Consular Legalization Of Thailand Documents For Use In Vietnam
Documents to be used in Vietnam documents from foreign countries must be consular legalized in accordance with the Vietnam law. Although the consular legalization procedure is regulated by the law, the actual implementation for consular legalization of the foreign documents is different in each country. This legal insight will provide some notes regarding the implementation of consular legalization procedures of Thailand documents for use in Vietnam.
Definition of consular legalization
According to the provisions of Clause 2 Article 2 of Decree 111/2011/ND-CP, “Consular legalization” means the competent Vietnamese agencies’ certification of stamps, signatures and titles on foreign documents for being recognized and used in Vietnam. Accordingly, consular legalization is simply certification of stamps, signatures and titles on foreign documents, not covering certification of contents and forms of foreign documents.
In addition, it is necessary to distinguish “Consular legalization” and “Consular certification”, these two terms are often mentioned together and are easily confusing. Accordingly, “Consular legalization” is the certification of foreign documents to be recognized and used in Vietnam, while “Consular certification” is the certification of Vietnamese documents to be recognized and used abroad. Thus, these two procedures are completely different, so one must clearly understand it, to be able to know which procedure to follow.
According to the provisions of Article 5 of Decree 111/2011/ND-CP, the Vietnamese competent agencies to carry out consular legalization are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Vietnamese diplomatic missions overseas or other agencies authorized to perform the consular function.
Accordingly, within Vietnam, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs assigned its consular function to the Consular Department in Hanoi (‘Cục Lãnh Sự’ in Vietnamese) and External Relations Deparment or Division (‘Sở/Phòng Ngoại vụ’ in Vietnamese) in the other centrally-affiliated cities and provinces. The list of these agencies are regularly announced and updated on the consular website at: The addresses of Foreign Affairs of provinces and cities.
Outside Vietnam, the Vietnamese Embassy or Consulate or other agencies are authorized to perform the said consular function. In Thailand, they are:
The Embassy of Vietnam in Thailand
Address: 83/1 Wireless Road, Lumpini, Pathumwan, Bangkok, Thailand
Website: https://vnembassy-bangkok.mofa.gov.vn/en-us/Pages/default.aspx.
The Consulate General of Vietnam in Khonkaen – Thailand
Address: 65/6 Chatapadung, Khonkaen 40000
Website: https://vnconsulate-khonkaen.mofa.gov.vn/en-us/Pages/default.aspx
Consular legalization process
The procedure for consular legalization of Thailand documents for use in Vietnam is carried out according to the following scheme:
Step 1: Notarize the documents in Thailand
Step 2: Have the doucments certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand
Step 3: Have the documents certified by the Vietnamese Embassy/ Consulate General in Thailand
- Case 1: Consular legalization overseas: Apply for consular legalization at the Vietnamese Embassy or the Consulate General in Thailand.
Please note that the final point is that there must be RED STAMPED of the Vietnamese Embassy/Consulate in Thailand on the documents to be used in Vietnam. Once your application are ready, please contact the Vietnamese Embassy/Consulate in Thailand directly to have a final check with them on your application before submitting it in person or posting the application to them. (Comment:What is posting?)
- Case 2: Consular legalization in Vietnam:
- Step 3.1: Have it authenticated by the Thailand Embassy/Consulate in Vietnam;
- Step 3.2: Apply for consular legalization at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, specifically at the agencies assigned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vietnam.
Please note that: the consular legalization of foreign documents should be done abroad (following to the Case 1 above), since the Embassy/Consulate of some countries in Vietnam cannot perform the consular function or they are limited to the type of consular legalized documents that they issue? from time to time under internal policies of such countries.
The application for consular legalization of Thailand documents
According to Articles 14 and 15 of Decree 111/2011/ND-CP, the applicant must prepare 01 application for consular legalization which includes the following documents:
- 01 Declaration form;
- The identity document of applicant (such as ID card, Citizenship card, Passport): original copy for the purpose of presenting in case of submission in person; or 01 copy in case of submission by post;
- (Comments and clarifications: As to the identity document, is it any document mentioned in the close parenthesis or just any? What is the meaning of the 2nd sentence? You have to submit the original copy of the identity document or you have to submit a photocopy of the document? Or you will just present the original copy for purposes of comparison and then submit a photocopy?
- Documents requested for consular legalization, which is certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand;
- 01 translation copy of documents requested for consular legalization:
- At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: it can be the Vietnamese or English translation copy, if such documents are not made in these
- At Vietnamese Embassy/Consulate in Thailand: it can be the Vietnamese or English translation copy or foreign languages that the receiving officer can understand, if such documents are not made in these languages.
(Comments and clarifications: I do not understand this portion. Just want to clarify these paragraphs.
- 01 copy of document requested for consular legalization and translation copy of each document for their records.
Documents that cannot be consular legalized
According to Article 10 of Decree 111/2011/ND-CP, the following documents are not subject to consular legalization:
- Documents containing modifications or erasures without proper correction as required by law.
- Documents in dossiers of request for consular legalization containing contradictory details: These are documents containing inconsistent details or contradicting other documents in the application for consular legalization.
- Forged or unduly issued or certified documents according to law.
- Documents bearing non-original signatures or stamps: These are documents without stamps and signatures directly appended. A stamp or a signature copied in any form is not considered original.
- Documents with contents infringing upon the interests of the Vietnamese state.
The abovementioned details are few things to note when implementing the consular legalization of Thailand documents to be used in Vietnam. Understanding the consular legalization process and procedures saves a lot of time, costs and efforts as well as help in completing the procedure efficiently. For further assistance and advice on this procedure, please contact us for more detailed instructions at info@letranlaw.com.
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