Guidance for expats in Vietnam to apply for criminal records

How to apply for criminal records

According to: Article 45, 46 Law on Judicial Records 2009

Step 1: Document preparation, including:

- Form requesting issuance of criminal record certificate for foreigners.

- Passport photo of the criminal record inquirer

- Photo of temporary residence card 

- In case of authorization, there are some required papers as following:

+ Original authorization document which is notarized or authenticated;

+ Identity card (or passport) of authorized person.

Note:

• Authorization is only allowed in the case of application for criminal record certificate No.1
• In case the applicants are parents, wife, husband, child of the person requested to be issued a criminal record, letter of attorney is not required but it is replaced by paper to prove the relationship (birth certificate, marriage certificate, household registration,)
• For documents that do not require for original submission, the applicant needs to bring original for comparison (in case the document is authenticated, there is not necessary for comparison).

Step 2: Document submission

Place of submission is divided as:

- Foreigners residing in Vietnam should submit documents at the Department of Justice in the place of residence;

- Foreigners leaving Vietnam should submit documents at the National Center of Judicial Records.

Step 3: Result delivery

After paying the fee for a criminal record issuance (200.000 vnd/person), the applicant will receive an appointment paper and get the result in accordance with the time in appointment paper.

The duration for issuing criminal record for foreigner is no longer than 15 days.

Expats can also request to be issued criminal record online

For saving time, expats can request to be issued criminal record through internet. The procedure is as following:

- Visit website https://lltptructuyen.moj.gov.vn/home

- Choose the right applicant: foreigner is residing in Vietnam or foreigner resided in Vietnam;

- Fill the declaration;

- Submit the document and get the result.

Applying criminal records for foreigners via postal service

The applicants submitting documents through the postal service instead of applying directly need to send the complete application packet by postal service to the Department of Justice. When applying the document, the applicants have to pay the fee for issuing criminal record and postal service fee by one of the following three ways:

- Transfering money to the Department of Justice bank account. If applicants paid the money in foreign currency, it will be converted into Vietnamese currency at the current exchange rate.

- Paying directly at the Department of Justice (Payment in Vietnamese currency only)

- Transfering money via postal service when sending the application document with transfer receipt and fee to the Department of Justice (payment in Vietnamese currency only).

After receiving all documents, the Department of Justice will send an appointment paper for delivering the result to email, telephone number or message of requestors.

The applicants will get the result at the address submitted in the register form by postal service.

Please contact 1900 6192 for more support if you have any questions or need assistance to apply for criminal records.