How to Become a Vietnamese Citizen: Eligibility, Documents, and Fees

To become a Vietnamese citizen through naturalization, a foreign national or stateless person must meet six statutory conditions (or qualify for an exemption based on family ties or special contributions), file a dossier with the provincial Justice Department where they live or with a Vietnamese embassy abroad, and pass through police verification, Ministry of Justice review, and a final decision by the President of Vietnam. A revised Law on Vietnamese Nationality took effect on July 1, 2025, broadening the exemptions available to applicants with Vietnamese relatives and, for the first time, creating a pathway to keep a foreign nationality after naturalization.¹ Expect several months at minimum from filing to presidential decision, and longer if you have to renounce a foreign nationality along the way.

Who Qualifies

Under the amended law, an applicant must satisfy six core conditions:²

Full civil capacity under Vietnamese law. There is no blanket age-18 rule; minors can apply alongside a parent or when one parent is a Vietnamese citizen.
A commitment to uphold Vietnam’s Constitution and laws and to respect Vietnamese traditions and customs.
An ability to communicate in Vietnamese, both spoken and written. The law does not fix a proficiency level or name a standardized test, but authorities may administer their own assessment.
Permanent residence in Vietnam at the time of application.
At least five years of continuous residence in Vietnam as of the application date.
Financial self-sufficiency through employment, income, or personal assets.

Those are the default conditions. What has changed most under the 2025 law is how many applicants no longer have to meet all of them.

Shortcuts If You Have Vietnamese Family

The exemptions matter more than the base rules for many applicants.

If your spouse or biological child is a Vietnamese citizen, you are exempt from the Vietnamese-language, five-year residency, and financial self-sufficiency requirements. You still need full civil capacity, respect for the Constitution, and current residence in Vietnam, but the three heaviest requirements fall away.²

A broader exemption applies if both of your parents, or your paternal and maternal grandparents, are Vietnamese citizens. In that case you are also exempt from the current-residence requirement, in addition to the language, five-year residency, and financial conditions. The same exemption covers people who have made exceptional contributions to Vietnam’s national development and defense, applicants whose naturalization is considered beneficial to the state, and minors applying alongside a parent.³

A note on scope: if you were born to Vietnamese parents, you are almost certainly already a citizen by descent, and this article does not apply to you. A child born to two Vietnamese citizens is Vietnamese regardless of where the child was born, and this operates automatically under the nationality law rather than through the naturalization application. Former Vietnamese citizens seeking to regain nationality follow a separate restoration procedure, not the naturalization track described here.

Documents You Will Need

You prepare three sets of the dossier. The core documents are:

A completed application form requesting Vietnamese nationality.
A copy of your birth certificate, passport, or equivalent identification.
A curriculum vitae detailing your personal history.
Criminal record certificates from every country where you have resided. Foreign certificates must be issued no more than 90 days before you submit.
A copy of your permanent residence card in Vietnam.
A marriage certificate or certificate of marital status, as applicable.

If you plan to keep your foreign nationality, you also include a document from your home country’s authorities confirming that retention is consistent with their law, or a written statement to that effect if your country does not issue such a document, together with a written commitment not to use your foreign nationality in ways that harm Vietnam’s interests or security.

All foreign-language documents must be legalized through consular procedures and translated into Vietnamese. Requirements vary by country, so ask the nearest Vietnamese embassy or consulate what applies to yours. Translation, legalization, and notarization tend to be the slowest part of the process before you ever file.

On the language requirement, unless you qualify for a family-based exemption you will need to show functional Vietnamese. The law does not define a level or reference a specific exam, and in practice authorities may ask you to sit an assessment or accept other evidence. The requirement is less rigid on paper than it feels in the room; applicants who cannot hold a conversation in Vietnamese should expect trouble.

Where and How to File

If you are in Vietnam, file with the provincial Justice Department where you hold permanent residence.⁴ If you are abroad, file through the Vietnamese embassy or consulate in your country of residence.

The receiving office checks your dossier for completeness first. If something is missing or wrong, you will be told and given the chance to fix it, but the review clock does not start running until the dossier is accepted as complete. Getting it right the first time is worth real effort.

The Review Process and How Long It Takes

Once your complete dossier is accepted, it moves through a chain of reviews with fixed deadlines at each step:⁴

Within 5 working days, the Justice Department sends the file to the provincial police for an identity and background check.
The provincial police have 30 days to complete verification and return results.
Within 5 working days of receiving those results, the Justice Department finalizes the file and forwards it to the chairperson of the provincial People’s Committee.
The chairperson reviews it and sends a written recommendation to the Ministry of Justice.
The Ministry of Justice has 20 working days to evaluate the application.
The Minister of Justice, acting on authority from the Prime Minister, submits qualifying applications to the President, who has 30 days to issue a decision.

Applications filed through a Vietnamese embassy or consulate abroad add a step: the mission has 20 days to examine the dossier and forward it with a written opinion to the Ministry of Justice, which then carries out the remaining stages.

Adding up the statutory deadlines produces a floor of roughly three to four months under ideal conditions. Real timelines usually run longer, and the biggest variable is the nationality renunciation step.

Renouncing Your Current Nationality

Vietnam’s default rule is that a naturalized citizen must renounce their prior nationality. If the Ministry of Justice concludes your application meets the conditions, it will tell you to begin renunciation with your home country’s authorities and then submit proof back to the Ministry.⁴

This is where files stall. Renunciation timelines depend entirely on your home country’s procedures, which Vietnam cannot influence. Under the amended law, if you do not submit proof of renunciation within nine months, your application is treated as withdrawn and the file is returned to you. That nine-month window is not counted as part of the official processing time, which is why the practical duration from filing to presidential decision often runs well past the statutory review deadlines.

If you qualify to keep your foreign nationality, you skip this step and submit retention documentation instead.

Keeping Your Foreign Nationality

Vietnam historically required naturalized citizens to hold only Vietnamese nationality. The 2025 amendments changed that. You may now retain a foreign nationality when naturalizing if you meet the conditions.¹

You generally need to show that retention is lawful under your home country’s laws and to commit that you will not use the foreign nationality to harm Vietnam’s interests, security, or social order. The President must approve retention. Valid justifications include economic, cultural, or scientific contributions to Vietnam.

There is a meaningful limit. Dual nationals who wish to run for public office, hold certain government positions, or serve in Vietnam’s armed forces must renounce their foreign nationality and reside permanently in Vietnam. Retention is available; full political participation on both sides is not.

Fees

The government fee for a naturalization application is 3,000,000 VND (roughly $120 USD, depending on the exchange rate), set by Circular 281/2016/TT-BTC and paid at filing. Renunciation of nationality costs 2,500,000 VND.

Budget separately for translation, consular legalization of foreign documents, notarization, and criminal record certificates from every country where you have lived. If you use a lawyer or immigration consultant, their fees are on top. For applicants who have lived in several countries, document preparation can cost several times the official filing fee.

After the President Approves

Once the President issues the decision granting citizenship, the provincial People’s Committee holds a ceremony to present it to you formally. You can then apply for Vietnamese identity documents, including a national ID card and passport.

Naturalized citizens hold the same legal status as citizens by birth in most respects. That includes land use rights: Vietnamese citizens, whether naturalized or native-born, may hold land use rights without the restrictions that apply to non-citizen overseas Vietnamese, who are limited to residential and investment-project land.² Full citizenship also opens access to public services, voting rights, and employment in sectors reserved for Vietnamese nationals.

1
Vietnam Government Portal. Legislators Approve Revised Law on Vietnamese Nationality
2
Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Australia. Application for Vietnamese Citizenship
3
Vietnam Law and Legal Forum Magazine. Revised Citizenship Law Unlocks Overseas Vietnamese Potential for National Development
4
Government News. Application for Vietnamese Nationality