Vietnam’s nationality law has an official text merging both amendments

The National Assembly Office certified a consolidated text of Vietnam’s Law on Nationality on 24 July 2025, folding the amendments of 2014 and 2025 into the 2008 Law. Neither foreign citizenship nor settling abroad appears among the five grounds on which it says Vietnamese nationality is lost; the one ground a citizen can apply for is release. No bill to change the Law appears in the legislative programmes reviewed for 2026 and 2027.

The text to read, and what has followed it

The official consolidation is No. 53/VBHN-VPQH, certified on 24 July 2025 and printed in the Official Gazette of 3 August 2025 (issues 1033 and 1034). It integrates Law 24/2008/QH12 (in force from 1 July 2009) with Law 56/2014/QH13 (from 26 June 2014) and Law 79/2025/QH15 (from 1 July 2025); footnotes name the amending provision behind each changed paragraph.

An earlier consolidation, No. 05/VBHN-VPQH of 10 July 2014, predates the 2025 law and cannot include it. Decree 191/2025/NĐ-CP of 1 July 2025 carries the procedures and replaced Decree 16/2020/NĐ-CP from that day.

Law 79/2025 is the last amending law found. No nationality bill appears in the 2027 legislative programme (Resolution 20/2026/UBTVQH16, read in full), in the published 2026 programme (Resolution 105/2025/UBTVQH15) or in six adjustments to it reported from May to September 2026.

One nationality, with exceptions the Law names

Article 4 has the State recognise a Vietnamese citizen as having one nationality, the Vietnamese one, unless the Law provides otherwise. The Law allows a foreign nationality to be kept in the cases it names: a person restored to Vietnamese nationality, or naturalised in one of the groups in Article 19(2) and (3), may keep one with the President’s permission (Articles 19(6) and 23(5), set out in an explainer on retention).

Since 2025, Article 5(4) provides that on Vietnamese territory the State recognises only the Vietnamese nationality of a citizen who also holds a foreign one, in dealings with competent Vietnamese bodies, unless a treaty provides otherwise.

Office-holders in Party, State and Front bodies, cipher staff and members of the armed forces must hold Vietnamese nationality only and live permanently in Vietnam (Article 5(5)). The same goes for civil servants and public employees, with an exception for cases that benefit the State without harming the national interest (Article 5(6)).

Keeping nationality, and the repeal of the registration duty

A Vietnamese settled abroad who had not lost nationality under Vietnamese law before the Law took effect still has it (Article 13(2)); a Ministry of Justice magazine reads that date as 1 July 2009.

The 2008 text had required such people to register within 5 years and made failure to register a ground of loss (Articles 13(2) and 26(3)). Law 56/2014 dropped the 5-year duty and repealed Article 26(3), in force from 26 June 2014.

A Vietnamese settled abroad with none of the documents listed in Article 11 may ask the mission abroad to confirm nationality (Article 13(2)); under Decree 191/2025 the Department of Justice or the mission where the applicant lives issues the certificate (Article 29).

Losing: five grounds, and foreign naturalisation is not one

Article 26 lists five grounds:

• release;
• deprivation;
• cancellation of a naturalisation or restoration decision, added in 2025;
• the cases in Articles 18(2) and 35: a foundling under 15 whose found parents hold only a foreign nationality, and a minor following a parent;
• loss under a treaty Vietnam has joined.

Paragraph 3, the failure to register, is shown as repealed. Foreign naturalisation and foreign residence are not on the list.

Release is the one ground a citizen can apply for. Deprivation and cancellation rest on files built by a provincial people’s committee, a mission or a court (Articles 32 and 34), and the President decides all of them (Article 38(1)).

Renouncing: what release requires

Article 27(1) provides for release on the application of a citizen who wants to take foreign nationality. It is not granted while the applicant (Article 27(2)):

• owes tax to the State or has a property obligation to an agency, organisation or individual in Vietnam;
• is under criminal prosecution;
• is serving a judgment or decision of a Vietnamese court, or is detained awaiting its enforcement;
• is serving an administrative measure placing the person in an education, treatment or reformatory institution.

It is refused where it would harm Vietnam’s national interest, and cadres, civil servants and members of the armed forces may not be released (Article 27(3) and (4)).

The file must show that the applicant is applying for foreign nationality, unless that state’s law provides for no such paper (Article 28(1)(đ)). Under Decree 191/2025 the paper comes from a competent foreign authority and confirms or guarantees the naturalisation; an applicant who already holds the nationality files a copy of the passport or photo identity document instead (Article 20(1)).

A resident of Vietnam also files a tax-clearance certificate; a person not living there permanently does not (Article 28(1)(e) and (2)). Law 79/2025 repealed the Vietnamese criminal-record certificate (Article 28(1)(d)). Papers issued abroad must be consularly legalised unless exempt, and translated with the translator’s signature certified (Decree 191/2025, Article 2).

The application is made public, though not the file: within 5 working days of a complete file the provincial Department of Justice posts a notice of it in 3 consecutive issues of a local newspaper or electronic newspaper and on the Ministry of Justice’s website, and for a file lodged abroad the mission posts the notice on its own website. The web notice stays up for at least 30 days (Article 29(2)).

After the notice, police, civil-enforcement and tax authorities, and any other body or person who finds the applicant in a barred category, must tell the Department; a tax authority’s or creditor’s document showing unpaid tax, money or property means the file is not considered further (Decree 191/2025, Article 22).

Article 29 sets a limit for each step and none for the whole, and the Decree does not say whether the 60 days it allows in a complex case is the total or the extension.

Applicants under 14, born and settled abroad, settled abroad for 10 years or more, or who left under family reunification are exempt from the identity check, though the Ministry of Justice may still ask for one when necessary (Articles 30 and 29(4)).

Under Decree 191/2025 the police delete the residence registration of a person released and withdraw and cancel the Vietnamese passport and identity cards (Article 35(1)(c)); missions withdraw and cancel the passports and identity cards of people settled abroad (Article 34(2)(c)).

A minor living with the parents changes nationality with them on release unless the parents ask otherwise (Article 35(1a)); where only one parent is released, the child follows only with both parents’ written agreement (Article 35(2)). Article 35(3) requires the written consent of a minor aged 15 to under 18 for changes under paragraphs 1 and 2, and does not mention paragraph 1a.

A person who lost nationality under Article 26 and applies is considered for restoration (Article 23(1)). If release was sought to naturalise abroad and the foreign state refused, the file needs that state’s document giving the reason (Decree 191/2025, Article 17(2)).

Where the refusal was the applicant’s fault, the file also needs a guarantee from a Vietnamese parent, spouse, child or full sibling living permanently in Vietnam and the applicant’s statement of willingness to live there (Decree 191/2025, Article 17(2)).

Children of a Vietnamese and a foreign parent

A child of two Vietnamese citizens has Vietnamese nationality wherever born (Article 15). A child of one Vietnamese citizen and one foreign citizen has it if the parents agree to choose it when they take the birth-registration steps with a competent Vietnamese authority; for a child born in Vietnam, the child also has it if the parents cannot agree (Article 16(2), amended in 2025).

What this means for an investor taking foreign citizenship or residence

• A residence-only route, such as a golden visa, touches none of the five grounds; Article 3(3) counts citizens among the Vietnamese settled abroad.
• A citizenship route adds a foreign nationality and leaves the Vietnamese one in place unless the person applies for release; tax residence, land and investment in Vietnam are governed by their own laws.
• A person who decides to renounce files either the foreign authority’s paper confirming or guaranteeing the naturalisation, unless that state issues none, or, if already naturalised, a copy of the foreign passport.

What is still to come, and what this article has not established

Article 2(2) of Law 79/2025 gives ministries, ministerial-level bodies and related agencies 2 years from 1 July 2025 to review the legal documents that carry the rights and obligations of Vietnamese citizens who also hold a foreign nationality, and to amend them or propose amendments. The deadline falls in mid-2027, and the provision names no instrument.

The check for a new amending law or bill covers programme texts and press reports of adjustments. It does not cover amendments carried inside other laws, or every adjusting resolution.