Lawyer Tran Phi Dai - Phuong Minh Law Office, Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association - said: According to the provisions of the 2014 Notary Law and the 2024 Notary Law (effective from July 1, 2025), it can be understood that notarization is a public service performed by notaries of notary organizations to certify the authenticity and legality of transactions that must be notarized by law, or individuals and organizations voluntarily requesting notarization.
Thus, the law does not have a list of documents that are required to be notarized, but only legal transactions stipulate the requirement to be notarized or transactions that people voluntarily require notarization.
These transactions are regulated in specialized laws such as the Land Law, Housing Law, Marriage and Family Law, etc.
For example, Clause 3, Article 27 of the 2024 Land Law stipulates that transactions must be notarized, including: Contracts for transfer, donation, mortgage, capital contribution in the form of land use rights, land use rights and assets attached to land, documents on inheritance of land use rights, land use rights and assets attached to land that are notarized or certified according to the provisions of the law on civil matters...
Or Clause 5, Article 44, Law on Real Estate Business 2023 stipulates: Contracts for buying, selling, leasing houses, construction works, and construction floor areas in construction works that the parties participating in the transaction are individuals must notarize or certify.
In the field of family marriage, some cases are required to be notarized such as: In case the two sides of marriage choose the property regime according to the agreement, this agreement must be made before the marriage, in the form of notarized or certified documents; The agreement on surrogacy must be made in a notarized document. In case the surrogate couple authorizes each other or the surrogate couple authorizes each other on the agreement, the authorization must be in writing.
As for other types of documents, there is no specific list of documents that must be certified for a copy (including notarization and certification by a state administrative agency) but required by the document receiving agency.
This requirement is due to the agency receiving the documents not being authorized or not having the conditions, not being allowed to access the data system of that document to confirm the existence and legality of the original documents.
For example, an agency that recruits a person to work cannot access the system of the school where the candidate is granted a degree to see whether that person has actually studied and has been granted a degree, certificate, or certificate by the school.
"Currently, the State has built a shared database system and many agencies have access to this system. Therefore, administrative agencies should rely on electronic data information or compare the original to reduce the requirement to provide certified copies, said lawyer Dai.
