Police check from Vietnam for Australian citizenship

    Hi everyone, my son is a New Zealander applying for Australian citizenship. He lived in Vietnam for about a year. Now he needs a police check from Vietnam. We have the paperwork which has been verified by the Vietnamese embassy in Canberra. But we can't figure out what to do next. No-one responds to the phone numbers and email given to us in Vietnam. If anyone has been through the process and has any advice, I'd be really grateful. Thanks Sarah Sarah    -@My best life

Hello My best life (Sarah). Welcome to the expat.com Vietnam forum.

I'm sorry I have no direct/practical experience in this matter to give you. There was, however, a thread from a few years back dealing with precisely the problem your experiencing.

Take a look, here.

We'd very much appreciate hearing back from you on this, and how you fared.

Once again, welcome to the forum. Hope to hear more from you (hopefully with good news) soon.

    Hi everyone, my son is a New Zealander applying for Australian citizenship. He lived in Vietnam for about a year. Now he needs a police check from Vietnam. We have the paperwork which has been verified by the Vietnamese embassy in Canberra. But we can't figure out what to do next. No-one responds to the phone numbers and email given to us in Vietnam. If anyone has been through the process and has any advice, I'd be really grateful. Thanks Sarah Sarah
        -@My best life

Hi Sarah,

Hopefully one (or more) of us can help you.

Please clarify what you mean by "the paperwork which has been verified by the Vietnamese embassy in Canberra".

Are you saying that you have all of the APPLICATION paperwork for submission?

If we know exactly what you have, we might be able to help you figure out what you need.

The English language information on the following commercial website is NOT "official", but embassies & consulates of Vietnam around the world often quote their content on their official websites for use by foreigners inquiring about rules and regulations in Vietnam:

https://www.vietnam-visa.com/police-clearance-certificate-for-foreigners-in-vietnam/

FYI, there are many private agents in Vietnam who offer paid assistance in securing police checks.

Good luck and let us know as much as you can about your experience, as future readers may be searching for the information you share.

Cheers!

O.B.

Đà Nẵng, Việt Nam

@My best life Hello, as you should know, Vietnam is not part of La Haya - Apostille Convention, so the Police Clearance or any other Vietnamese document must be: 1) Notarized by a National Public Notary (you must tell to the Notary you want to Legalize your paper by the Minister of Foreign Affairs an they will say if they are approved or not) ;  2)  Legalized by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam; 3) Translate it to the language you need;  4) Send the paper to the Embassy/Consulate of that country INSIDE Vietnam and get stamped by that Consular entity.  Finally you can use that vietnamese paper in the country you need.

If you are not in Vietnam, the person who was your sponsor for ViSA (or homestay) can do it in your representation at the Provincial Police Dpm.  but a notarized full copy of the passport will be necessary.  By the contrary, the only option is to go to the Vietnamese Embassy in Australia and pay the fee they ask.

A good lesson for everybody who lives in Vietnam for long terms: Take a full legalized copy of your vietnamese papers/contracts/certificates before leave this country.

....A good lesson for everybody who lives in Vietnam for long terms: Take a full legalized copy of your vietnamese papers/contracts/certificates before leave this country.
   
    -@ajairon

Good advice; That's exactly what we did.

After getting married in Quảng Ngãi we went to Hà Nội and got my TRC.

We also took our new wedding certificate and copies of supporting documents (identification & passports) to the Hà Nội office of the Vietnam Foreign Service (MoFA) where all of that was translated to English and certified by them as genuine.

I then took that total dossier to American Citizen Services at the US Embassy, where they certified that the MoFA certification is genuine.

Should there ever be any question about the validity of our marriage certificate in the USA (Social Security, etc) that will certainly be sufficient proof.

@Aidan in HCMC

Hello everyone, I have been contacted by an agency here and they've advised me what to do. As someone has already said, the moral of the story is to keep detailed information about where you stay and what you do when you live in foreign countries.

Thanks a lot, Sarah

    @Aidan in HCMC
Hello everyone, I have been contacted by an agency here and they've advised me what to do. As someone has already said, the moral of the story is to keep detailed information about where you stay and what you do when you live in foreign countries.

Thanks a lot, Sarah
        -@My best life

I do hope everything works out well for your son, Sarah.

As you (and your son) proceed through this, and pending your having the time to write us, we'd very much appreciate hearing back on what steps were taken, the timeline involved, as well as the costs. Your insights would be of great assistance to current and future members of expat.com, as well as to any casual readers of the forum.

Godspeed, and hope to hear back from you soon with the good news.