VNIS Investment

Vietnam

Leaving is not the same as cutting ties

Nearly every family asks the same thing at the first meeting: once I hold a foreign passport, do I still have Vietnamese nationality, whose name goes on the property back home, and what can the children inherit. This page answers from the statute rather than from hearsay.

Nationality

Does naturalising abroad cost you your Vietnamese nationality

No. The Nationality Law sets out the grounds on which Vietnamese nationality is lost, and taking another country's citizenship is not one of them. You lose it only by applying to renounce it and having that application granted.

Legal basis
Law on Vietnamese Nationality No. 24/2008/QH12, as amended by Law 56/2014/QH13 and Law 79/2025/QH15 (passed 24 June 2025, in force 1 July 2025). Consolidated text 53/VBHN-VPQH of 24 July 2025. Implementing regulation: Decree 191/2025/NĐ-CP of 1 July 2025, replacing Decree 16/2020/NĐ-CP.

Was the single-nationality principle amended
No — Article 4 stands word for wordThe State recognises that a Vietnamese citizen holds one nationality, Vietnamese, save where this Law provides otherwise. Law 79/2025 left the article untouched.
Grounds for losing Vietnamese nationality
Article 26 lists five, and naturalising abroad is not among themRenunciation granted; deprivation; annulment of a decision granting or restoring nationality; the cases in Article 18(2) and Article 35; an international treaty.
The only voluntary route out
Filing your own application to renounceArticle 27. The file passes through the Ministry of Justice and is decided by the President. Nobody loses their nationality automatically.
What Law 79/2025 opened up
Applicants for Vietnamese nationality — new or restored — may ask to keep their foreign oneArticles 19(6) and 23(5). The statutory conditions must be met and the President must permit it, case by case.
Inside Vietnam
The authorities deal with you as a Vietnamese national and nothing elseArticle 5(4), added in 2025. A foreign passport carries no weight before Vietnamese authorities unless a treaty says otherwise.
Holders of public office
Must hold Vietnamese nationality only, and must reside in VietnamArticles 5(5) and 5(6). This covers Party, State, Fatherland Front and socio-political bodies, cipher work, the armed forces, and civil servants generally.
Challenging a nationality decision
No administrative complaint, no court actionArticle 5(8), added in 2025 — which is precisely why the file has to be right the first time.

Where clients get it backwards

  • There is no duty to report a foreign naturalisation to the Vietnamese authorities; the law creates no procedure for it.
  • Keeping your Vietnamese nationality is not the same as Vietnam recognising that you hold two. Inside the country, only the Vietnamese one counts.
  • Where the country granting you citizenship requires you to give up your previous nationality, that requirement comes from its law, not Vietnam's. Both sides have to be read together.

Nationality

Applying to have Vietnamese nationality restored

For those who renounced Vietnamese nationality and now want it back. Since 1 July 2025 the six qualifying grounds set out in the 2008 Law are gone: anyone who lost the nationality and files an application has that application considered.

What the 2025 amendment loosened

Under the 2008 Law, restoration was open only to those who fitted one of six grounds — repatriation, a Vietnamese spouse, child or parent, service to the country, benefit to the State, active investment in Vietnam, or a renunciation made for a foreign naturalisation that then fell through. Law 79/2025 removed that list entirely. It is now enough to have lost the nationality under Article 26 and to file. Considered is not the same as granted: the decision still rests with the President.

Who is considered
Anyone who lost Vietnamese nationality under Article 26 and files an applicationArticle 23(1), as amended in 2025.
When it is refused
Where restoration would harm Vietnam's national interestsArticle 23(2).
Those previously deprived of nationality
A five-year wait from the date of deprivationArticle 23(3).
Your name
You must take back your former Vietnamese nameArticle 23(4). If you are also asking to keep a foreign nationality you may choose a combined Vietnamese and foreign name, which is then written into the decision.
Must you give up the foreign nationality
No, if you ask to keep it and the President permitsArticle 23(5). Two conditions: retention must be lawful under that country's own law, and the foreign nationality must not be used against Vietnam's security and national interests or against the lawful rights of others.
If you do not ask
The Ministry of Justice writes to you to begin renouncing the foreign nationalityArticle 25(4). That is the default path, so a request to keep the foreign passport has to be made in the application itself.
Where to file
The provincial Department of Justice where you live, or a Vietnamese mission if you live abroadArticle 25(1).

What goes in the file

  • The application for restoration of Vietnamese nationality
  • A copy of your birth certificate, passport or an acceptable substitute
  • A personal history declaration
  • A foreign criminal record certificate covering your time abroad, issued no more than 90 days before filing
  • Evidence that you once held Vietnamese nationality

Law 79/2025 rewrote the criminal-record requirement and deleted the old sub-paragraph (e) — proof that you fitted one of the six grounds — because the grounds themselves are gone. Decree 191/2025 allows documents already held in the electronic civil-status database to be omitted.

How the file moves

  1. 01

    Filing and background checks

    File with the Department of Justice where you live, or with a Vietnamese mission if you are abroad. Domestically: the Department has five working days to ask provincial police for a background check, and the police have twenty days to report back. Abroad: the mission has twenty days to examine the file and send it to the Ministry of Justice, with the background check run by the Ministry of Public Security.

  2. 02

    Through the province

    Within five working days of the check coming back, the Department completes the file for the provincial People's Committee Chairman, who has a further five working days to reach a conclusion and send it to the Ministry of Justice.

  3. 03

    The Ministry of Justice reviews

    Fifteen days where you are asking to keep a foreign nationality or are stateless, after which the Ministry reports to the Prime Minister for submission to the President. Twenty days otherwise — and in that case the Ministry first writes to you to renounce the foreign nationality, then has ten working days from receiving the renunciation certificate to move the file on.

  4. 04

    The President decides

    Twenty days from receiving the Prime Minister's submission. The restoration decision is itself proof of Vietnamese nationality under Article 11.

Added up, the statutory periods put the state's own work at roughly three to four months. In practice it runs longer, because obtaining a foreign criminal record, legalisation and translation all sit outside those clocks. We do not predict a decision date for any particular file.

Legal basis
Articles 23, 24 and 25 of the Law on Vietnamese Nationality as amended by Law 79/2025/QH15, with detail in Decree 191/2025/NĐ-CP.

Nationality

Having Vietnamese nationality confirmed

For overseas Vietnamese who left long ago, never renounced, and no longer hold a document that proves it. The law is plain: what was never lost is still held. The task is to prove it again, not to apply afresh.

Legal basis
Article 13(2) and 13(3) of the Law on Vietnamese Nationality as amended by Law 79/2025/QH15. The list of documents that prove nationality is in Article 11. Procedure is set by the Government in Decree 191/2025/NĐ-CP.

The principle
An overseas Vietnamese who has not lost the nationality still holds itArticle 13(2). Nationality does not lapse through years of disuse.
If the papers are gone
Ask a Vietnamese mission abroad to confirm that you hold Vietnamese nationalityArticle 13(2). There is a matching procedure inside Vietnam, filed with the Department of Justice where you live.
Is there still a registration deadline
The law as it now stands sets noneThe 2008 Law once carried a registration deadline; that mechanism has been replaced by the present confirmation route. Still worth checking with the mission before reassuring a client.
Documents that prove nationality on their own
Any one of them is enough, and no confirmation procedure is neededArticle 11: a birth certificate; a people's identity card, citizen identity card, identity card or electronic identity card; a Vietnamese passport; a decision granting or restoring Vietnamese nationality.
A birth certificate that does not state nationality
It has to be accompanied by proof of a parent's Vietnamese nationalityArticle 11(1) — the single most common sticking point in overseas Vietnamese files.
Where the nationality really is gone
A Certificate of Vietnamese Origin can be applied for insteadA different document altogether. It confers no citizenship rights, but it opens certain housing and residential land rights and underpins a number of other procedures.

Old papers worth gathering before you file

  • Birth and marriage certificates, old household registration books or civil-status extracts
  • Expired Vietnamese passports and identity cards of any generation
  • Documents issued by the pre-1975 administration, if any survive
  • Proof of a parent's Vietnamese nationality, particularly where a birth certificate is silent on the point
  • Papers issued by the host country on arrival, which usually record the nationality of origin

The older the document the more it is worth, faded or torn as it may be. Decree 191/2025 allows anything already held in the electronic civil-status database to be left out, so some files turn out far lighter than expected.

Residence

A Vietnamese permanent residence card for a foreign national

What a family needs for the members who now hold another passport — a spouse, or a child who has renounced Vietnamese nationality. A permanent residence card allows indefinite residence. It is a wholly different instrument from a temporary residence card, however alike the names sound.

Temporary card against permanent card

  • A temporary card is tied to why you came and carries the same code as your visa. A permanent card is tied to nothing and has no expiry in the ordinary sense.
  • Temporary cards run to fixed ceilings: ĐT1 up to ten years; NG3, LV1, LV2, LS, ĐT2 and DH up to five; NN1, NN2, ĐT3 and TT up to three; LĐ1, LĐ2 and PV1 up to two. On expiry a fresh card may be issued — it is not an automatic renewal.
  • A temporary card is always cut at least 30 days shorter than the passport behind it, so a passport nearing expiry drags the card down with it.
  • Permanent cards are issued by provincial police, and the holder returns every ten years to have the card exchanged. That is a card-swap, not a fresh assessment.
  • A foreign spouse of a Vietnamese citizen usually starts on a TT temporary card capped at three years — which is exactly the period that has to be banked before permanent residence can be sought.

The four eligible categories

  • Foreigners who have served the building and defence of Vietnam and hold a Vietnamese state order or honorific title
  • Scientists and specialists currently in Vietnam on temporary residence
  • Those sponsored by a parent, spouse or child who is a Vietnamese citizen permanently resident in Vietnam
  • Stateless persons in continuous temporary residence in Vietnam since before 2000

For your family the third category is the practical one. The sponsor must be a Vietnamese citizen and must be permanently resident in the country — holding the nationality alone is not enough.

The condition common to all four
Lawful accommodation and a stable income sufficient to live on in VietnamArticle 40(1). No figure is given, so what counts as sufficient is judged file by file.
Family sponsorship only
Three years or more of continuous temporary residence in VietnamArticle 40(3). Continuous is where files come apart — a gap between temporary cards resets the clock.
Scientists and specialists only
A written request from the minister or agency head responsible for the fieldArticle 40(2).
Where to file
The immigration authorityArticle 41(1).
Who decides
The Minister of Public SecurityArticle 41(2).
Time to decision
Four months from a complete fileArticle 41(2), extendable by up to two further months where additional checks are needed.
Collecting the card
Within three months of the notificationArticle 41(5), from the provincial police immigration office where the application was made.
Exchanging the card
Every ten yearsArticle 43(1). A form, the old card and a certified copy of the passport.

What the application contains

  • The permanent residence application
  • A criminal record certificate from the applicant's country of nationality
  • A diplomatic note from that country's mission asking Vietnam to grant permanent residence
  • A certified copy of the passport
  • Evidence of meeting the Article 40 conditions
  • The sponsorship undertaking, for family cases

The diplomatic note is the item most often forgotten and the slowest to obtain, since it depends on the other country's mission. Start it early.

Legal basis
Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam No. 47/2014/QH13, as amended by Law 51/2019/QH14 and Law 23/2023/QH15. Consolidated text 30/VBHN-VPQH, Official Gazette 1257 + 1258 of 29 November 2023.

In practice

Five things that change once someone in the family holds another nationality

Nationality is not merely which passport you carry. It decides whose name goes on the deed, what the children can inherit, which document you travel home on, and where tax is owed. Below are the five points families run into most, each with its statutory basis.

01

Housing and land-use rights

The 2024 Land Law puts overseas Vietnamese who still hold Vietnamese nationality in the same bracket as people at home, collectively termed individuals. Keep the nationality and your land rights are effectively those of a resident. Persons of Vietnamese origin who have lost the nationality form a separate, narrower bracket: if permitted to enter Vietnam they may own a house together with the residential land-use right, buy within housing development projects, inherit residential land carrying a house, and receive a house with its land as a gift from someone within the statutory line of heirs. Foreign nationals are narrower still: apartments and detached houses in commercial housing projects outside defence and security zones, capped at 30% of the apartments in any one block and 250 detached houses across an area with the population of a ward, and held for a maximum of 50 years, renewable once for a further period of up to 50 years.

Land Law No. 31/2024/QH15, Articles 4(3), 4(6), 28(1)(h) and 44(1)–(2). Housing Law No. 27/2023/QH15, Articles 8, 17, 19 and 20.

02

A foreign spouse is the exception

This provision is little known and it reshapes how a family holds its assets. A foreign national married to a Vietnamese citizen living in Vietnam owns housing with the rights of a Vietnamese citizen — no 50-year term, no 30% or 250-unit cap. Married instead to an overseas Vietnamese permitted to enter the country, they take that person's rights. Put plainly, one family member keeping Vietnamese nationality can unlock ownership for the foreign spouse alongside them.

Housing Law No. 27/2023/QH15, Article 20(2)(c).

03

Inheriting land when a child holds a foreign passport

A child who still holds Vietnamese nationality inherits land and is registered as owner in the ordinary way. A child who has renounced it, and who does not fall within the category permitted to own housing attached to residential land, receives no certificate of title — but loses nothing: the inherited land may be transferred or gifted, with the heir named as transferor on the contract. Until it is sold or gifted, the inheritance file is lodged with the land registration office for entry in the cadastral book, and the heir may authorise someone else to look after the land. Where the heirs include both those who qualify and those who do not, certificates issue to the qualifying heirs once the estate is divided. As for housing, a foreign national who inherits outside the permitted category, above the caps, or within a defence and security zone receives the value of the property rather than the property.

Land Law No. 31/2024/QH15, Articles 44(3), 44(4) and 44(5). Housing Law No. 27/2023/QH15, Article 20(2)(b).

04

Which passport to travel home on

On Vietnamese territory, in dealings with Vietnamese authorities, the State recognises only the Vietnamese nationality of a dual national. If you still hold it, you enter on an intact and valid Vietnamese travel document. If your Vietnamese passport has expired there are two routes: renew it, or travel on the foreign passport with a visa or under a visa waiver. Do not mix the two on a single trip — you leave on the document you entered on. Confirm the mechanics with the Vietnamese mission where you live before you fly.

Law on Vietnamese Nationality, Article 5(4). Law on Exit and Entry of Vietnamese Citizens No. 49/2019/QH14, Article 34.

05

Military service for sons who keep Vietnamese nationality

Male citizens aged 17 and over are subject to military service registration. The call-up age runs from 18 to the end of 25, extended to the end of 27 for those deferred to complete a college or university course. Registration is handled by the commune military command where you reside. What is worth noting: the Law on Military Service does not mention citizens settled abroad anywhere in its text — there is no dedicated exemption and no exclusion either. In practice medical calls and call-ups follow registered residence, so the question surfaces when a son returns and registers residence while still within the age band. Before any long stay, put the question directly to the military command where he will register.

Law on Military Service No. 78/2015/QH13, Articles 12, 15 and 30, in consolidated text 80/VBHN-VPQH following the amendments made by Law 98/2025/QH15 to eleven military and defence laws.

06

The tax residence threshold

Nationality does not decide whether Vietnamese personal income tax is owed — days and dwelling do. You are tax resident on either of two tests: presence in Vietnam for 183 days or more in a calendar year or across twelve consecutive months from the first day of presence; or a habitual place of residence in Vietnam, meaning registered permanent residence or a house rented under a fixed-term lease. A resident is taxed on income arising both inside and outside Vietnam; a non-resident only on income arising inside. The second test is the trap: a long lease or a live permanent-residence registration can keep you resident even on fewer than 183 days.

Law on Personal Income Tax No. 109/2025/QH15, Articles 2(1) and 2(2), with Article 29 on commencement.

Straight answers

The four things we hear most, and what is actually true

“Taking a foreign passport costs you Vietnamese nationality”

It does not. Article 26 lists the grounds on which the nationality is lost and foreign naturalisation is not among them. You lose it only by applying to renounce and being granted that application.

Law on Vietnamese Nationality, Articles 26 and 27.

“Vietnam allows dual nationality now”

That is too neat. The single-nationality principle in Article 4 is untouched. The 2025 law widened the exceptions, and anyone acquiring or restoring Vietnamese nationality who wants to keep a foreign one needs the President's permission, case by case. Inside the country, the authorities still count only the Vietnamese nationality.

Law on Vietnamese Nationality, Articles 4, 5(4), 19(6) and 23(5).

“I have been away so long it must have lapsed”

Nationality does not lapse. An overseas Vietnamese who has not lost it still holds it. Where no document survives to prove it, ask a Vietnamese mission to confirm it.

Law on Vietnamese Nationality, Articles 11 and 13(2).

“A long temporary residence card is much the same thing”

It is not. A temporary card is tied to why you came, carries an expiry date, and on expiry a fresh card may be issued rather than granted as of right. A permanent card allows indefinite residence and is merely exchanged every ten years.

Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam, Articles 38 and 43.

This page is background information, drawn from the legislation in force at the date shown. It is not legal advice on your own file and it is no substitute for a lawyer reading your family's actual documents. Vietnamese nationality and residence law has changed repeatedly over the past two years, so before you decide anything, let us check the position against your particular circumstances.

Which case does your family fall into?

Every family differs: some still hold Vietnamese nationality, some renounced it, some were born abroad and never registered. We go through each member before advising anything.

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