DECREE

ON ADOPTION REGISTRATION FEES, FEES FOR ISSUANCE OF OPERATION LICENSES OF INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION AGENCIES

Pursuant to Law on Organization of the Government dated June 19, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on adoption dated June 17, 2010;

Pursuant to the Law on State budget dated June 25, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on fees and charges dated November 25, 2015;

At the request of the Minister of Finance;

The Government promulgates a Decree on adoption registration fees, fees for issuance of operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies.

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This Decree deals with payers, collecting bodies of adoption registration fees, fees for issuance of operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies; exemption from or deduction in adoption registration fees; amount of fees and collection, payment and management of fees; funding for adoption process and issuance of operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies in Vietnam.

Article 2. Interpretation of terms

For the purposes of this Decree, these terms below shall be construed as follows:

1. Adoption registration fees include:

a) Domestic adoption registration fee is the fee collected from a Vietnamese national that adopts a child being a Vietnamese national permanently residing in Vietnam.

b) Intercountry adoption registration fee is the fee collected from a Vietnamese person residing in a foreign country, a foreigner permanently residing in a foreign country, or a foreigner permanently residing in Vietnam that adopts a child being a Vietnamese national; or from a foreigner residing in a border region of a neighbor country that adopt a Vietnamese child permanently residing in such border region.

c) Adoption registration fee at Vietnam’s overseas representative body is the fee collected from a Vietnamese national temporarily residing in a foreign country that adopts a child being a Vietnamese national temporarily residing in such foreign country.

2. Fees for issuance of operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies are fees collected from foreign agencies that are issued with or obtained extension of operation licenses with regard to intercountry adoption in Vietnam by Vietnamese competent authorities.

Article 3. Payers

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2. A Vietnamese person residing in a foreign country or a foreigner permanently residing in a foreign country that adopts a child being Vietnamese national shall pay an amount of intercountry adoption registration fee as prescribed in Point b Clause 1 Article 6 of this Decree upon the submission of application for adoption registration at Adoption Department of the Ministry of Justice.

3. A foreigner permanently residing in Vietnam that adopts a child being Vietnamese national permanently residing in Vietnam shall pay an amount of adoption registration fee as prescribed in Point c Clause 1 Article 6 of this Decree upon the submission of application for adoption registration at the Ministry of Justice.

4. A foreigner residing in a border region of a neighbor country that adopts a Vietnamese child permanently residing in such border region of Vietnam shall pay an amount of adoption registration fee as prescribed in Point d Clause 1 Article 6 of this Decree upon the submission of application for adoption registration at a People’s Committee of commune.

5. A Vietnamese nation temporarily residing in a foreign country that adopts a child being Vietnamese national temporarily residing in Vietnam shall pay an amount of adoption registration fee as prescribed in Point dd Clause 1 Article 6 of this Decree upon the submission of application for adoption registration at a Vietnam’s overseas representative body.

6. An intercountry adoption agency shall, after issuance or extension of an operation license in Vietnam, pay an amount of fee as prescribed in Clause 2 Article 6 of this Decree upon the submission of application at Adoption Department of the Ministry of Justice.

Article 4. Exemption from and deduction in adoption registration fees

1. Domestic adoption registration fees shall be exempted in one of the following cases:

a) A stepfather or stepmother adopts a stepchild of his/her spouse; or an aunt or uncle adopts a niece or nephew;

b) A person adopts one of the following children: Disabled children, HIV/AIDS infected children or children suffering fatal disease/illness as prescribed in the Law on adoption and guiding documents;

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2. Intercountry adoption registration fees shall be deducted in one of the following cases:

a) A reduction of 50% in intercountry adoption registration fee shall apply to a stepfather or stepmother that adopts a stepchild of his/her spouse or an aunt or uncle that adopts a niece or nephew;

b) In case of simultaneously multiple adoption of biological brothers/sisters, a reduction of 50% in intercountry adoption fee shall apply to each of children excluding the first child;

c) In case of adoption falling into the both aforesaid cases prescribed in Point a and Point b of this Clause, the payer may select to apply the reduction in fees prescribed in either of those Points.

3. Exemption from adoption registration fees shall apply to the cases of re-registration of adoption as prescribed in law on adoption.

Article 5. Collecting bodies

1. People’s Committees of communes shall collect domestic adoption registration fees and fees collected from foreigners residing in border regions of neighbor countries that adopt Vietnamese children permanently residing in such border regions.

2. Services of Justice shall collect fees from foreigners permanently residing in Vietnam that adopt children being Vietnamese nationals.

3. Adoption Department of the Ministry of Justice shall collect intercountry adoption registration fees, excluding regulations in Clause 1 and Clause 2 of this Article; and fees for issuance or extension of operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies.

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Article 6. Fee amounts

1. Amounts of adoption registration fees:

a) Amount of domestic adoption registration fee: VND 400,000/case.

b) Amount of adoption registration fee collected from Vietnamese people residing in foreign countries or foreigners permanently residing in foreign countries that adopt children being Vietnam nationals: VND 9.000.000/case.

c) Amount of fee collected from foreigners permanently residing in Vietnam that adopt children being Vietnamese nationals: VND 4.500.000/case.

d) Amount of fee collected from foreigners residing in border regions of neighbor countries that adopt Vietnamese children permanently residing in such border regions: VND 4.500.000/case.

dd) Amount of adoption registration fee at Vietnam’s overseas representative bodies: USD 150/case. The above fee shall be converted into the receiving country’s currency according to the selling rate of USD announced by a bank where the Vietnam’s overseas representative body open its account.

2. Amounts of fees for issuance of operation license to an intercountry adoption agency:

a) Initial issuance license fee: VND 65,000,000/license;

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Article 7. Collection, payment and management of fees

1. Each collecting body shall open an provisional collection account at a State Treasury at the same administrative level for the fee collection purposes; total weekly-collected fees shall be paid into the provisional collection account at the State Treasury. No later than the 20^th of each month, the collecting body shall transfer full payment of fees collected in the previous month to the government budget (after deducting from the fees refunded to the payers) as prescribed; the collecting body shall also make monthly declaration and payment to government budget and make annual statement as prescribed in law on tax administration. With regard to collecting body being a Vietnam’s overseas representative body, it shall make declaration and payment of adoption registration fees in accordance with instructions of the Ministry of Finance.

2. If an application of which adoption registration fee is collected is not transferred to the Service of Justice and the adoptive person requests to withdraw such application, the collecting body shall refund the adoption registration fee to the payer. If the adoptive person remain his/her willing to adopt the child, the paid fee shall be offset against the fee payable regarding the following application. If the adoptive person does not remain his/her willing to adopt the child, the collecting body shall deduct an amount from the provisional collection account at a State Treasury to refund the paid fee to the payer and such amount shall be deducted from the fees payable to the State budget by the collecting body, and then make declaration and statement of fees to the tax authority in accordance with law on tax administration.

Article 8. Funding for process of adoption; issuance or extension of and amendments to operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies in Vietnam

1. Funding for process of adoption; issuance or extension of and amendments to operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies in Vietnam shall be provided by government budget in accordance with law on decentralization of government budget.

2. The authorities in charge of adoption procedures; issuance or extension of or amendments to operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies in Vietnam shall make budget estimates of annual revenues and expenditures and submit them to competent authorities in accordance with the Law on State budget.

3. Funding for adoption process expenditures include:

a) Expenditures on receipt and verification of applications submitted by adoptive parents/persons, adoptees' dossiers; consultation of psychology, health, family and society specialists to make a comprehensive assessment of the conditions of the adoptive parents/persons and adoptees as prescribed by law;

b) Expenditures on formulation of adoptees' dossiers incurred by social relief establishments;

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d) Expenditures on communication and correspondence with competent authorities in terms of process of adoption;

dd) Expenditures on printing and issuance of forms, documents, books, archives and digitalization of adoption documents;

e) Expenditures on pay given to personnel in charge of fee collection, including salaries, wage, allowances, attributes to wage/salary, which are deducted from the wage paid for civil servants earning wages from government budget as prescribed;

g) Expenditures on inspection and monitoring of development of adoptees;

h) Other expenditures directly serving the process of adoption.

4. Funding for expenditures on issuance or extension of or amendments to operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies in Vietnam include:

a) Expenditures on receipt and verification of applications for issuance, extension of or amendments to operation licenses in Vietnam submitted by intercountry adoption agencies;

b) Expenditures on interview, test and evaluation of qualifications of persons expected to be heads of offices of intercountry adoption agencies in Vietnam;

c) Expenditures on verification of eligibility, qualification and legal capacity of intercountry adoption agencies in the countries where those agencies are established;

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dd) Expenditures on direct inspection of development of Vietnamese intercountry adoptees;

e) Other expenditures directly serving the issuance or extension of or amendments to operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies in Vietnam.

Article 9. Transitional provision

Any applicant for adoption who has paid domestic or intercountry adoption registration fee, any intercountry adoption agency applying for issuance or extension of, amendments to operation license has paid fees thereof before January 1, 2017 shall apply regulations on collection, management and use of fees prescribed in Decree No. 19/2011/ND-CP dated March 21, 2011 of the Government on guidelines for the Law on adoption.

Article 10. Entry into force

1. This Decree comes into force from January 1, 2017.

2. From the effective date of this Decree, the phrase “lệ phí đăng ký nuôi con nuôi” (adoption registration fees), “mức thu, chế độ quản lý, sử dụng lệ phí” (fee amounts, fee management and use) prescribed in Clause 1 Article 1; the phrase “khoản 1 và” (Clause 1 and) in Clause 3 Article 38; regulations in Clause 1 Article 38 and the following Articles: 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 of Decree No. 19/2011/ND-CP dated March 21, 2011 of the Government on guidelines for the Law on adoption shall be annulled.

Article 11. Implementation

1. The Ministry of Finance provide guidelines for making of budget estimates, management, use, and statement of government budget to ensure the adoption and issuance or extension of, amendments to operation licenses of intercountry adoption agencies in Vietnam.

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ON BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT
PRIME MINISTER




Nguyen Xuan Phuc