A savings account holding several billion dong can sit "frozen" in a Vietnamese bank for months simply because the heir lives abroad and does not know how to transfer inherited money out of Vietnam legally. More dangerous still, many people grow impatient and turn to informal "money-transfer services", trading the safety of their funds for the risk of losing everything and breaching foreign-exchange law.
A parent has just passed away in Vietnam, leaving a bank account or a savings book, while you are in the United States, Australia, or Europe. Can you legally receive that money and bring it home? If you cannot fly back to Vietnam, who will deal with the notary office and the bank on your behalf? And when you inherit money, must you pay personal income tax? These questions keep many overseas heirs struggling for months, when Vietnamese law has in fact laid out a fairly clear path. The article below analyzes the legal framework that applies in 2026, the step-by-step procedure, and the risks to avoid, so that you can bring your inheritance into your own account abroad.
Can heirs living abroad transfer inherited money out of Vietnam?
The answer is yes, and this is the first point to clarify, because a common misconception holds that "carrying a foreign nationality means losing the right to inherit in Vietnam." The right to inherit is not lost because of nationality; the only questions are how you receive the estate and through what procedure you transfer it abroad. Where the estate is money (deposits, savings, or the proceeds of selling other assets), receiving it and transferring it abroad is far more straightforward than with real estate.
Where the deceased was a Vietnamese citizen, Vietnamese law applies to determine who the heirs are and how much each is entitled to:
On the foreign-exchange side, the law permits inherited money to be transferred abroad through banks along two routes, depending on whether the recipient is classified as a resident or a non-resident. If the heir is a Vietnamese citizen residing in the country, they (or their representative) may purchase and transfer foreign currency abroad for "the purpose of remitting inheritance to an heir residing abroad" under point dd, clause 2, Article 7 of Decree 70/2014/ND-CP. If, instead, the heir is a foreigner or a Vietnamese national who has settled abroad (a non-resident), they may transfer their own lawful funds abroad:
What matters for you: whichever route applies, the transaction must go through an authorized bank, and the amount of foreign currency sent abroad is capped at the exact value of the estate share you are entitled to, no more and not an arbitrary figure.
The procedure for receiving and transferring inherited money abroad
The actual process consists of four consecutive steps. Skipping them or reordering them is what causes most files to drag on.
Step 1: Establish your status as an heir before a notary office. Before the bank pays out a single dong, you must prove that you are a lawful heir. The heirs (by will or by law) request notarization of the estate-division document; this procedure applies even where there is only one heir. Where there are multiple co-heirs, every agreement among them must be made in writing. The notary office is responsible for publicly posting the receipt to ensure no heir is omitted:
All of your civil-status documents issued abroad (birth certificate, marriage certificate, passport, and documents proving your relationship to the deceased) must undergo consular legalization and notarized translation into Vietnamese before submission. One notable development: from 11 September 2026, when the Apostille Convention takes effect for Vietnam, public documents from member countries will need only a single Apostille certificate in place of today's multi-step consular legalization.
Step 2: Convert the estate into payable money. For an account or a savings book, the bank will release and pay out the balance to the heirs based on the notarized estate-division document. If the estate is real estate, you must complete the inheritance declaration, transfer the title, and then sell it to convert it into money; the sale proceeds are then subject to the same procedure for transfer abroad.
Step 3: Purchase foreign currency and transfer it abroad through an authorized bank. The amount of foreign currency transferred is based on the value of the estate you are entitled to:
When carrying this out, the bank will require you to provide information on the sender and the beneficiary abroad (name, account number, receiving bank), together with documents proving that the source of the funds is the inheritance and the value you are entitled to. You are legally responsible for the authenticity of the file; if information is missing or incorrect, the bank may refuse the transaction.
Step 4: Grant a power of attorney if you cannot return to Vietnam. This is the situation for most overseas heirs. You may authorize a relative or a lawyer in Vietnam to carry out the entire procedure on your behalf. The power of attorney may be notarized directly at a Vietnamese diplomatic mission or consulate abroad, or executed in your country of residence and then consularly legalized for use in Vietnam. You are not required to fly back.
Do you have to pay personal income tax when you inherit money?
This is a worry that makes many people hesitate, and even delay receiving an estate. The good news: inheriting cash or bank deposits is not subject to personal income tax. The law taxes income from inheritance only for certain types of assets:
Money and deposits are not on this list, so no personal income tax arises when you inherit money. That said, a clear distinction is needed: if the estate is real estate or securities, the corresponding tax obligations still apply when you receive it (and when you sell real estate to obtain money). In addition, the fee for notarizing the estate-division document and the bank's transfer-service fee still apply as usual; these are costs, not taxes.
Legal risks and common mistakes when transferring inherited money abroad
Most problems lie not in whether it "is permitted" but in how it is done. Below are the mistakes that cost heirs time, money, or compliance trouble.
Transferring money through informal channels. Out of impatience, many people use underground "transfer services" or gather cash to carry abroad. This is the biggest risk: foreign-exchange law requires transfers through an authorized bank, so an underground transaction may be penalized, and at the same time you will have no documents proving the lawful origin of the funds in the receiving country, where the foreign bank may well freeze this money that appears to have "fallen from the sky."
Documents from abroad that have not been consularly legalized. Birth certificates, marriage certificates, and documents proving family relationships issued abroad will be rejected by both the notary office and the bank if they have not been consularly legalized and translated under notarization, forcing you to start over and lose several more weeks.
Co-heirs who have not reached agreement, or an omitted heir. If a co-heir living abroad is left out when those in Vietnam carry out the declaration on their own, or if the parties cannot agree on how to divide the estate, the notarization will give rise to complaints during the posting period and be suspended. The dispute must then be resolved first, possibly requiring a lawsuit to have the estate re-divided.
Letting the statute of limitations for requesting division expire. Money and deposits are movable property, for which the limitation period to request division is shorter than for real estate:
Letting the 10-year mark pass for an estate consisting of money puts you at risk of losing the right to claim your share, a very real danger for heirs who are far away and put off starting the procedure for years.
How DEDICA assists with transferring inherited money abroad
For heirs living abroad who find it hard to return to Vietnam, DEDICA acts under a power of attorney to handle the matter end to end: reviewing and standardizing documents from abroad (guiding you on proper notarization and consular legalization), and working with the notary office and the bank on your behalf to declare and divide the estate and release the account, so that you need not fly back. Where co-heirs have not reached agreement or an heir has been omitted, we represent you in negotiations and, where necessary, take part in litigation to seek re-division. If the estate is real estate, DEDICA advises on a plan to sell and convert it into money, then ensures the foreign-exchange step is carried out in accordance with the regulations until the money reaches your account abroad.
Conclusion
To transfer inherited money from Vietnam abroad legally in 2026, the procedure consists of four steps: (1) establish your status as an heir through a notarized estate-division document, after consularly legalizing and translating all documents issued abroad and observing the 15-day posting period; (2) have the bank release and pay out the deposit or savings, or sell real estate to convert it into money; (3) purchase foreign currency and transfer it abroad through an authorized bank, in an amount based on the value of the estate you are entitled to; (4) grant a power of attorney to a lawyer if you cannot return to Vietnam. The three mistakes that most often prolong or derail a file are: using informal transfer channels, foreign documents that have not been consularly legalized, and co-heirs who have not reached agreement or an omitted heir. One point that reassures many people: inheriting money does not incur personal income tax. If you are far away, authorizing a lawyer to act from the document-review stage onward will help you avoid starting over and significantly shorten the waiting time.
Every cross-border inheritance file has its own particulars of nationality, documentation, and the heir's place of residence. DEDICA Law Firm accompanies you from reviewing and legalizing documents and declaring the estate, through to the lawful transfer of the inherited money into your account abroad, even when you cannot be present in Vietnam. Contact DEDICA for a lawyer to advise on a specific roadmap for your case.
This article is for reference based on the law in force at the time of writing. Each matter has its own particulars; please consult a DEDICA lawyer for accurate advice on your specific case.
