According to the Decree, in order to become a Vietnamese national, an applicant must satisfy all three conditions: (1) Possessing the Vietnamese language to integrate into the Vietnamese community (this condition satisfaction is assessed on the basic of daily communication in Vietnamese) and suitable to the living and working environment of the applicant; (2) The applicant must be permanent resident in Vietnam and be granted the permanent residence card by the competent public security agency of Vietnam; (3) Having proved of ways and means to secure his living by assets, legitimate income of the applicant or guaranteed by organizations, individuals in Vietnam.
Apart from that, the person who has provided special contribution to the course of construction or protection of Vietnam Father Land or the person whose joining the Vietnamese nationality may benefit Vietnamese State (the applicants have talent in science, economics, culture, sport…) may be exempted from certain conditions when applying for being Vietnamese national. The case which is not yet allowed to withdraw from Vietnamese nationality applies to a person who owes State tax or bears assets obligation towards organizations, agencies or individuals in Vietnam and those organizations, agencies or individuals have filed to require for not giving the right to withdraw from Vietnamese nationality to that applicant then the dossier receiving agency shall not deal with the case of permitting to withdraw from Vietnamese nationality.
The Decree also provides that the Vietnamese people permanently live abroad but not yet lose the Vietnamese nationality as provided by Vietnamese law before 01/7/2009 and do not have valid Vietnamese passport, if those people desire to keep Vietnamese nationality then they shall register to keep the Vietnamese nationality. Such registration shall be carried out till the end of the first day of July 2014.
With regard to the responsibility of agencies in State management over nationality, the Government assigned the Ministry of Justice to implement consistently the management over nationwide. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall coordinate with the Ministry of Justice to carry out the State management over nationality for Vietnamese citizens abroad; the Ministry of Public Security shall coordinate with the Ministry of Justice in settling the issue of nationality; the Provincial People’s Committees shall conduct the state management over the nationality within its locality; the representative agencies of Vietnam abroad shall conduct the state management over Vietnamese nationality in the area they are in charge of.
The Decree shall take effect since 18/11/2009 and shall replace the Decree No.04/1998/ND-CP dated 31/12/1998 by the Government providing details and guiding the implementation of the some Article of the Law on Vietnamese nationality and the Decree No.55/2000/ND-CP dated 11/10/2000 of the Government amending some articles of the Decree No.104/1998/ND-CP dated 31/12/1998./.
Minh Đức