Criminal Record Card in Vietnam

 Criminal record cards or Police check provides criminal or judicial information about a person in Vietnam. The Vietnam law on criminal record governs the process to obtain the criminal records cards.

Accordingly, to obtain the Criminal Record cards in Vietnam, the applicant must apply at the provincial/ municipal Justice Department in Vietnam. For foreigners residing in Vietnam, he/she has to submit the request to the Department of Justice where he/she resides and receives the results at Justice Department.

Documents required are:

i) the written application form;

ii) certified photocopies of passports;

iii) a copy of the permanent or Temporary resident card in Vietnam;

iv) authorization letter in case of authorized application for Criminal Record card (if the authorized persons are not the parents, spouse or children). The written authorization must be certified or authenticated in accordance with the law;

v) application letter for granting Criminal Record.

During the process of applying for the Criminal Record, the applicant might has to work with the Public Securities agencies; the Court: in case there are not sufficient evidence at the police agencies to conclude that the applicant has no criminal records or the content of the applicant’s criminal records is not clear; People’s Committees of communes, wards and townships; agencies, organizations and agencies related proceedings: in case of coordination to verify the conditions of having his/her conviction automatically written off.

In practice, there are cases when the foreigner already left Vietnam and now he/she is in need of Criminal Record for the time he/she resided in Vietnam. We have successfully assist clients in various cases.

Our lawyers in Vietnam constantly follow up with changes of law to provide the client with update for better decision making process.

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Types of Criminal Record

 As regulated in Clause 4, Article 2 of the Law on Criminal Record, criminal record is a document issued by the Department of Justice or the National Centre for Criminal Record, which have the value to demonstrate that a person is with or without a criminal conviction; is prohibited or not prohibited from holding position, managing or establishing business or not.

As stipulated in Article 41 of the Law on Criminal Record, there are 2 types of criminal record card:

– Criminal record form 01 is issued upon request by Vietnam citizen or foreigners residing in Vietnam and State agencies, political organizations, political – social organizations to serve human resources management activities, business registration activities, establishment and management of enterprises or cooperatives.

– Criminal record form 02 is issued for the agency conducting the proceedings and at the request of individuals who want to know the contents of their criminal record.

Lawyers at ANT Lawyers, a law firms in Vietnam will be available to assist client to navigate through procedures to apply and obtain criminal record in Vietnam.

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Criminal Record Granting for Foreigner

 Criminal Record in Vietnam

In order to be granted the work permit for foreigner, completing the immigration or reside procedures in a country, foreigners who are or have been residing in Vietnam must apply for a criminal record for the time that they residing in Vietnam.

Foreigners who are or have been temporarily residing in Vietnam have the right to request the Department of Justice of the province or city where they are residing or the National Centre for Criminal Record to issue the criminal record, in order to confirm that people have or do not have criminal records while residing in Vietnam. The person requesting for criminal record card can authorize another person on their behalf to complete procedures to obtain the criminal record.

ANT Lawyers can assist clients to apply for: Criminal record card no 1 and Criminal record card no 2

Individual when requesting for criminal record issuance have to provide the following documents:

For Vietnamese:

– A written declaration requesting for the issuance of criminal record;

– Certified copy of identity card, passport, family record book, temporary residence book, temporary residence card, permanent resident card in Vietnam (should present the original for comparison);

– Confirmation of permanent residence in Vietnam before leaving the country (applies to Vietnamese who are living in foreign countries).

For Foreigner:

– A written declaration requesting for the issuance of criminal record;

– Copy of the passport and visa that are still valid;

– Confirmation of temporary residence in Vietnam.

Implementation time: 3-7 working days.

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Expiry Date of the Criminal Record Card

 According to Clause 4 of Article 2 of the Law on criminal record, criminal record card is the document issued by the competent state agencies for organizations and individuals, proving that individuals have or do not have criminal record. The problem is that, for how long since the date that state agencies issue the criminal record card, it will be expired?

The law on criminal record of 2009 and the current law documents do not have regulations on the duration of use of the criminal record card. However, depending on the areas and purpose of using that the expiry dates of the criminal record card will be regulated differently.

For example, Articles 20, 24 and 28 of the Nationality Act of 2008, amending and supplementing in 2014 specified that in the dossier of application, stop and return to Vietnam nationality, there must have the criminal record card that is issued not more than 90 days before the date of submission.

Besides, a number of diplomatic representative missions of foreign countries in Vietnam also provides for the shelf life of the criminal record card when resolving visa application requirements, such as the United States Consulate provides that applicants for entry visas from 16 years or older need to submit the criminal record that was issued within a year.

Thus, the shelf life of the criminal record card in Vietnam currently is not clearly specified. It depends on the provisions in the documents of each different fields and the will of agencies and organizations wishing to learn about previous criminal conviction status of the litigants.

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When Will Foreigner Need to Obtain Criminal Record?

 

Circumstances in which Foreigners are required to obtain a Criminal Record

In the process to grant the work permit for foreigner working in Vietnam, it is required the foreigner to have the criminal record in their dossier.

Foreigner applying for criminal record to obtain work permit in Vietnam is divided into 2 cases.

In the first case, foreigner who is in foreign country or in Vietnam less than 06 months has to apply for criminal record in foreign country. The laws of each country are not the same therefore the regulation on criminal record application is also different.

Also please note that the criminal record which is issued by another country, when using in Vietnam to apply for work permit, it must be translated, legalized and notarized in accordance with the law of Vietnam.

In the second case, foreigner temporarily residing continuously in Vietnam for 06 months or above can apply for criminal record in Vietnam. In Vietnam, the competent authority that granting the criminal record for foreigner is the Department of Justice of the province or city where foreigner is residing.

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Criminal Record for Foreign Citizens Residing in Vietnam

 When foreign citizens residing in Vietnam wish to apply and have their criminal record card issued, applicants have to prepare documents as follows:

The case that documents are submitted directly:

A written declaration request for granting the criminal record card according to form

Passport and Visa

Permanent residence card, temporary residence card, temporary residence book or temporary residence certificate of ward, commune or township police.

The case that a person is authorized by the client to submit documents will have to submit additional documents as follows:

A written declaration request for granting the criminal record according to form

Passport and Visa

The original of authorization letter. The case that the person requesting for criminal record card issuance is parents, spouses, children of whom have been granted the criminal record card is not required to have the authorization letter but will be replaced with papers to prove relationship (birth certificate, certificate of marriage)

Identity card (or passport) of authorized person.

Time limit for settling: 10 working days

There will be criminal record form 1 or criminal record form 2 to be requested.

Lawyers at ANT Lawyers, a law firms in Vietnam will be available to assist client to apply and obtain the criminal record in Vietnam.

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The Purposes of Using Criminal Record Card

 Under Clause 1, Article 2 of the Law on Criminal Record 2009, criminal record card is the records on the previous convictions of a person that is sentenced under valid court judgments or decisions, and banning individual from holding position, establishing or managing enterprises and cooperatives in cases where the enterprises or cooperatives are declared bankrupt by the court.

Article 7 – The Law on Criminal Record 2009 regulates that the following individual, agencies and organizations may request competent agencies to issue Criminal Record card:

Vietnamese citizens and foreigners who have been or are residing in Vietnam have the right to request the issuance of their criminal record cards;

Proceeding agencies may request the issuance of criminal record card for investigation, prosecution and trial;

State agencies, political organizations and socio-political organizations may request the issuance of criminal record to serve the personnel management, business registration, establishment and management of enterprises and cooperatives.

Criminal record cards include:

a/ Criminal record card no.1 is issued to individual, agencies and organizations defined in Clauses 1 and 3, Article 7 of this Law;

b/ Criminal record card no.2 is issued to agencies conducting the proceedings, defined in Clause 2, Article 7 of this Law and issued at the request of the individual so that he/she can know the contents of his/her criminal resume.

The basic difference of these two types is that the criminal record card no.1 only records the sentence has not been removed. If the case has been deleted, it will state “no criminal record”. The criminal record card no.2 records all previous criminal convictions regardless of whether they were deleted or not.

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When Will Foreigner Need to Obtain Criminal Record?

Circumstances in which Foreigners are required to obtain a Criminal Record

In the process to grant the work permit for foreigner working in Vietnam, it is required the foreigner to have the criminal record in their dossier.

Foreigner applying for criminal record to obtain work permit in Vietnam is divided into 2 cases.

In the first case, foreigner who is in foreign country or in Vietnam less than 06 months has to apply for criminal record in foreign country. The laws of each country are not the same therefore the regulation on criminal record application is also different.

Also please note that the criminal record which is issued by another country, when using in Vietnam to apply for work permit, it must be translated, legalized and notarized in accordance with the law of Vietnam.

In the second case, foreigner temporarily residing continuously in Vietnam for 06 months or above can apply for criminal record in Vietnam. In Vietnam, the competent authority that granting the criminal record for foreigner is the Department of Justice of the province or city where foreigner is residing.

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