My wife and I are expatriates currently living and working in Việt Nam, where we have been granted permanent residence cards. We are now considering adopting a three-year-old girl we met at a local orphanage. What conditions we must satisfy and what procedures we must follow to complete the adoption?

According to Article 14 of the 2010 Law on Adoption, foreigners who hold permanent residence in Việt Nam and wish to adopt a Vietnamese child must meet a series of legal conditions, including:

• Having full civil act capacity. Under the law, any person aged 18 or older is deemed to have full civil act capacity unless they have lost or had their capacity restricted, or face difficulties in cognition or behaviour control.
• Being at least 20 years older than the child to be adopted.
• Demonstrating good moral character.

Adoption in Việt Nam is considered a humanitarian act aimed at safeguarding both the material and emotional well-being of children. For this reason, certain groups are barred from adopting. These include individuals who have had their parental rights over a minor restricted; those currently subject to administrative measures of mandatory education or medical treatment; people serving prison sentences; and anyone with an unexpunged criminal record for serious offences such as intentionally harming another person, abusing family members, coercing minors into breaking the law, harbouring juvenile offenders, or trafficking, exchanging or appropriating children.

Step 1: Preparing the application

Please note that Vietnamese law allows a child to be adopted either by a single individual or jointly by a married couple. In your case, if both you and your wife meet the legal conditions for adoption, the first step is to prepare the adoption application. You and your wife, as prospective adoptive parents, will compile your own dossier, while the orphanage will prepare a separate dossier for the child.

* Dossier of the adoptive parents:

• Application for the adoption of a Vietnamese child (Vietnamese–English bilingual form)
• Copies of the passports or equivalent valid documents of both adoptive parents
• Authorisation from the competent authority of your home country permitting adoption in Vietnam
• Completed psychology and family questionnaires of both adoptive parents
• Health certificates of both adoptive parents
• Certificates of income and assets of both adoptive parents
• Criminal record certificates of both adoptive parents
• Certificate of marital status
• Certification by the Commune Police where the adoptive parents reside, together with other documents proving continuous residence, work, or study in Việt Nam for at least one year before submission to the Department of Judicial Administration

* Dossier of the child:

• Birth certificate.
• Health certificate issued by a general hospital, polyclinic, or regional medical centre (valid within 12 months of submission).
• Two recent full-body photos (frontal view, taken within the last six months).
• Legal certification documents, depending on the child’s circumstances:
• Certification by the commune-level People’s Committee or Public Security office of the locality where the child was found, for abandoned children
• Death certificate of the natural parent(s), or a court ruling declaring them deceased, for orphans
• A court ruling declaring the natural parent(s) missing, for children whose parents are missing
• A court ruling declaring the natural parents’ loss of capacity, for children whose parents have lost civil act capacity
• Description of the child’s characteristics, habits, and preferences (valid within 12 months of submission).

Please remember that any documents issued by foreign authorities must be legalised by the Consular Department under Việt Nam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs or by a Vietnamese diplomatic mission or consulate abroad, unless exempt under treaties or reciprocity agreements. These documents must also be translated into Vietnamese, with the translator’s signature duly certified.

Step 2: Submitting the application

The dossiers of both the prospective parents and the child will be filed with the provincial Department of Justice of the locality where the child resides. The application can be submitted in person, by post, or through an authorised representative.

The Department of Justice will review the documents and seek consent from the child’s biological parents. If one parent is deceased, missing, incapacitated or unidentifiable, the other parent’s consent is sufficient. If both parents fall into these categories, the guardian’s consent is required.

If the conditions are met, the Department of Justice will forward the case to the provincial-level People’s Committee, which has 15 days to issue a decision. If the application is refused, the committee must provide a written explanation. If approved, an adoption decision will be issued and sent to both the Department of Justice and the commune-level People’s Committee of the locality where the adoptive parents reside.

Step 3: Attending the child handover ceremony

The Department of Justice will then register the adoption and organise a handover ceremony at its office. Both adoptive parents must be present at the ceremony, unless one provides written authorisation for the other to act on their behalf. Valid grounds may justify an extension, but failure to attend without plausible reasons can result in annulment of the adoption decision. The handover must be documented in writing and certified by the Department of Justice. VNS