Residence Law to provide citizens with more benefits from July

The management of residence status of Vietnamese citizens after July 1 will be switched from manual to digital work via individual identification numbers, along with the omission of household registration books. This is supposed to significantly reduce both time and cost in administration procedures.

From July 1, the 2020 Residence Law will formally omit the use of household registration books and temporary residence books to reduce complexity in administration procedures.


The 2020 Residence Law will be effective as of July 1, 2021. At that time, the National Population Database will also be formally launched by the Ministry of Public Security. these two valuable tools will create more convenience for citizens and organizations during administration procedures.

Particularly, there are seven administration procedures related to residence registration to be omitted: changing or re-issuing household registration book; issuing certificate for residence switch between household registration books; changing or re-issuing temporary residence book; adjusting details or extending expiry dates of people in a temporary residence book.

Thanks to the new chip-based citizen ID card, people now do not need to carry with them or make certified copies of their ID documents to complete administrative or trading procedures. These important pieces of information can be easily retrieved from the National Population Database.

Tran Tan Tai from Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association stated that identification information of citizens saved in the National Population Database can be used by different ministries and fields, including education. As a result, children in HCMC can be assigned to their school of residence accordingly without the need to refer to household registration books like usual.

On June 29, the Ministry of Public Security held an online training session about the 2020 Residence Law to provide necessary instructions to its departments in all provinces and municipalities.

In HCMC, the Public Security Department is well-prepared for the new changes. Particularly, they have uploaded information related to these changes on their official website and the formal sites, Zalo pages of the localities in all districts and Thu Duc City. Any household registration books issued before July 1, 2021 are still accepted as a formal residence identification document until December 31, 2022.

In addition, proper training has been provided to the police in each district and Thu Duc City, along with propaganda campaigns about theses changes to the public so that HCMC residents can update their own information timely to ensure precision in the National Population Database.

“The police will aid citizens in the procedures to register for residence status, adjust information in the National Population Database, remove or add names in a household registration book or temporary residence book, register for a new household book, extend the expiry date in a temporary residence book. At that time, the police will withdraw the current household registration book with outdated information, but will not issue a new one. Instead, the information changes will be updated directly into the National Population Database”, said Colonel Pham Xuan Thao

Furthermore, the 2020 Residence Law states that the conditions to register for permanent residence in all provinces and municipalities are now the same nationwide.

The HCMC Public Security Department from July 1 will accept registrations for residence directly at the localities or online at the address of dichvucong.gov.vn or bocongan.gov.vn or dichvucong.dancuquocgia.gov.vn

Other news