Order of Procedure

- The applicant submits the application dossier for guardianship to the People's Committee of the relevant competent district.

- The civil status officer (referred to the receiver) immediately checks all the application dossier by verifying the information in the declaration forms and reviewing the validity of the papers or documents in the application dossier.

- If the application dossier is completed and eligible, the receiver shall write a receipt form which should clearly state the date and time for returning the result; if the application dossier is not completed, the receiver shall have to guide the applicant to supplement the documents to complete the dossier as regulated; in case it is impossible to supplement and complete the dossier right away, the applicant should be provided with the guidelines in a written form that clearly states the type of papers, documents or the contents needed to be supplemented with full name and signature of the receiver.

- If the application dossier for guardianship has not been supplemented or completed after being guided as regulated, the public official shall refuse such dossier. The refusal of the application dossier for death certificate shall be written in text, clearly stating the reasons for the refusal with full name of the receiver.

 - Within 05 (five) working days granted to the application for appointed guardian and 03 (three) working days granted to the application for natural guardian since the date of receiving a completed application dossier, if such application dossier fully meets the conditions prescribed by law, the Judicial Division shall report to the Chairman of the district-level People's Committees. If the Chairman agrees to process the application, he/she shall sign to issue the Certificate of Guardianship to the applicant; the civil status officer shall record such information in the Guardianship Application Book with the signatories of both civil status officer and the applicant.

* Notes:

+ In case the applicant submits a paper which is a copy issued from the original book or certified copy of the original, the civil status officer shall not require the applicant to show the originals; if the applicant submits only the copies with the present of the originals, the civil status officer shall compare the copies to the originals and then sign the copies to confirm the comparison of the contents of both types of documents without asking the applicant for the certified copies of such documents.

 + If it is required to present the papers by law when applying for civil status, the civil status officer shall have to check the papers, compare them with the information in the declaration forms and return them to the applicant without asking the applicant for submitting a copy of such documents. The civil status officer may take one copy of the presented documents or write down the information of the submitted paper for filing.

+ Papers issued, notarized or certified by foreign competent agencies for the use in civil status registration in Viet Nam must have apostille certification, except for cases from countries which have signed the international Apostille Convention with Viet Nam as a member; the documents in a foreign language must be provided with a notarized or certified Vietnamese translation as prescribed by law.

+ The civil status officer should fully accept the eligible and completed application dossier according to the provisions of the law without requiring the applicant to submit any other types of documents that are not included in the regulations on the required documents.  

 How to apply:

- The applicant may apply for guardianship in person or authorize other person to do it;

- The applicant may submit the application dossier for guardianship in person to the People’s Committee of the relevant  competent district or send it by post.

Dossier components:

* Documents to be presented

- Passport or identity card or other type of valid papers affixed with photos and personal information issued by the competent agencies to prove the identification of the applicant for guardianship registration.

- Documents proving the residence to determine the authority of the Guardianship Application (during the time when the National Database on Population and the National E-Civil Status Database have not been completely built and implemented nationwide).  

* Documents to be submitted

- Guardianship Application Form.

- Written appointment of guardian in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Code for the case of registration of appointed guardians; documents evidencing the natural guardianship conditions according to the provisions of the Civil Code for the case of natural guardian application; in cases there are many people who are qualified to be the natural guardian, it shal require a written agreement on the appointment of a natural guardian.

- Authorization letter in accordance with the provisions of law in the case of authorization of the application for guardianship. In case the authorized person is the grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, child, spouse or sibling of the authorizing person, the authorization letter must not be notarized or authenticated, but it is required to provide with the documents certifying the relationship with the authorizing person.

Number of dossiers: 01 set (of dossier)

Processing time: 05 working days to process the application for appointed guardian; 03 working says to process the application for natural guardian.

Applicant of the administrative procedures: Individual

Competent governmental agencies

The district-level People's Committee at the place of residence of the ward or the guardian shall process the application for the guardianship between the Vietnamese citizen and the foreigner residing in Viet Nam.

Agencies implementing the administrative procedures:

The district-level Justice Division shall receive the application dossier and process to ask the Chairman of the district-level People's Committees for the consideration and decision.

Coordinating agencies: None

Results of the applied administrative procedure: Certificate of Guardianship.

Fees:  VND75,000

Exemption of fees of the application for civil status registration for the members of families with meritorious services to the revolution; members of the poor households; people with disabilities.

Samples of Declaration forms: Guardianship Application Form.

Requirements, conditions for the implementation of administrative procedure

The guardianship between Vietnamese citizen and foreigner who lives in Viet Nam.

Legal bases:

- Civil Code.

- Civil Status Law in 2014;

- Decree No.123/2015/NĐ-CP dated 15 November 2015 by the Government regulating  a number of articles and measures for the implementation of the Civil Status Law;

- Circular No.15/2015/TT-BTP dated 16 November 2015 by the Ministry of Justice guiding the implementation of a number of articles in the Civil Status Law and the Decree No.123/2015/NĐ-CP dated 15 November 2015 by the Government regulating  a number of articles and measures for the implementation of the Civil Status Law;

- Decision No.123/2016/QĐ-UBND dated 20 December 2016 by Lao cai provincial People’s Committee  regulating the rates (fees) of civil status registration  and its management and use in Lao Cai province.