Vietnam: Whether Vietnamese citizens or residents are required to cancel their Household Registration (ho khau) when leaving Vietnam to live abroad; whether the registration can be restored upon returning to Vietnam after two or more years of absence; grounds for refusal to issue a household registration to a returnee

In a 15 October correspondence, a representative of Boat People SOS in Church Falls Virginia, stated that:

If a citizen did not live in her/his residence continuously for one year, the government would remove her/him from the household registration. The individual may apply to be restored if he/she is closely related to the Head of the Household (sibling, son or daughter, spouse, parent). For people who emigrate from Vietnam, the government considers them no longer part of their original household and they would lose their registration.

An individual needs to return to Vietnam first before applying for his/her name to be restored. People who committed felonies or who are otherwise considered undesirable by the government would not be eligible.

Boat People SOS is a voluntary and non-profit organization which provides advocacy and legal assistance to Vietnamese refugees or boat people.

Country Reports 2000 states that:

The Constitution provides for the right to privacy of home and correspondence; however, the government restricts this right significantly. It operates a nation wide system of surveillance and control through household registration and block wardens who use informants to keep track of individuals' activities ... there were reports that some "spontaneous migrant" families have been unable to obtain household registration or residence permits in their new locations, causing them serious legal and administrative problems. (Section 1f).

A paper entitled Vietnam: Economic Policy Analysis published in October 1996 by the Oakland, CA McKeever Institute of Economic Policy Analysis states that:

The Vietnamese Government strongly controls movement within the country. Each family has a "ho khau " and if you move from one place to another place without changing "ho khau", you are moving illegally. In that case, you can not get a job and your children can not go to school. I think this control is very necessary because there is 75 to 80% of the population are poor farmers in Vietnam who want to move to the cities. If they were allowed to move freely, there would be very severe problems.

No additional and/or corroborating information on whether Vietnamese citizens or residents are required to cancel their Household Registration (ho khau) when leaving Vietnam to live abroad, on whether the registration can be restored upon returning to Vietnam after two or more years of absence and on grounds for refusal to issue a household registration to a returnee could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Boat People SOS, Church Falls, Virginia. 15 October 2001. Correspondence.

Country Reports 2000. 2001. United States Department of State. [Accessed 16 October 2001]

The McKeever Institute of Economic Policy Analysis, Oakland, CA. October 1996. Vietnam: Economic Policy Analysis. [Accessed 16 Oct. 2001]

Sources Consulted

IRB databases

REFWORLD

Internet sources, including:

World News Connection (WNC)

Search Engines:

Google

Oral Sources:

Three oral sources, including the Embassy of Vietnam in Ottawa, could not provide the requested information within the research time limits.