justice Division shall report to the Chairman of the district-level People’s Committee to issue the birth certificate to the person who requests birth registration. In case one of the parents chooses Vietnamese nationality for their child, the officer doing the Civil Status work will update the birth registration information to obtain the personal identification number.

The birth registration for children with foreign elements should be carried out according to the provisions of the Law on Civil Status and related documents. Vietnamese law always creates favorable conditions for couples to make birth certificates for children with foreign elements.

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How to Name a Child on Birth Certificate Under Vietnam Law?

Name is the most basic element to identify and distinguish individuals. However, the naming must follow the provisions of law to be recorded on the birth certificate and be legally valid. This issue is stipulated by the Civil Code, Law on Civil Status, Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP and Circular No. 04/2020/TT-BTP.

The Civil Code has affirmed the right to have family and given names as follows: “Each natural person has right to have a family name and a given name (including a middle name, if any). The family and given names of a person shall be the family and given names on the birth certificate of such person”. One of birth registration contents mentioned in the Law on Civil Status is “Information of the person whose birth is registered: family name, middle name and first name; gender; …”. In which, the family name of a person will normally follow his/her biological father’s or mother’s as mutually agreed between the parents; if the parents fails to agree, the person’s family name shall be determined according to customary practices. If the father of such person is undetermined, his/her family name shall be passed from his/her natural mother’s. This provision is stated in the Civil Code and Clause 1, Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP. The Civil Code also provides the naming principle: “The name of each Vietnamese citizen must be in Vietnamese or other ethnic minority languages of Vietnam and not include any figure or any symbol other than a letter”. In addition, Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP regulating the content of birth registration requires: “The last name, ethnicity and full name of the child must be determined in compliance with regulations of laws and in a manner that honors national identity and fine traditions and customs of Vietnam; the name shall not be too long or hard to use”. However, this regulation lacks transparency and clarity because there is no standard to determine how a name is considered as preserving the national identity, custom and how many words of the name are considered too long.

For abandoned children whose biological parents have not yet been identified, the child’s family name shall be determined based on actual circumstances as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 26 of the Civil Code. If the child has been adopted, the child’s family name is determined according to the adoptive father’s or adoptive mother’s according to the agreement of the adoptive parents and the birth registration will be done by the adoptive father or mother. If the child has not been adopted, the child’s family name shall be determined at the request of the head of such child-nursing establishment or the request of the person requesting birth registration for the child.

Currently, following the trend of integration, many parents want to name their children a foreign name. Based on the above provisions and principles, the law of our country does not allow that. In the case of a child whose parent is a foreigner, Clause 2, Article 16 of the 2008 Law on Vietnamese Nationality stipulates: “A child either of whose parents is a Vietnamese citizen at the time of his/her birth and the other is a foreign national has the Vietnamese nationality if so agreed in writing by his/her parents at the time of birth registration. In case a child is born in the Vietnamese territory but his/her parents fail to reach an agreement on the selection of his/her nationality, the child has Vietnamese nationality”. Thus, if the child has Vietnamese nationality, he/she is still not named after a foreign name even though the parent is a foreigner. On the contrary, if the parents both agree for the child to have a foreign nationality, the naming of the child will follow the regulations of that country instead of the regulations of Vietnam.

The law of our country has promulgated regulations on naming, which the family and given names must meet these regulations to be recorded on the Birth Certificate. Parents need to pay attention to this so that the birth registration process for the child is convenient, minimizing errors.

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