The new system is detailed in the draft law on the entry and exit of Vietnamese citizens that the public security ministry completed earlier this week. The ministry is seeking public feedback.

Vietnamese workers in Nghe An province flock to immigration offices to get the necessary authentication to return to work in their host countries after the 2018 Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.

Article 7 of the draft law says new biometric passports (or e-passports) – including official, diplomatic and ordinary passports – will be embedded with a microchip that stores the holder’s personal information, fingerprint scans, ID photo and a digital signature from the issuing agency.

E-passports are supposedly much more secure and harder to forge compared to their conventional counterparts, and the microchip would be compatible with e-passport readers in most countries around the world.

More than 15 countries had already migrated to this new type of passport by the middle of 2018.

The number of Vietnamese traveling overseas for study, work or tourism has increased steadily in recent times, from 6.1 million in 2013 to 7.7 million in 2016 and 9.2 million in 2017.

Applicants will just need to fill out forms to get a new e-passport, either online or at the police’s municipal and provincial immigration offices.

The public security ministry said that while the Government previously approved the project to produce and issue e-passports to Vietnamese citizens, the bill was necessary because there was no legal document regulating the process.

The bill, with 39 articles arranged into seven chapters, will take effect in July 2020 if the National Assembly chooses to adopt it.

The draft law also seeks to replace the current travel document (giay thong hanh) with temporary passports, which would expire after one year and serve the same purpose as ordinary passports. They would be used when a Vietnamese citizen wants to travel to a foreign country while their passport is lost or expired, or else leaves a foreign country (either voluntarily or forcibly) when the host country does not allow residency.

The issuance of temporary passports is proof of the Government of Vietnam’s focus on protecting its citizens in that event that the requirements for a long-term passport cannot be met, the draft law said.

Representative offices of the Vietnam Government in foreign countries will issue the temporary passports in consultation with the immigration department of the public security ministry.

Travel documents, valid for one year, could still be issued for Vietnamese citizens who want to travel to countries sharing a border with Vietnam or to any country involved in an international agreement to which Vietnam is a party.

Anyone who wishes to send their ideas and feedback on the draft law should log on to this site hosted by the Government’s Portal.

Vietnam welcomes RoK’s new visa policy

Vietnam welcomes the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s adoption of new visa regulations for Vietnamese citizens, which will help promote the people-to-people exchange between the two countries, spokesperson for the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang has said.

 

New visa policy to help boost Vietnam-RoK cooperation: Deputy PM

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung highly appreciated the Republic of Korea’s new visa policy for Vietnamese citizens during a reception for the RoK Ambassador to Vietnam Kim Do-hyon in Hanoi on November 28. 

 

Visa exemption extended for Western European visitors

Tourists from the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy will enjoy visa exemptions for the next three years until June 30, 2021 when traveling to Vietnam.

 

Lawmakers approve continued pilot e-visa issuance for foreigners

The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee decided on October 16 to extend the pilot e-visa programme for foreign visitors to Vietnam by another two years.

 

Vietnam extends e-visa policy for foreign tourists until 2021

A policy extension will allow citizens of 46 countries to enter Vietnam for 30 days with e-visa until 2021.

 

Source: VNS/VNA