Law

1. Citizenship Law

a. Jus Sanguinis and Jus Soli Provisions

Vietnamese citizenship law operates through a jus sanguinis structure, providing that children born to two citizen parents are considered citizens whether born within or outside the country. Where a child has a single Vietnamese parent, regardless of whether the other parent is a foreign citizen, is unknown, or is stateless, the parents must provide a written statement upon birth registration for their child to gain Vietnamese nationality.

Children may gain jus soli citizenship if:

One of the parents is Vietnamese, the other is a foreigner and the two parents cannot reach an agreement on the citizenship for the child upon birth registration;
Both parents are stateless but have permanent residence in Viet Nam; or
The mother is stateless but has permanent residence in Viet Nam and the father is unknown.
Foundlings are also eligible for citizenship by birth.

Viet Nam’s citizenship legislation defines a stateless person as “a person who has neither Vietnamese nationality nor foreign nationality”, which is consistent with the definition in the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons.

b. Naturalized Citizenship

A foreigner or a stateless person who has permanent residence in Viet Nam is eligible to apply for Vietnamese nationality if they have resided in Viet Nam for five years, are financially independent, have capacity to exercise full civil act rights and can integrate into the Vietnamese community, among other requirements. A simplified naturalization procedure is available for applicants who are the spouse, natural parent, or natural offspring of Vietnamese citizens or have made a significant contribution to Viet Nam. One must have a Vietnamese name to apply for naturalization in Viet Nam, which can be selected by the applicant. Stateless persons are eligible for a simplified process, where they may apply for naturalization without adequate personal identification papers if they have resided in Viet Nam for at least 20 years by 2009, when the new law became effective.

c. Dual Citizenship

Dual citizenship is only recognized in some cases. Dual citizenship is permitted for a person who is a spouse, a natural parent, or natural offspring of Vietnamese citizens. Those who have made meritorious contributions to Viet Nam’s development and defense, or have outstanding talents that will be useful for Viet Nam are eligible to keep their prior citizenship after being granted naturalized citizenship. Naturalized citizens who are not eligible to retain prior citizenship must renounce such citizenship.

2. Treaty Ratification Status

While Viet Nam is yet to ratify the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, and the 1951 Refugee Convention (and its 1967 Protocol), it has ratified ICCPR, ICESCR, ICERD, CRC, and CEDAW with no relevant reservations.

In its 2014 concluding observations, the CESCR Committee expressed concerns regarding children of returned marriage immigrants in Viet Nam who remain stateless and unable to access education and other services. The Committee recommended that Viet Nam “recognize and register children of marriage immigrants who are currently stateless”. Due to its ratification of ICESCR, Viet Nam is obligated to protect freedom from discrimination, including on the grounds of nationality.

The 2015 concluding observations by the CEDAW Committee included concerns over the 800 stateless women who lost Vietnamese citizenship as a result of failed attempts to acquire a different nationality. However, Article 23 of the Law on Vietnamese Nationality provides that anyone who has renounced Vietnamese citizenship to gain citizenship elsewhere is eligible to reacquire Vietnamese citizenship and many of these women have been able to do so.

Concluding observations by the CRC Committee in 2022 recommended that Viet Nam develop a procedure to determine the stateless status of children as well as work towards universal birth registration by raising public awareness of the importance of birth registration. As a party to CRC and ICCPR, Viet Nam is obligated to ensure the right to acquire nationality as well as that every birth in its territory is registered immediately. Further, Article 2 of the Law on Vietnamese Nationality provides that in Viet Nam every individual has the right to nationality. Article 8 further provides that Viet Nam enables children born in the territory of Viet Nam to have nationality and stateless people permanently residing in Viet Nam to acquire Vietnamese nationality in accordance with applicable law.

Status of Accession of International Human Rights Treaties in Southeast Asia

Country	Stateless 1	Stateless 2	Refugee	ICCPR	ICESCR	ICERD	CRC	CEDAW
Vietnam

Signifies that the country is a party to the convention

Stateless 1 – 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons

Signifies that the country is not a party to the convention

Stateless 2 – 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness

Population

1. Reported Stateless Persons

Viet Nam reported a population of 26,811 stateless persons to UNHCR in 2022 , a significant decrease from the 35,890 reported in 2021. Groups affected by statelessness in Viet Nam include ethnic Hmong, female marriage migrants who have returned to Viet Nam after the breakdown of marriages, and persons of Cambodian heritage who fled to Viet Nam during the Khmer Rouge regime.

The H’mon and Montagnard ethnic and religious minority communities experience significant discrimination in Viet Nam, including harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention by authorities. These communities also experience refusal of civil registration and documentation such as birth registration and have at times resorted to avoiding authorities due to fear of repercussions taken by authorities against them.

2. Persons at Risk of Statelessness

Former Cambodian refugees and Vietnamese women have historically experienced statelessness as a result of renouncing prior nationality without acquiring an alternative nationality. Article 23 of the 2008 Law on Nationality allows those who had renounced Vietnamese citizenship to gain another citizenship are now able to reacquire Vietnamese citizenship, which has resolved the status of many women. There is limited information on the extent to which statelessness may still be affecting this population today.

3. Undetermined Nationalities

The nationality status of children of returned marriage migrants who themselves have lost their Vietnamese nationality remain uncertain. While many of these children have the right to the nationality of their fathers (usually South Korean or Chinese/Taiwanese) under their country of birth’s jus sanguinis provisions, many returned to Viet Nam (following relationship breakdowns) prior to gaining household registration or any documentary proof of their citizenship status.

Reported stateless persons to the UNHCR

Country	2019 (year start)	2020 (year end)	2021 (year end)	2022 (year end)
Viet Nam	30,581	32,890	35,475	26,811

Source: UNHCR, Global Trends: Forced Displacement from 2019-2022.

Causes of Statelessness

1. Lack of Legal Safeguards Against Childhood Statelessness

Viet Nam’s citizenship law explicitly provides that foundling children will be considered citizens. For children born to stateless parents, the parents must have a ‘permanent residence’ in Viet Nam for the child to gain citizenship. Persons deemed temporarily residing in the country appear to be excluded by this provision and the application of the provision, and the application for persons illegally residing within the country remains unclear. A stateless person can only apply for a confirmation of permanent residence in Viet Nam if that person has “temporarily resided” in Viet Nam since 2000 or earlier. To apply for the confirmation of permanent residence, the applicant must submit to the local police the relevant temporary residence certificates issued by the competent authority of Viet Nam to prove his or her temporary residence in Viet Nam since 2002 or earlier. If both parents of a child born in Viet Nam are stateless and not qualified to have permanent residence in Viet Nam, there would not be any legal basis for the child to acquire Vietnamese nationality.

2. Citizenship Stripping

In principle, a Vietnamese citizen cannot be stripped of their Vietnamese nationality unless they are a Vietnamese national living overseas or a naturalized citizen who has committed acts that are harmful to the state of Viet Nam.

Due to barriers to dual nationality in the laws of receiving countries including South Korea and Taiwan, marriage migrants from Viet Nam had to relinquish citizenship to naturalize as citizens. As discussed in the chapters on China and South Korea, where a relationship is determined to be a ‘sham’ or fraudulent, women have been stripped of their nationality without protections from statelessness. While the exact number of persons affected by citizenship stripping is unknown, the CEDAW noted in 2015 that there were 800 stateless returned marriage migrants in Viet Nam. However, Article 23 of the Law on Vietnamese Nationality provides that anyone who has renounced Vietnamese citizenship to gain citizenship elsewhere is eligible to reacquire Vietnamese citizenship and many of these women have been able to do so.

3. Administrative Barriers

In order to apply for restoration of Vietnamese nationality, a person must submit the judicial record issued by the provincial Department of Justice of the province where he or she is residing or to the diplomatic representative office in the foreign country where he or she is residing. However, while the legislation on judicial records sets out the procedures for Vietnamese or foreign nationals to obtain the judicial records from competent Vietnamese authorities, there is no guidance on how a stateless person can do so, presenting a barrier for stateless persons to restore their Vietnamese nationality.

A birth certificate, people’s identity card, or a Vietnamese passport may be used to certify Vietnamese citizenship. Children cannot access education in Viet Nam without a birth certificate. While Viet Nam’s birth registration rate is high, at 98%, some groups experience disproportionately low birth registration. Those at risk of non-registration (and, in turn, at risk of statelessness) in Viet Nam include children born in remote areas, children born to ethnic and religious minorities, street children in urban areas, undocumented migrant families who are not registered under the “household registration system”, children born out of wedlock (especially to parents under the legal age for marriage), children born to two older siblings due to the unofficial “two-child policy” and associated social stigma, and children with undetermined nationality.

Ethnic H’mong communities continue to face administrative barriers to accessing civil registration documents and citizenship with reports of discriminatory applications of policy among these communities. It has been reported that the denial of documentation and the implementation of administrative barriers have been utilized to discriminate against ethnic H’mong on the ground of their conversion to Christian faith and to deny as many 10,000 ethnic H’mong citizenship. Without access to civil registration, these groups largely do not have the documentation required to prove their identity or nationality or access basic human rights and services.

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