From January 31, 2026, according to Clause 2, Article 14 of Decree 49/2026/ND-CP, the authority to issue Certificates is rearranged in the direction of being associated with agencies and people with the authority to decide on land, specifically:
- Provincial-level land management agencies issue Certificates (or confirm changes on the issued Certificate) for cases decided by provincial-level agencies and competent persons to allocate land, lease land, permit land use purpose conversion, recognize land use rights, approve agreements on receiving land use rights to implement projects, approve and approve land use plans.
- The Chairman of the commune-level People's Committee issues a Certificate (or confirmation of change) for cases decided by commune-level agencies and competent persons to allocate land, lease land, change land use purposes, recognize land use rights, and re-determine residential land area.
- The Land Registration Office shall issue the first Certificate of Land Use Rights (First Red Book), confirm changes on the issued Certificate, first land registration and registration of changes for the remaining cases.
Before January 31, 2026, according to the 2024 Land Law, No. 31/2024/QH15 and Decree 151/2025/ND-CP, the authority to issue first-time Certificates is defined according to land users:
- Provincial People's Committees issue Certificates to entities such as domestic organizations (state agencies, public service units, economic organizations...), religious organizations, foreign organizations with diplomatic functions, overseas Vietnamese, and economic organizations with foreign investment capital.
The Provincial People's Committee can authorize the land management agency of the same level to carry out the issuance of Certificates.
- Commune-level People's Committees have the authority to issue Certificates to domestic individuals, overseas Vietnamese who are Vietnamese citizens and residential communities.
It can be seen that, according to the old regulations in the case of initial registration of individuals, the authority to issue Certificates mainly belongs to the Chairman of the Commune-level People's Committee.
Thus, from January 31, 2026, in cases of first-time land registration not under the direct authority of the provincial or commune level, the Land Registration Office becomes the agency implementing the first-time issuance of the Red Book.
