Registering a birth in Vietnam

Hi Mr David(aka, Mr moderator/fun police/kill joy/Errr..??)
Did you come here, to VN(several months ago)for a holiday and fall into 'Virus Love'... (Average virus, only lasts 24 hours)...
Did you sow some seed, and are now, praying for a 'Crop failure'??

Don't worry mate... Expat help is on the way....

David wrote:

Hi,

About to have a baby or already had children? Let's share your experience about the paperworks for registering a birth in Vietnam.

What are the formalities to obtain a birth certificate?

What is the procedure to follow if both parents are of the same nationality or for a mixed couple?

Thank you in advance for participating,

David

So is your wife giving birth in Vietnam AND Sweden simultaneously?
   

I just happened to buzz by the Sweden forum and haven't checked all the other countries but I'm willing to bet you have a wife in each and every country that's on Expat-Blog and are seeking the exact same advice for each wife. 

David wrote:

Hi,

About to have a baby or already had children? Let's share your experience about the paperworks for registering a birth in Sweden.

What are the formalities to obtain a birth certificate?

What is the procedure to follow if both parents are of the same nationality or for a mixed couple?

Thank you in advance for participating,

David

Just joking with you.  I know you're trying to get people to participate but is the Việt Nam forum that dull?

My understanding, different countries rules may not be the same.  For USA, just register at consulat or embassy for citizenship of your child.

No guys Order from top compel David to post many forums! Not only David but other "Team" also spreading 'topics' for discussion, including Founder Anyways it's a good thing that people know formalities before they make kids!

charmavietnam wrote:

No guys Order from top compel David to post many forums! Not only David but other "Team" also spreading 'topics' for discussion, including Founder Anyways it's a good thing that people know formalities before they make kids!

They need to also be able to afford the children they make....

ancientpathos wrote:

charmavietnam wrote:

No guys Order from top compel David to post many forums! Not only David but other "Team" also spreading 'topics' for discussion, including Founder Anyways it's a good thing that people know formalities before they make kids!

They need to also be able to afford the children they make....

I hope you mean "afford" not only in the financial sense.  I am of the opinion that "afford" means more of what's in the heart and not what's in the wallet.  In other words, if you are dirt poor and have 10 kids, I'm all good with it provided that:

1) you're a rice farmer/vegetable grower/rancher, etc that can provide the basic necessities for your offsprings
2) educate your kids to a basic survival level academically, i.e. basic math, reading, writing (if you can't afford to send them to school, you teach them yourself)
3) educate your kids to live a socially responsible life, i.e. not to steal, kill. 

1) feed the body, 2) feed the mind 3) feed the heart/soul

Society probably wants every person to have PHDs as ideal but I just want honest citizens.  There are rich people that have just one kid but never teach the kid morals/ethics and that kid ends up as a corrupted CEO, politician or doctor.  To me if a kid grows up to be a dirt-poor farmer but lives a good honest life has more value than a rich doctor that...well, like this guy:

http://tuoitrenews.vn/society/14428/han … y-concerns

Hi all,

Some posts have been removed from this thread as this topic was drifting off topic.

Please can we get back to the initial title of this thread, this might surely help. Thank you!

Regards,

David.

Expat-blog team.

If somebody could answer on topic, that'd actually be great.

How long does the paperwork take to register a baby here in Vn? Viets are giving me horror stories of it taking a long time (but never give an actual number of days/weeks)

Also, the time frame to register the birth in your home country (in my case USA)

Anybody here got a passport for their baby while in Vn? How difficult was that? I looked it up online, all the government site said was you can't get it expedited. So not sure what the difference will be besides that.

I'll let a local answer the registering a child's birth of a Vietnamese citizen question (i.e. if your husband is a Vietnamese citizen and you want your child to have Vietnamese citizenship).   

If you just want US citizenship for your baby, then all you need is the birth certificate...then continue the registration with the US Embassy (i.e. like a tourist giving birth to a baby abroad).

Here is the information about registering a baby who has a parent as a US Citizen (thus is also a US Citizen).  The US Embassy has a detailed step by step instructional guide at

http://vietnam.usembassy.gov/report_of_ … broad.html

eh...for your case being closer to the Consular than the Embassy.  Use this link:

http://hochiminh.usconsulate.gov/report … broad.html

The processing time says about 4 weeks after your application has been approved.

Tran Hung Dao wrote:

The processing time says about 4 weeks after your application has been approved.

Add to that the processing time to get the Vietnamese birth certificate, which is REQUIRED by the US Consulate to register the birth of the baby and get the passport. It'll be at least a month. Then, add to that the queue time to get an APPOINTMENT at the US Consulate just to submit the paperwork after you have the Vietnamese birth certificate. I had to wait a month for that.

My baby was born at the end of July. We got her passport at the first of November. That's about right.

Thank you so much! Three months sounds like a fair estimate with all the bureaucracy involved. I feel like I understand it a lot more now.

For those who gave their kid dual citizenship, did you do the US or Vn process first?

I would advise do whatever route first that has more value.

Possibly 6 weeks.
2 weeks - Vietnam birth certificate UBND Bien Hoa
2 days -   Translation from VN to English at UBND Tan Phu
4 days -  Wait time for appointment at US consulate
4 weeks - Applied for all 3 at the US consulate: Report of birth abroad, Passport and Social Security #(still waiting on this)

You can go to any UBND to translate the Vietnam birth certificate. Cost was around 100k.
You need to go online to make an appointment at the US consulate. Both husband and wife had to be there. I got lucky and got an appointment in 4 days.
US embassy website lists all forms and required docs you need to turn in at the appointment. All of them need to be completed or they may return to you and ask you to reschedule.
4 weeks was quoted at the embassy. Not sure how accurate that schedule is.

I received my daughters US passport and Report of birth abroad on 12/26. So processing time was only around 1 week instead of 4 weeks.

milkybunnyHCM wrote:

For those who gave their kid dual citizenship, did you do the US or Vn process first?

I assume you're referring to one spouse being a foreigner, and the other Vietnamese.  I can't answer your question, but will state for other readers of this thread that if husband and wife are of mixed nationality with neither being Vietnamese, acquiring dual citizenship of the baby born in VN depends on the laws of the countries of the parents. Vietnam requires you to declare which country of citizenship you want your baby to have. That declaration is documented in the VN system (on a computer - not written down on some paper that can be lost, as are so many other things documented in VN). So once you get the citizenship of one country, it's very difficult to get it for the other country because you've already got a VN birth certificate stating the citizenship of the baby in the first country.

Thanks for all the info, really appreciate it. The American site briefly mentioned accidental births abroad. In that case, is there a way to get temp. documents so you and baby can go back to US without the hassle of waiting a few months for birth registration, passport, SSN? I would think there is a route with the "accidental" birth abroad since most people could not wait around for all of that if they did not intend to stick around the country long.