VietNamNet Bridge – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved the Ministry of Justice’s proposal of amending the 2008 Law on Vietnamese Nationality towards extending the deadline for overseas Vietnamese to register for local citizenship to five more years by July 1, 2019.

President Truong Tan Sang met with overseas Vietnamese (Photo: VNA)

The previous date for the work was July 1, 2014.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Justice is assigned to send a request to the National Assembly’s Standing Committee to add a draft law on amendments and supplements to the 2008 Law on Vietnamese Nationality to the agenda of the 13th National Assembly’s seventh meeting.

It is to work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to draw up the draft law on amendments and supplements to the 2008 Law on Vietnamese Nationality and present it to the Cabinet at its regular April meeting for consideration.

The ministry is required to coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security to make changes to Decree 78/2009/ND-CP dated September 22, 2009 towards streamlining administrative procedures to make it easier for overseas Vietnamese to register for retaining their Vietnamese nationality.

The ministries will jointly review the execution of the 2008 Law on Vietnamese Nationality in order to come up with revisions to the regulations on nationality registration for overseas Vietnamese in conformity with the Party and State policies and guidelines pertaining to the Vietnamese community abroad as well as the 2013 Constitution and in respect for their choices.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so far only 6,000 out of 4.5 million overseas Vietnamese have registered for maintaining local citizenship as by December 31, 2013.

Source: VNA