Vietnemese birth certificate

Hi Emerald Bay77554.

The 2015 Civil Code Article 26 Rights to having surnames and given names(pdf link)

ss#2 of article 26 would suggest that the father's western surname would be accepted

"2. The surname of an individual is determined as the surname of his or her biological father or surname of his or her biological mother as agreed by the mother and the father; in the absence of such agreement, the surname of the child is determined according to customary practice. If the biological father has not been identified, the surname of the child is determined according to the surname of his or her biological mother."

However, ss#3 states

"Names of Vietnamese citizens must be in Vietnamese or another ethnic language of Vietnam; and shall not be a number or a non-letter character"

ss#3 would appear to negate the possibility of having a western name be it the given, middle or surname (the contradiction between ss#2 and ss#3 is not an uncommon occurrence in VN legislation).

However, that being said, there is this article from

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM

Government News,

titled Regulations on foreign given names (link)

The foreigner presented in the scenario given had apparently successfully registered the child with a foreign family/surname, being told by the official that a "...a Vietnamese citizen who has a foreign mother or father is allowed to have only a single English word in their name."

So, open to interpretation (persuasion/greasing) perhaps?

Please let us know how this works out for you. It would be greatly appreciated, and your experience will certainly be of interest to other expat.com members.

(I have asked admin to remove the duplicate posts)

If one of the spouses is Vietnamese and the other is a foreigner, first name can be a foreign name:

1. Nguyen Ngoc Emily
2. Nguyen Thi Minh Jackson
3. Phan Van Elsa

@charmavietnam

Is this anecdotal, or do you have a link to verify?

Would be nice to see it on an official decree.

Does anyone have any experience on getting a Vietnamese birth certificate issued with a Western name? Is this something that can be accomplished with “coffee $$”??
-@Emerald Bay77554

Not if the mother and you are still in mortal combat (the threats you mentioned)

The only way anything previously mentioned is remotely possible is if she and her family agree.

Have you thought this through completely?

Your child will be eligible for (automatically has) dual Vietnamese/USA citizenship, based on your USA citizenship.

You can Request a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) through the US Embassy & Consulate website.

At the same time you can request issuance of your child's passport.

You might have many reasons for wanting an English name added (ego/family pride, making things easier in America, etc) but keep in mind that adding an English name to a Vietnam birth certificate for a child of a Vietnamese mother could actually make things more difficult for your child when they become an adult and want to exercise their full rights as a Vietnamese citizen while also maintaining their USA citizenship.

Don't let this be your Alamo.

@Aidan in HCMC

Do we need to verify all rules and regulations to do these things?

By the way, are the officials strictly following the law?

If go with the laws and regulations, they just smile and say, 'this is our office, we decide what to do!"

Anyway, if you want, just try it yourself!

If one of the spouses is Vietnamese and the other is a foreigner, first name can be a foreign name: -@charmavietnam

Do we need to verify all rules and regulations to do these things?

I was asking you how you know this, and I stated that it would be nice to see an official document/decree verifying what you wrote (as though it were fact).

So, I ask again. Is what you wrote anecdotal, or simply your opinion? Or are you able to provide a source which confirms your statement?

By the way, are the officials strictly following the law?
If go with the laws and regulations, they just smile and say, 'this is our office, we decide what to do!"

I'm not quite sure what this has to do with the original question.

Anyway, if you want, just try it yourself!
-@charmavietnam

You've lost me. Try what myself? I have no children born in VN to a Vietnamese lady.

We are already planning to have the US birth certificate with my last name and a western name and then when we bring the baby to Vietnam for a VIetnamese birth certificate he will have a Vietnamese name with my wife's last name.  So two birth certificates with two different names.

The main complication for this is airline tickets.  We would book them in the US name with the US passport but then present the Vietnamese passport at Vietnam customs.  The only problem is when they occasionally ask for the ticket stub as it won't match but we would have both passports that would have both names but the same DOB, address and city of birth.  Hopefully this won't cause issues.  I know that it happens often so there must be a mechanism to resolve this.

All of the above confirm for me that it is best to have only one set of names for all legal documents, including passports. Name order can differ but officials can deal with that.  This is why my wife left her name as is when she took US citizenship and did not avail herself of the free name change available at that time.  Why voluntarily bring trouble on yourself just to satisfy a small ego point on names, whether for spouses or children.  I know that I will not suffer an identity crisis if she does not take my surname. In fact, Hawaii changed its laws about 20 years ago to allow wives to retain their maiden family names, as is customary in Vietnam and most of Asia.  Perhaps this was in part because of the influence of Asian cultures in Hawaii.  Unfortunately the law change also allowed hyphenated family names which is another whole kettle of fish.

Too late for an edit:   If you follow my advice above, and the Vietnamese names will be appearing on your English birth related documents such as a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, passport, or medical documents,  you may wish to avoid the obvious homonyms.   Two that come to mind right away are Bich and Phuc.   I know there are more but I can't think of them now.   If these are your in-laws' given names, your spouse will have to explain why they aren't being used.  If one of these are your spouse's name, he or she will have to live with it and rely on a nickname for casual use when overseas.  In my wife's case her name, so I am told, is clearly a man's name, but clarified by the use of Thi as a middle name.   This goes right over the heads of most Americans but I don't think Bich would.