Hang (name changed), an overseas Vietnamese with US citizenship, asked DEDICA:
"My mother recently passed away in Can Tho, leaving behind a house and a savings account. I have lived in the United States for more than twenty years, and neither my work nor my health allows me to return to Vietnam; at most I can arrange one short trip. I'm worried that because I'm far away and not there to handle the paperwork, my share of the inheritance will be affected, or that I may even lose it. What should I do?"
DEDICA ADVISES Your inability to return to Vietnam does not remove or reduce your inheritance rights. Vietnamese law determines the right to inherit based on your relationship with the deceased (child, spouse, parent, and so on), not on where you live or what nationality you hold. The steps you cannot carry out in person can be delegated to a lawyer in Vietnam to perform on your behalf; you do not need to be present. The one thing that distance genuinely puts at risk is time: wait too long and you may run up against the statute of limitations for requesting the division of an estate. Below are the legal grounds and how to handle matters remotely.
Your inheritance rights do not depend on where you live or your nationality
The biggest fear among those living abroad is usually this: "If I'm not there, the others will divide everything and I'll lose my share." As a matter of right, that fear has no basis. The 2015 Civil Code lays down the principle that every individual is equal in the right to inherit:
Whether or not you inherit is determined by your relationship with the deceased, not by whether you are in Vietnam or abroad. If your mother left no will, the estate is divided according to law, and biological children fall within the first rank of heirs, each entitled to an equal share:
What this means for you: even after decades of living abroad, you remain a co-heir on equal footing with your siblings in Vietnam. They cannot lawfully exclude you simply because you are absent. (If they have already declared the estate among themselves and "left you out," you still have the right to request a re-division, but that is a separate situation.)
One distinction is worth drawing: foreign nationality does not strip you of the right to inherit; it only affects how you receive certain types of assets. For real estate, a foreigner or a person of Vietnamese origin who does not qualify to hold land-use rights is still entitled to the corresponding value, usually through a transfer of the property followed by receipt of the proceeds. The right remains intact; only the form in which the asset reaches your hands changes.
How to carry out inheritance procedures while you are abroad
So if you cannot return, who handles the procedures for you? The answer is that you grant a power of attorney. The law allows an individual to establish and carry out civil transactions through an authorized representative:
In practice, the remote process usually involves the following steps:
- Grant a power of attorney to a lawyer in Vietnam to handle everything on your behalf (declaring the estate, dealing with banks, notarial offices, and state agencies) so that you need not be present.
- Prepare documents from abroad: papers proving your inheritance relationship (birth certificate, marriage certificate, and so on) and the power of attorney. Documents issued overseas must be consularly legalized and accompanied by a notarized translation before they can be used in Vietnam.
- The lawyer, on your behalf, declares or agrees on the division of the estate at a notarial office, then proceeds with title transfers, the withdrawal of deposits, and dealings with the bank or the property developer.
- Repatriate the proceeds: inherited money is remitted abroad through lawful procedures; for real estate you cannot hold in your name, it is converted into value and the funds are transferred to you.
Conclusion
In short, your inability to return to Vietnam does not remove or reduce your inheritance rights. That right is tied to your relationship with the deceased, not to where you live or your nationality. What to do: (1) grant a power of attorney to a lawyer in Vietnam so that you need not be present; (2) prepare, consularly legalize, and obtain notarized translations of the documents proving your inheritance relationship; (3) have the lawyer declare the estate before a notary, transfer title or withdraw funds, and repatriate the proceeds to you; (4) do not wait too long, because the limitation period for requesting the division of an estate is finite. For you, distance is only a matter of procedure, not a matter of right.
If you are abroad and unsure where to begin, DEDICA can act under a power of attorney to handle the entire inheritance process in Vietnam on your behalf: guiding you in preparing and legalizing documents in your country of residence, declaring the estate before a notary, dealing with banks and state agencies, and proposing options to transfer the money or the value of the assets back to you. Contact DEDICA to have a lawyer review your specific situation and recommend a suitable course of action.
This content is for reference only; each case has its own particular facts, so please consult a DEDICA lawyer for advice tailored to your situation.
