Consular Relations For Foreigners Living In Ho Chi Minh City (part 2)
Lost visa and passports in Vietnam
Legal basis
– Ordinance on Foreigners’ Entry Into, Exit and Residence in Vietnam dated May 12, 2000.
– Decree 21/CP dated May 28, 2001 by the Government guiding the implementation of the ordinance.
– Inter-ministerial Circular No.04/2002/TTLT/BCA-BNG dated January 29, 2002, by the Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Foreign Affairs guiding the implementation of Decree 21 and the ordinance.
Procedures
– The foreigner losing his/her passport will send a claim for loss of passport to the local police in the area where he/she has lost the passport or to the place where he/she has registered for temporary residence. The application must state the name, nationality, passport number, date and place of issue, and the issuing agency. The local police will certify the claim.
– The passport loser will contact the consulate-general to obtain a pass, a travel permit or a new passport.
– The consulate-general will send a note announcing the cancellation of the lost passport and requesting Vietnamese authorities to issue an exit visa for the loser.
– The HCM City Department of Foreign Affairs will forward the note to the Ministry of Public Security’s Immigration Control Department announcing the cancellation of the lost passport, and request the issue of an exit visa for the loser.
– The loser will submit an application (including the note of the consulate-general, the request of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the claim of loss of passport certified by the local police and the travel permit) to the Immigration Control Department, attached with a declaration as per form stipulated by the Ministry of Public Security.
– The Immigration Control Department will consider the application.
– In case there is no representative consular agency in HCM City, the loser must apply for a pass or a passport at the embassy in Hanoi. If there is no diplomatic agency of his/her country in Vietnam, the loser must contact the diplomatic agency of his/her country in a third country to apply for the above papers.
