Birth certificates, marriage certificates, diplomas, business licenses,… issued abroad must undergo the process of consular legalization to be officially recognized and legally used in transactions and administrative procedures in Vietnam.
“Consular legalization” refers to the certification by competent Vietnamese authorities of the seals, signatures, and titles on documents issued abroad (typically already notarized or certified by consular authorities), ensuring that documents are legally recognized and valid for use in Vietnam.
According to the Vietnamese law, consular legalization is necessary and compulsory for documents issued by foreign agencies to be lawfully used in Vietnam. When carrying out consular legalization procedures, you must ensure that:
- A paper or document comprising two or more pages must bear a seal appended on adjoining pages;
- If you request consular legalization by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Consular Department or Departments of External Relations, your foreign papers and documents must be first certified by overseas diplomatic missions, consulates or other authorized agencies of your country in Vietnam;
- If you request consular legalization by overseas Vietnamese diplomatic missions, your foreign papers and documents must first be certified by:
- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs or another competent agency of the host country in case such papers and documents have been issued by that country. For a federative country, the Consular Department will provide specific guidance on agency(ies) with certification competence of such country, depending on local conditions and law, to overseas Vietnamese representation offices.
- Overseas diplomatic mission, consulate or another authorized agency of a third country in the host country in case such papers and documents have been issued by the third country.
CONSULAR LEGALIZATION PROCEDURES
In Vietnam, you may submit a dossier for consular legalization of your papers to the following competent agencies:
- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Consular Department, at 40 Tran Phu street, Ba Dinh district, Hanoi.
- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Ho Chi Minh City Department of External Relations, at 6 Alexandre De Rhodes street, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
You may also dial 0989313339 for fast-track services. Local external relations offices authorized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive consular certification and legalization dossiers. You can submit your dossier and receive the result on weekdays and Saturday mornings, except public holidays.
THE DOSSIER MUST COMPRISE
One declaration for consular certification or legalization, made according to form No. LS/HPH-2012/TK.
- An original personal identification paper (identity card, passport or passport substitute paper) in case of direct submission; or one copy of such paper in case of submission by post. This paper is not required to be certified.
- Papers and documents requested to be consular certified, which have been certified by a foreign diplomatic mission, consulate or another agency authorized to perform the consular function.
- One copy of each paper and document requested to be consular legalized.
- One Vietnamese or English translation of each paper or document requested to be consular legalized, in case such papers and documents are not made in such language. Translations are not required to be certified but you are responsible for the accuracy of the translations.
- One copy of the translations of papers and documents.
- An envelope bearing the recipient’s address in case the dossier is submitted by post and results are requested to be notified by post.
When necessary to check the authenticity of papers and documents requested to be consular certified, dossier-receiving officers may ask you to additionally produce the originals of related papers and documents, and submit one copy of each of such papers and documents.
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