DECREE

On adoption registration fee and fee for grant of operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations

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

Pursuant to the June 17, 2010 Law on Adoption;

Pursuant to the June 25, 2015 Law on the State Budget;

Pursuant to the November 25, 2015 Law on Charges and Fees;

At the proposal of the Minister of Finance;

The Government promulgates the Decree providing the adoption registration fee and the fee for grant of operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations.

Article 1. Scope of regulation

This Decree prescribes payers of and agencies collecting the adoption registration fee and the fee for grant of operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations; the exemption and reduction of the adoption registration fee; the rates and regime of collection, remittance and management of fees; and funds for the settlement of adoption and grant of operation licenses for foreign adoption organizations in Vietnam.

Article 2. Interpretation of terms

In this Decree, the phrases below are construed as follows:

1. Adoption registration fees include:

a/ The fee for domestic adoption registration which is the fee collected in case a resident Vietnamese citizen in Vietnam seeks to adopt a resident Vietnamese citizen in Vietnam;

b/ The fee for intercountry adoption registration which is the fee collected in case an overseas Vietnamese or a resident foreigner abroad or in Vietnam seeks to adopt a Vietnamese citizen; or a foreigner residing in a border area of a neighboring country seeks to adopt a resident Vietnamese child in a border area of Vietnam;

c/ The fee for adoption registration at an overseas Vietnamese representative mission which is the fee collected in case a Vietnamese citizen temporarily residing abroad seeks to adopt a Vietnamese citizen temporarily residing abroad.

2. The fee for grant of operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations is the fee collected from foreign organizations whose operation licenses for intercountry adoption in Vietnam are granted and extended by competent state agencies of Vietnam.

Article 3. Fee payers

1. A resident Vietnamese citizen in Vietnam who seeks to adopt a resident Vietnamese citizen in Vietnam shall pay the fee for domestic adoption registration prescribed at Point a, Clause 1, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting an adoption registration dossier to the commune-level People’s Committee.

2. An overseas Vietnamese or a resident foreigner abroad who seeks to adopt a Vietnamese citizen shall pay the fee for intercountry adoption registration prescribed at Point b, Clause 1, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting an adoption application dossier to the Department of Child Adoption (the Ministry of Justice).

3. A resident foreigner in Vietnam who seeks to adopt a Vietnamese citizen shall pay the adoption registration fee prescribed at Point c, Clause 1, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting an adoption application dossier to the provincial-level Department of Justice.

4. A foreigner residing in a border area of a neighboring country who seeks to adopt a Vietnamese child permanently residing in a border area of Vietnam shall pay the adoption registration fee prescribed at Point d, Clause 1, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting an adoption application dossier to the commune-level People’s Committee.

5. A Vietnamese citizen temporarily residing abroad who seeks to adopt a Vietnamese temporarily residing abroad shall pay the adoption registration fee prescribed at Point dd, Clause 1, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting an adoption application dossier to an overseas Vietnamese representative mission.

6. A foreign adoption organization whose license for operation in Vietnam is granted or extended shall pay the fee prescribed in Clause 2, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting a dossier to the Department of Child Adoption (the Ministry of Justice).

Article 4. Cases entitled to exemption and reduction of the adoption registration fee

1. The fee for domestic adoption registration shall be exempted in the following cases:

a/ A stepfather or stepmother adopts a step child; a natural aunt or uncle adopts his/her nephew or niece;

b/ A person adopts a child with disabilities or infected with HIV/AIDS or another dangerous disease as prescribed by the Law on Adoption and guiding documents;

c/ A person with meritorious services to the revolution adopts a child.

2. The fee for intercountry adoption registration shall be reduced in the following cases:

a/ The fee for intercountry adoption registration shall be reduced by 50 percent in case a stepfather or stepmother adopts a step child; or a natural aunt or uncle adopts her/his nephew or niece;

b/ For a person who adopts 2 or more children being siblings, the intercountry adoption registration fee shall be reduced by 50 percent from the second child onward;

c/ In case the adoption falls into both cases prescribed at Points a and b of this Clause, the fee payer may choose to apply the fee reduction prescribed at Point a or b of this Clause.

3. The adoption registration fee shall be exempted for cases of re-registration of adoption as prescribed by the law on adoption.

Article 5. Fee-collecting agencies

1. Commune-level People’s Committees shall collect the fee for domestic adoption registration and the fee in case foreigners residing in border areas of neighboring countries seek to adopt Vietnamese children permanently residing in border areas of Vietnam.

2. Provincial-level Departments of Justice shall collect the fee in case resident foreigners in Vietnam seek to adopt Vietnamese citizens.

3. The Department of Child Adoption (the Ministry of Justice) shall collect the fee for intercountry adoption registration, except for the cases specified in Clauses 1 and 2 of this Article; and the fee for grant and extension of operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations.

4. Overseas Vietnamese representative missions shall collect the fee for adoption registration at their missions.

Article 6. Fee rates

1. Rates of the adoption registration fee:

a/ The rate of the fee for domestic adoption registration: VND 400,000/case;

b/ The rate of the adoption registration fee in case an overseas Vietnamese or a resident foreigner overseas seeks to adopt a Vietnamese citizen: VND 9,000,000/case;

c/ The rate of fee in case a resident foreigner in Vietnam seeks to adopt a Vietnamese citizen: VND 4,500,000/case;

d/ The rate of fee in case a foreigner residing in a border area of a neighboring country seeks to adopt a Vietnamese child permanently residing in a border area of Vietnam: VND 4,500,000/case;

dd/ The rate of the adoption registration fee at an overseas Vietnamese representative mission: USD 150/case. This fee shall be converted into the currency of the host country at the selling rate of the US dollar publicized by the bank where the Vietnamese representative mission opens its account.

2. The fee rates for grant of operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations are as follows:

a/ The fee for grant of a new license: VND 65,000,000;

b/ The fee for extension of a license: VND 35,000,000.

Article 7. Regime of collection, remittance and management of fees

1. A fee-collecting agency shall open a budgetary provisional account at a State Treasury of the same level for fee collection; and weekly remit all collected fees to this account. The fee-collecting agency shall, no later than the 20^th of each month, remit all the fees collected in the previous month to the state budget (after deducting the fees refunded to payers) as prescribed by law; and make monthly declaration and payment of fees to the state budget and yearly settlement in accordance with the law on tax administration. In case the fee-collecting agency is an overseas Vietnamese representative mission, the declaration and payment of adoption registration fee must comply with the guidance of the Ministry of Finance.

2. In case the adoption registration fee has been collected but the dossier has not yet been forwarded to the Department of Justice and the adopting person requests for withdrawal of such dossier, the fee-collecting agency shall return the paid fee to the payer. In case the payer continues to apply for the adoption, the paid fee shall be offset for the payable fee of the next dossier. If he/she does not continue to apply for the adoption, the fee-collecting agency shall withdraw an amount from the budgetary provisional account at a State Treasury to return the paid fee to the payer, which shall be deducted from the agency’s fees payable to the state budget, and make fee declaration and settlement with the tax administration agency in accordance with the law on tax administration.

Article 8. Funds for settlement of adoption; and grant, extension and modification of operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations in Vietnam

1. The funds for settlement of adoption; and grant, extension and modification of operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations in Vietnam shall be provided by the state budget in accordance with the law on decentralization of the state budget.

2. Agencies settling adoption; and granting, extending and modifying operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations in Vietnam shall make annual estimates of state budget revenues and expenditures for submission to competent agencies in accordance with the Law on State Budget.

3. Funds for settlement of adoption cover:

a/ Receiving, examining and appraising dossiers of adopting persons and children introduced for adoption; consulting psychological, health, family and social experts for comprehensive assessment of conditions of adopting persons and children introduced for adoption in accordance with law;

b/ Funds for state-funded social support establishments in making dossiers of their children introduced for adoption;

c/ Funds for consulting related persons on adoption, verifying the origin of children to be adopted, and completing procedures for delivery of children to be adopted;

d/ Communication and correspondence with competent authorities for settlement of adoption;

dd/ Printing and distributing adoption-related forms, papers, books and dossiers storage and digitalization;

e/ Payment to fee collectors, including salaries, pays, salary allowances and salary-based payments under regulations, except for salary payment to cadres and civil servants salaried by the state budget under regulations;

g/ Funds for examining and monitoring the growth of adopted children;

h/ Other funds directly serving the settlement of adoption.

4. Funds for grant, extension and modification of operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations in Vietnam cover:

a/ Receipt, examination and appraisal of dossiers of foreign adoption organizations applying for new, extended or modified licenses for operation in Vietnam;

b/ Interview, examination and evaluation of the professional capacity and experience of persons expected to be heads of foreign adoption offices in Vietnam;

c/ Examination of legal conditions, status and capacity of foreign adoption organizations in the countries in which they are established;

d/ Organization of professional training for foreign adoption offices in Vietnam;

dd/ Physical examination of the growth of Vietnamese children adopted overseas;

e/ Other funds directly serving the settlement of the grant, extension and modification of operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations in Vietnam.

Article 9. Transitional provisions

In case a person submitting an adoption application dossier has paid the fee for domestic or intercountry adoption registration, or a foreign adoption organization applying for grant, extension or modification of its operation license in Vietnam has paid the fee for such grant, extension or modification, before January 1, 2017, the fee collection, management and use must comply with the Government’s Decree No. 19/2011/ND-CP of March 21, 2011, detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Adoption.

Article 10. Effect

1. This Decree takes effect on January 1, 2017.

2. On the effective date of this Decree, the phrases “adoption registration fee” and “the rates and regime of management and use of fee” prescribed in Clause 1, Article 1; the phrase “Clause 1 and” prescribed in Clause 3, Article 38; and the provisions of Clause 1, Article 38 and Articles 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 and 46, of the Government’s Decree No. 19/2011/ND-CP of March 21, 2011, detailing the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Adoption, cease to be effective.

Article 11. Organization of implementation

1. The Ministry of Finance shall guide the estimation, management, use and settlement of state budget funds for adoption and grant, extension and modification of operation licenses of foreign adoption organizations in Vietnam.

2. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees and related organizations and individuals shall implement this Decree./.