The deadline for Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) to register to retain their Vietnamese nationality may be extended by five years to July 1, 2019, after a nod from Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

>> Millions of Viet Kieu risk losing Vietnamese nationality as registration deadline nears >> ‘Viet Kieu’ still feel close to home from far away According to the Law on Vietnamese Nationality and Government Decree 78 of September 22, 2009, the deadline is July 1 this year.   But the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice earlier then suggested that the date should be postponed to July 1, 2019, following concerns that millions of Viet Kieu would lose their citizenship as only several thousand of almost five million overseas Vietnamese have registered for the nationality retention so far. PM Dung has agreed to this suggestion ahead of a law-making National Assembly session which is scheduled to discuss amendments to the Law on Vietnamese Nationality mid-May. The government leader has also assigned the ministry to coordinate with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, and Public Security to revise Decree 78 so that the deadline can be extended by five years. 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 five 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. Currently, about 4.5 million Vietnamese are living abroad, but only 6,000 of them had registered for retention of their Vietnamese citizenship by December 31, 2013, according to statistics from Vietnam’s overseas representative offices.

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