Vietnamese workers in Nghe An province flock to immigration offices to get the necessary authentication to return to work in their host countries after the 2018 Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnamese citizens are set to enjoy faster,more convenient and more secure border crossings with new biometric passportsto be rolled out by 2020.
The new system is detailed in the draft law on the entry and exit of Vietnamesecitizens that the public security ministry completed earlier this week. Theministry is seeking public feedback.
Article 7 of the draft law says newbiometric passports (or e-passports) – including official, diplomatic andordinary passports – will be embedded with a microchip that stores the holder’spersonal information, fingerprint scans, ID photo and a digital signature fromthe issuing agency.
E-passports are supposedly much more secure and harder to forge compared totheir conventional counterparts, and the microchip would be compatible withe-passport readers in most countries around the world.
More than 15 countries had already migrated to this new type of passport by themiddle of 2018.
The number of Vietnamese travelling overseas for study, work or tourism hasincreased steadily in recent times, from 6.1 million in 2013 to 7.7 million in2016 and 9.2 million in 2017.
Applicants will just need to fill out forms to get a new e-passport, eitheronline or at the police’s municipal and provincial immigration offices.
The public security ministry said that while the Government previously approvedthe project to produce and issue e-passports to Vietnamese citizens, the billwas necessary because there was no legal document regulating the process.
The bill, with 39 articles arranged into seven chapters, will take effect inJuly 2020 if the National Assembly chooses to adopt it.
The draft law also seeks to replace the current travel document (giay thonghanh) with temporary passports, which would expire after one year and serve thesame purpose as ordinary passports. They would be used when a Vietnamesecitizen wants to travel to a foreign country while their passport is lost orexpired, or else leaves a foreign country (either voluntarily or forcibly) whenthe host country does not allow residency.
The issuance of temporary passports is proof of the Government of Vietnam’sfocus on protecting its citizens in that event that the requirements for along-term passport cannot be met, the draft law said.
Representative offices of the Vietnam Government in foreign countries willissue the temporary passports in consultation with the immigration departmentof the public security ministry.
Travel documents, valid for one year, could still be issued for Vietnamesecitizens who want to travel to countries sharing a border with Vietnam or toany country involved in an international agreement to which Vietnam is a party.
Anyone who wishes to send their ideas and feedback on the draft law should logon to this site hosted by the Government’s Portal. — VNS/VNA
The new system is detailed in the draft law on the entry and exit of Vietnamesecitizens that the public security ministry completed earlier this week. Theministry is seeking public feedback.
Article 7 of the draft law says newbiometric passports (or e-passports) – including official, diplomatic andordinary passports – will be embedded with a microchip that stores the holder’spersonal information, fingerprint scans, ID photo and a digital signature fromthe issuing agency.
E-passports are supposedly much more secure and harder to forge compared totheir conventional counterparts, and the microchip would be compatible withe-passport readers in most countries around the world.
More than 15 countries had already migrated to this new type of passport by themiddle of 2018.
The number of Vietnamese travelling overseas for study, work or tourism hasincreased steadily in recent times, from 6.1 million in 2013 to 7.7 million in2016 and 9.2 million in 2017.
Applicants will just need to fill out forms to get a new e-passport, eitheronline or at the police’s municipal and provincial immigration offices.
The public security ministry said that while the Government previously approvedthe project to produce and issue e-passports to Vietnamese citizens, the billwas necessary because there was no legal document regulating the process.
The bill, with 39 articles arranged into seven chapters, will take effect inJuly 2020 if the National Assembly chooses to adopt it.
The draft law also seeks to replace the current travel document (giay thonghanh) with temporary passports, which would expire after one year and serve thesame purpose as ordinary passports. They would be used when a Vietnamesecitizen wants to travel to a foreign country while their passport is lost orexpired, or else leaves a foreign country (either voluntarily or forcibly) whenthe host country does not allow residency.
The issuance of temporary passports is proof of the Government of Vietnam’sfocus on protecting its citizens in that event that the requirements for along-term passport cannot be met, the draft law said.
Representative offices of the Vietnam Government in foreign countries willissue the temporary passports in consultation with the immigration departmentof the public security ministry.
Travel documents, valid for one year, could still be issued for Vietnamesecitizens who want to travel to countries sharing a border with Vietnam or toany country involved in an international agreement to which Vietnam is a party.
Anyone who wishes to send their ideas and feedback on the draft law should logon to this site hosted by the Government’s Portal. — VNS/VNA
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