Question: I would like to ask, according to the law, can a single mother get a birth certificate for her child?

Reply:

Can a single mother get a birth certificate for her child?

* According to Article 15, the 2014 Civil Status Law stipulates the responsibility to register a child's birth as follows:

- Within 60 days from the date of birth, the father or mother is responsible for registering the child's birth; In case the father or mother cannot register the child's birth, the grandparent or other relative or individual or organization raising the child is responsible for registering the child's birth.

- Justice and civil status officers regularly check and urge the birth registration of children in the area within the prescribed time limit; In case of necessity, mobile birth registration will be carried out.

* According to Article 15, Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP regulates birth registration for children whose parents have not been identified as follows:

- The People's Committee of the commune where the child resides is responsible for registering the birth of a child whose parents have not been identified.

- In case the father has not been identified, when registering birth, the child's family, ethnicity, hometown, and nationality will be determined according to the mother's family, ethnicity, hometown, and nationality; The section about the father in the child's civil status book and birth certificate is left blank.

- If at the time of birth registration the father requests to carry out procedures for child recognition according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 25, Law on Civil Status, the People's Committee will combine the handling of child recognition and birth registration; The content of birth registration is determined according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 4, Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP.

- In case the child's mother has not been identified but when registering the birth the father requests to carry out child recognition procedures, it will be resolved according to the provisions of Clause 3, Article 15, Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP; The declaration about the mother in the child's civil status book and birth certificate is left blank.

- Birth registration procedures for children who are not abandoned or whose parents have not been identified are carried out as prescribed in Clause 3, Article 14, Decree No. 123/2015/ND-CP; In the civil status book, it clearly states "Child's father and mother have not been identified".

Thus, according to the above regulations, a single mother can still register her child's birth and the father's section in the child's civil status book and birth certificate is left blank.

In case you want to have information about the father in the child's civil status book and birth certificate, you must combine birth registration and child recognition registration (because in this case there is no marriage registration between the man and woman).

Where to submit birth registration documents for children of single mothers

* In case there is no foreign element:

According to Article 13 of the 2014 Law on Civil Status, the place of birth registration is the commune-level People's Committee where the mother resides.

* In case of foreign elements:

In case the requesting party is a foreigner or Vietnamese citizen residing abroad, the birth registration shall be carried out at the district People's Committee where the father or mother resides according to Article 35 of the Law on Civil Status 2014.

Content of birth registration at the commune-level People's Committee

The content of birth registration at the commune-level People's Committee according to Article 14, Law on Civil Status 2014 is as follows:

- Contents of birth registration include:

+ Information of the person whose birth is registered: Full name, middle name and first name; sex; date of birth; place of birth; home town; nation; nationality;

+ Information of the father and mother of the person whose birth is registered: Full name, middle name and first name; Year of Birth; nation; nationality; residence;

+ Personal identification number of the person whose birth is registered.

- Determination of the nationality, ethnicity, and surname of the person whose birth is declared is carried out in accordance with the provisions of the law on Vietnamese nationality and civil law.

- Birth registration content specified in Clause 1, Article 14, Law on Civil Status 2014 is basic civil status information of the individual, recorded in the Civil Status Book, Birth Certificate, updated in the Civil Status Database. Electronic Citizenship and National Population Database.

An individual's records and papers related to birth information must be consistent with the content of that person's birth registration.