Procedures required for overseas Vietnamese to be identified as Vietnamese nationality

VNGOP – Ms Eva Tran whose parents were born in Việt Nam and currently have Australian nationality wants to know whether their parents can acquire Vietnamese citizenship while still bearing Australian nationality? If they can, how long does it take them to follow the administrative procedures?

June 21, 2008 7:15 AM GMT+7

Regarding this question, the Ministry of Justice said that the admission of your parents as Vietnamese citizen must be based on among two following situations:

If the State President of the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam has not decided to terminate their Vietnamese citizenship, they still bear Vietnamese citizenship. In this case, they can go to the Việt Nam's embassy to Australia to ask for certificate of Vietnamese citizenship.

In case their Vietnamese citizenship has been terminated by the State President, they have to go through some administrative procedures so as to regain Vietnamese citizenship which is defined in the Article 21 of the Law on Vietnamese Citizenship 1998. However, according to the Article 3 of the above law, the State of Việt Nam only allow each Vietnamese individual to have only one nationality-that is Vietnamese citizenship. Therefore, if your parents want to regain Vietnamese citizenship, they have to give up Australian nationality.

For more information, you can access to the Website: http://www.moj.gov.vn (click Administrative procedures column) of the Ministry of Justice, take reference of acquiring certificate of Vietnamese citizenship.

Quang Minh