How guardianship having foreign elements is carried out, which agency is competent to solve is the question we have received a lot lately. To help customers understand more about the guardianship registration procedure with foreign elements, Hong Bang Law Firm would like to consult as follows:

Legal grounds

• Civil Code 2015;
• Law on civil status in 2014;
• The Government’s Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP of November 15, 2015, detailing a number of provisions and measures to implement the Law on Civil Status;
• The Ministry of Justice’s Circular No. 04/2020/TT-BTP of May 28, 2020, detailing the enforcement of a number of provisions of the Law on civil status and the Government’s Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP of November 15, 2015, detailing a number of provisions and measures for enforcement of the Law on civil status.

Requirements and conditions

• Requirements for natural persons to be guardians: Each natural person who meets all of the following requirements may act as a guardian:
• Having full legal capacity;
• Having good ethics and necessary means to exercise rights and fulfill obligations of a guardian;
• Not being a person facing a criminal prosecution or a person who has been convicted but his/her criminal record has been not expunged for a deliberate crime of violation of life, health, honor, dignity or property of another person;
• Not being a person having parental rights to minor children restricted by a court.
• Juridical persons who fully meet the following conditions may be guardians:
• Having civil legal personality in conformity with the guardianship;
• Having necessary means to exercise rights and fulfill obligations of a guardian.

Dossiers

Documents to be submitted, including:

• The guardian registration application is made according to the form.
• The document appointing a guardian according to the provisions of the Civil Code for the case of registration of guardianship; papers proving the natural guardianship conditions as prescribed by the Civil Code in the case of natural guardian registration; in case there are more than one person eligible to act as natural guardian, an additional written agreement on appointment of one person as natural guardian shall be submitted.
• Authorization documents (authenticated) as prescribed by law in case of authorization to carry out guardianship registration. In case the authorized person is a grandfather, grandmother, father, mother, child, wife, husband, brother, sister or younger brother of the principal, the power of attorney is not required to be authenticated.

Documents to be presented, including:

• Passports or identification cards or citizen identification cards or other documents with photographs and personal information issued by competent agencies, which are still valid for proving the identity of the person who requests guardian registration.
• Documents proving the place of residence to determine the competence to register guardians (during the transition period)

Note:

• In case that the applicant submits papers which are copies issued from the original books or authenticated copies from the originals, the dossier-receiving applicants shall not be required to present the originals; if the requester only submits the photograph and presents the original, the person receiving the dossier shall examine and compare the copy with the original and sign the copy confirming the comparison of the contents of such paper, not to request the applicant to submit a copy of such document.
• For documents presented upon civil status registration, the recipient shall examine and compare with the information in the declaration, take a copy or record the information to be kept in the dossier and return it to the applicant, not required to submit a copy or copy of such paper.
• Papers issued, notified or certified by competent foreign agencies for use in civil status registration in Vietnam must be consular legalized, except for cases exempted under treaties to which Vietnam is a contracting party; papers in foreign languages must be translated into Vietnamese and certified with translations or authenticate the signatures of the interpreters in accordance with the provisions of law.
• The recipient shall have to properly and fully file the civil status registration dossier in accordance with the provisions of civil status law, and must not request civil status applicants to submit additional papers which are not required by civil status law to be submitted.

Competent agency: Justice Department

Implementation time

• 05 working days for registration of selected guardians.
• 03 working days for natural guardian registration

If you need more detailed advice and answers as well as how to access this service, please contact directly our Lawyer Nhat Nam via hotline: 0912.35.65.75, 0912.35.53.53 or call the toll free legal consultation hotline 1900.6575 or send a service request via email: lienheluathongbang@gmail.com

Wishing you and your family good health, peace and success!

Best regards!