Paperwork

She can't register it there but she can register it in her hometown province. I bought a new motorbike last year in Bien Hoa and had to have my girlfriend register it in Hai Phong. It took about 2 weeks for them to send the plates.

Owners should register it at their respective birth place. After registration can bring anywhere inside Vietnam.
About house, if the owner want to change to new address, yes they can. In both case you cannot do anything 

Thanks Parmyd, is there a reason behind needing to register in their hometown.

Only the Shadow knows......

ancientpathos wrote:

Thanks Parmyd, is there a reason behind needing to register in their hometown.

Yes Ancient, the government wants to control the movement of its people, and making things like this difficult is one way to deter them from moving around inside the country too much. If your and Parmyd's girlfriends still lived in their hometowns (which is what the government really wants), registering a motorbike would be easy for them.

Parmyd and Saigon Monkey are  right. I bought a relative a motorbike and he had to travel back to where his license was issued and register it there. 

This is related to the issue of household registration (đăng ký hộ khẩu)

The hộ khẩu system, as SM mentioned, is designed to control people movement. Vietnam copies it from the Chinese Hukou (thus the name)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system

In Vietnam, people can only register their vehicles where they are formally registered (have hộ khẩu).
There are exception for students and soldiers to register elsewhere.
Moving hộ khẩu to another town is regulated under a byzantine law. One can register as living temporarily (đăng ký tạm trú) in another town, but moving permanently is difficult. Think of it as a temporary working visa vs. citizenship.

Having a hộ khẩu in big cities like Hanoi is often considered a status symbol (at least to girls in small towns). 

Anatta and SM, thank you both. Now I understand. Guess I will wait until I have my temporary residence card and buy new, register in my name.

Foreigners are almost impossible to own a house/ apartment here, except some special cases ( I guess you are not in this list). However, you can be the "shareholder" in case you marry a VNese girl...hahahaha

Crazy Buffalo wrote:

Foreigners are almost impossible to own a house/ apartment here, except some special cases ( I guess you are not in this list). However, you can be the "shareholder" in case you marry a VNese girl...hahahaha

Might not be too long before foreigners can own property and houses in Vietnam.

http://www.thanhniennews.com/index/page … gners.aspx

i bought a used bike from my family's neighbor last year in Dong Nai.   my relatives said i had to find the original owner somewhere in Saigon and ask them to go with you to register the bike.   they didnt think it was worth the hassle so i didnt bother to register it.   i also wanted to repaint it white instead of original black but i was told i would have to register it after the paint job which leads me back to the beginning