Consular legalization under the laws of Vietnam

In accordance with Clause 2 Article 2 Decree No.111/2011/NĐ-CP, consular legalization means Vietnam’s competent agencies certificate the stamps, signatures and titles on foreign papers and documents for being recognized and used in Vietnam. That means foreign papers and documents need to be consular legalized to be valid, recognized and able for use in Vietnam. For example, some documents required in the application for Investment Registration Certificate, Business Registration Certificate… are foreign documents such as: Establishment Certificate of the foreign organization, passport of foreigner, financial statements, confirmation on tax liability fulfillment of foreign organization…

Based on our experiences consulting and working with foreign Clients, Viet An Law Firm realizes that many foreign investors have some troubles with this procedure. Viet An Law Firm collects and provides our Clients some basic information as follows:

Documents and papers exempted from consular legalization:

• Papers, documents exempted from consular legalization under treaties to which Vietnam and foreign countries related are members or reciprocity principle;
• Papers, documents delivered directly or via diplomatic channel between competent Vietnamese and foreign agencies;
• Papers, documents not required of consular legalization by receiving Vietnamese or foreign agencies under relevant Vietnamese or foreign laws.

Conduct at:

Overseas:

Vietnam’s competent agencies in foreign countries are diplomatic missions, consulates or other agencies authorized to perform consular function of Vietnam in foreign countries.

In Vietnam:

Consular Department and Department of Foreign Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City is the competent agency performing consular legalization in Vietnam. Besides that, 25 department/chambers/foreign affairs agencies of other provinces, cities are authorized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to perform consular legalization. Please refer to the list in the Consular Portal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: https://lanhsuvietnam.gov.vn.

• Papers, documents prohibited from consular legalization:
• Papers and documents containing modifications or erasures without proper correction as required by law.
• Papers and documents in dossiers of request for consular legalization containing contradictory details.
• Forged or unduly issued or certified papers and documents according to law.
• Papers and documents bearing non-original signatures or stamps.
• Papers and documents with contents infringing upon the interests of the Vietnamese state.

Under the laws of Vietnam, papers and documents used when working with state-authorized agencies must be in Vietnamese. Therefore, in some cases, after the documents is consular legalized, they must be translated into Vietnam and notarized again until being valid to be used at state-authorized agencies in Vietnam.

Legal consulting services on enterprises, investment and commerce at Viet An Law Firm:

• Consult about regulations and procedures related to enterprises, investment and commerce in Viet Nam;
• Consult about regulations and application for Investment Registration Certificate, Business Registration Certificate, sublicenses…;
• Consult about conditional business sectors and detailed sectors applied to each sector;
• Draft, submit the application and work with state-authorized agencies when Clients grant authorization;
• Consult about related issues such as tax, intellectual property, commercial franchise, Vietnamese labor, foreign labor working in Vietnam, contracts…

If you are looking for advice on regulations related to enterprises and investment in Vietnam, please feel free to contact Viet An Law Firm for more information!