Millions of Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) will lose their Vietnamese nationality if they fail to register to retain it by July 1, an official has warned, citing a government decree.

>> ‘Viet Kieu’ still feel close to home from far away

Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee chairman Nguyen Thien Nhan released the warning at a government meeting on Wednesday, citing the Law on Vietnamese Nationality and Government Decree 78 of September 22, 2009 that details and guides a number of articles of the law.  Item 2 of Article 13 of the Law on Vietnamese Nationality reads, “Overseas Vietnamese who have not yet lost Vietnamese nationality as prescribed by Vietnamese law before the effective date of this Law may retain their Vietnamese nationality and within 5 years after the effective date of this Law, shall make registration with overseas Vietnamese representative missions to retain Vietnamese nationality.”

Similarly, under Article 18 of the decree, if overseas Vietnamese who have not yet lost Vietnamese nationality under Vietnam's law prior to July 1, 2009 (the effective date of the above law) but do not have valid Vietnamese passports wish to retain Vietnamese nationality, they shall register for retention of Vietnamese nationality. The registration for retention of Vietnamese nationality is required to be carried out until July 1, 2014; past this deadline, if the above overseas Vietnamese still fail to register, they shall lose Vietnamese nationality, the article said. Those who lose Vietnamese nationality must carry out procedures for its restoration if they want to acquire it again, according to the article.Only 6,000 Viet Kieu registered About 4.5 million Vietnamese are living abroad, but only 6,000 of them registered for retention of their Vietnamese citizenship by December 31, 2013, the VFF chairman said, citing statistics from Vietnam’s overseas representative offices. In such a context, if the regulation is maintained, millions of overseas Vietnamese may lose their nationality, as just three months are left before the registration deadline, Nhan said. The chairman therefore proposed that the government make an amendment to the decree and submit it to the National Assembly for approval as soon as possible.Controversial issue Five years has passed since the Law on Vietnamese Nationality took effect, but few overseas Vietnamese are interested in registration for retention of Vietnamese citizenship, even in countries where Vietnamese live in large communities such as the U.S. and Australia, according to the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The reason for this is that the Certificate of Vietnamese Nationality Registration is not valid to prove its holder has Vietnamese nationality. It is not a legal foundation for issuing passports, laissez-passers, or visa exemption, the committee said. Such certificates, therefore, serve only as a ‘reservation’ to ensure that their holders will not lose their Vietnamese nationality after July 1, 2014, the committee added. Therefore, there have been many opinions that the regulation on registration for retention of Vietnamese nationality (Item 2, Article 13 of the Law) should be abolished to make sure overseas Vietnamese will not lose Vietnamese nationality only because they fail to make such registration. At a meeting on March 11, the National Assembly (NA)’s Standing Committee asked concerned agencies to prepare the necessary amendments to the Law on Vietnamese Nationality and submit them to the NA for consideration in its sitting slated for May. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice does not agree to abolish Item 2 of Article 13 of the Law. At a meeting in early March, Nguyen Cong Khanh, head of the ministry’s Department of Civil Status, Nationality and Authentication, maintained that it is necessary to call on Vietnamese people to respect and honor their Vietnamese citizenship. Khanh called for the procedures for registration of nationality retention to be more simplified to facilitate registrants.

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