The Ministry of Justice has submitted a Draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Vietnamese nationality.
In the draft Law, the Ministry of Justice proposed to amend regulations on conditions for becoming a Vietnamese citizen to facilitate cases where a father, mother, grandparents or grandparents are Vietnamese citizens; investors, scientists, foreign experts... are naturalized as Vietnamese citizens.
According to the draft, for minors whose father or mother is a Vietnamese citizen, it is not necessary to meet the condition of "having full civil act capacity".
As for those who apply for Vietnamese citizenship if their father, mother, grandfather or grandfather are Vietnamese citizens; have made special contributions to the cause of building and defending the Fatherland of Vietnam or are benefactors of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, they are exempted from the conditions specified in Points c, d, dd, e, Clause 1, Article 19 of the draft Law.
Accordingly, these cases are allowed to submit documents to Vietnamese representative agencies abroad without having to return to their country of permanent residence.
In addition, the draft also proposes to remove regulations on special cases of being granted Vietnamese citizenship while holding foreign citizenship and assigning the Government to stipulate specific conditions.
These cases only require two conditions: First, the application for foreign nationality when becoming a Vietnamese citizen is in accordance with foreign law;
Second, do not use foreign nationality to harm the legitimate rights and interests of agencies, organizations and individuals; encroach on the security, national interests, social order and safety of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
In particular, according to the draft Law, all cases that have lost their Vietnamese nationality and have applied to return to Vietnamese nationality can be considered for return to Vietnamese nationality.
The draft proposes to remove the provisions in Clause 5, Article 23 of the Law on Vietnamese nationality: "A person who is allowed to return to Vietnamese nationality must cease to be a foreign national".
A person's application to retain his or her foreign nationality upon returning to Vietnamese nationality is in accordance with the laws of that foreign country, the draft states.
The draft law adds a provision: "Vietnamese citizens who are also foreign nationals must lose their foreign nationality when exercising their right to run for office, be recruited to positions, work in the State apparatus, socialist political organizations, and participate in the armed forces of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and must have permanent residence in Vietnam.
In case the relevant law is different from this regulation, the provisions of this law shall apply".
Another issue of concern in the draft is that the Ministry of Justice requests the Ministry of Public Security to verify the identities of all applications for entry/re-application for Vietnamese nationality received at Vietnam's representative agencies abroad to ensure political security issues.
