Documents for Korean Heirs Inheriting in Vietnam | DEDICA

A Korean national inheriting assets in Vietnam can lose months of waiting, or even have to restart the paperwork from Korea, simply because one family relation certificate was not consular-legalized. In a cross-border estate between the two countries, getting the document set right from the start determines how fast you actually receive the assets.

Will a family relation certificate issued in Korea be accepted by a Vietnamese notary office? Living and working in Korea and unable to travel to Vietnam repeatedly, whom should you authorize, and how? And should you wait until Vietnam officially applies the Apostille from September 2026 to skip one round of legalization? These are usually the first questions Korean clients ask when a relative passes away leaving assets in Vietnam. This article lists the required documents under the rules applicable in 2026, points out the paperwork mistakes that drag out the process, and shows how to prepare so you only have to do it once.

The inheritance rights of Korean citizens in Vietnam

First, a point worth stating clearly: Korean citizenship does not take away inheritance rights in Vietnam. Under Clause 2, Article 673 of the Civil Code 2015, foreigners in Vietnam have the same civil legal capacity as Vietnamese citizens, unless Vietnamese law provides otherwise. A spouse, child or parent holding Korean citizenship therefore inherits like any other heir. Quite a few families believe that "foreigners get no share" and arrange the estate among themselves, leaving out relatives in Korea; that understanding is wrong in law and is the root of many lawsuits seeking redivision of estates.

For an inheritance with foreign elements, the first question is always: which country's law governs? The Civil Code 2015 sets a clear rule:

What does this mean for you? If the deceased was a Vietnamese citizen (for example, the Vietnamese spouse of a Korean citizen, or the Vietnamese parent of a child holding Korean citizenship), the inheritance follows Vietnamese law: without a will, the estate passes to the first rank of heirs, comprising the spouse, biological parents, adoptive parents, biological children and adopted children of the deceased, with heirs of the same rank receiving equal shares (Article 651, Civil Code 2015). Conversely, if the deceased was a Korean citizen with assets in Vietnam, Korean law determines who inherits and in what proportions, but the exercise of rights over land and housing in Vietnam still follows Vietnamese law. Where there is a will made in Korea, its form is recognized in Vietnam if it complies with the law of the place where it was made (Article 681, Civil Code 2015). That will must also go through legalization and translation like every other foreign document, as described below.

The document checklist under the Law on Notarization 2024

Since 1 July 2025, estate procedures at notarial practice organizations follow the Law on Notarization 2024. One notable change that many older articles have not caught up with: the new law merges the former "deed of estate declaration" and "deed of estate division agreement" into a single instrument, the estate division deed (Article 59), which applies even where there is only one heir. The file revolves around three groups of documents:

Applied to a Korean heir, the checklist typically includes:

• The heir's identity papers: a valid Korean passport; Clause 1, Article 42 of the Law on Notarization 2024 accepts a passport in place of a citizen ID card in notarization files.
• Proof of death: if the deceased passed away in Vietnam, a death extract issued by the Vietnamese civil status authority; if in Korea, a death certificate together with the deceased's basic certificate recording the death, in the formats issued by Korean authorities.
• Documents proving the inheritance relationship (the most complex group in Korean files): depending on the relationship, a family relation certificate, a marriage relation certificate or the basic certificate of each person involved under the Korean civil registration system. For family events that occurred before 2008 (when Korea abolished the old household-based family register), in practice you often need an additional certified copy of the old family register to fully evidence parent-child relationships or earlier marriages.
• Documents on the estate: certificates of land use rights and house ownership (the "pink book"), savings books, bank account details, capital contribution certificates, vehicle registrations and so on, depending on the assets left behind.
• The will (if any): the original; a will made in Korea should come with certification by the competent authority of the place where it was made, proving its formal validity.
• A power of attorney (if you will not travel to Vietnam): covered in detail in the step-by-step section below.

Consular legalization, certified translation and the Apostille milestone of 11 September 2026

Documents issued by Korean authorities are only usable in Vietnam after consular legalization. This is mandatory under Decree 111/2011/ND-CP (as amended and supplemented by Decree 196/2025/ND-CP):

In practice there are two routes for Korean documents: certification by the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs followed by legalization at the Embassy or a Consulate General of Vietnam in Korea; or certification by a Korean diplomatic mission in Vietnam followed by legalization at the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since 1 January 2026, Decree 196/2025/ND-CP also allows legalization files to be submitted online via the National Public Service Portal, saving someone in Korea one trip. After legalization, documents must be translated into Vietnamese, because the spoken and written language used in notarization is Vietnamese (Article 7, Law on Notarization 2024); the translation is certified as to the translator's signature under Decree 23/2015/ND-CP, and notaries are also competent to certify translators' signatures under Article 18 of the Law on Notarization 2024.

A major change is now very close: Vietnam deposited its instrument of accession to the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (the Apostille Convention) on 31 December 2025; the Convention takes effect for Vietnam on 11 September 2026, and the Prime Minister approved the implementation plan in Decision 330/QD-TTg dated 25 February 2026. Korea has been a member of the Convention since 2007. Once the Convention takes effect between the two countries, a Korean public document will only need an Apostille issued by the competent Korean authority to be used in Vietnam, instead of today's two-step certification and legalization. The domestic legal basis is already in place: Article 9 of Decree 111/2011/ND-CP (as amended in 2025) exempts from consular legalization documents covered by treaties to which both Vietnam and the relevant country are parties.

The estate declaration process and the documents each step requires

Once you can picture the checklist, you need to know which document is used at which step, so you prepare in the right order and avoid duplicate or missing requests:

1. Collect and legalize documents in Korea. Obtain the civil status certificates above in their full versions, then complete certification and consular legalization. If you cannot travel to Vietnam, prepare the power of attorney at this stage too: sign before a Korean notary and legalize it together with the other documents, or go directly to a Vietnamese mission in Korea for notarization; a document certified by a Vietnamese mission is a Vietnamese document and needs no further legalization.
2. Translate and certify the translations in Vietnam. All Korean-language documents are translated into Vietnamese, with the translator's signature certified at a Justice Division or a notarial practice organization.
3. File for notarization of the estate division deed. The notary verifies the death, the inheritance relationships and the assets; where anything is unclear, the notary may request clarification or conduct verification under Article 59 of the Law on Notarization 2024. The cleaner the file, the faster this step goes.
4. Wait for the public posting and resolve any complaints. See the details right below.
5. Sign the estate division deed and receive the assets. The notarized deed is the basis for transferring title, releasing bank accounts and declaring tax obligations.

On the public posting, the step that makes many heirs abroad think their file is "sitting in a drawer":

The posting takes place at the commune-level People's Committee of the deceased's last place of permanent residence. A point worth noting in Vietnam-Korea files: if the deceased had no last place of permanent or temporary residence in Vietnam (say, a Korean citizen living in Seoul who owned an apartment in Ho Chi Minh City), the notarial practice organization asks the provincial Department of Justice to publish the posting on its web portal under Clause 2, Article 44 of Decree 104/2025/ND-CP. The notary may only notarize the estate division deed after the posting is completed with no complaint or denunciation.

On tax: from 1 July 2026, tax on inherited assets follows the Law on Personal Income Tax 2025 (Law No. 109/2025/QH15). Two points matter for Korean heirs. First, inherited real estate passing between spouses, parents and children (including adopted children), grandparents and grandchildren, or siblings is tax-exempt under Article 4 of that law; the legalized relationship documents above are precisely the basis for the exemption. Second, outside the exempt cases, the rate for non-residents of Vietnam is as follows:

Also under that law, taxable inherited income covers only securities, capital interests in economic organizations, real estate and assets subject to ownership or use registration (Article 3); money in bank accounts and savings books is not on that list.

Land and housing carry one more particularity in the form of receipt: foreign individuals are not within the category of "land users" under Vietnamese land law, so a Korean national inheriting land use rights generally will not be issued a certificate of title but receives the value instead, by standing as the transferor or donor to sell or give away the inherited share, or by having the inheritance recorded in the cadastral book pending later disposal (Clause 3, Article 44, Land Law 2024); commercial housing in projects outside national defense and security areas is the exception, where a Korean individual permitted to enter Vietnam may own the property directly (Article 17, Law on Housing 2023). DEDICA has analyzed the options for each asset type in a separate article on foreigners inheriting land use rights; for the purposes of this piece, remember that the asset type dictates both the document set and how you receive the estate.

The practical risks that drag out files from Korea

The biggest risk lies not in the rules but in the preparation. First, documents not yet legalized or certified by the wrong authority: notary offices and banks reject them at intake, and every round of sending papers back to Korea means weeks of extra waiting plus courier costs and retranslation. This is the most common error DEDICA sees in self-prepared files.

Second, missing documents for pre-2008 relationships. The family relation certificate only records data under Korea's new registration system; the parent-child relationship of someone who died long ago, or earlier marriages, often appear only in the old family register. A file missing these will be sent back for exactly the hardest documents to obtain; the practical lesson is to request full versions, tracing back to the origin of the relationship, the first time.

Third, inconsistent name romanization. The name on the passport (Latin script), on civil status documents (Korean script) and in the Vietnamese translations must be unified; files have been suspended simply because a translation wrote "Kim Min Su" while the passport read "KIM MINSOO", forcing the heir to explain and re-confirm. Instruct the translation provider to follow the passport romanization in every document.

Fourth, a power of attorney with gaps in scope. An authorization that only says "to declare the estate on my behalf" but omits receiving the posting result, signing the division deed, receiving money, transferring title, declaring tax and so on will force you to redo the power of attorney from Korea, meaning another round of notarization and legalization. Settle the wording with a lawyer in Vietnam first, then sign and legalize it.

Finally, the risk of being "left out" while you are far away: there have been cases where co-heirs in Vietnam ran the procedure themselves and omitted the heir living abroad. The posting mechanism above is your line of defense: a complaint within the posting period obliges the notary to suspend the notarization; if the division has already been completed, the omitted heir still has the right to sue for redivision. So when you learn that a relative has passed away, the first thing to do is not to book a flight, but to establish your legal presence in the file.

DEDICA's role in Korean clients' inheritance files

DEDICA Law Firm regularly handles cross-border inheritance files where the heir cannot be present in Vietnam. For Korean clients, DEDICA's lawyers review the documents you already hold and draw up the list of what to obtain in Korea (the right versions, the right power-of-attorney wording) before you spend money on legalization; we then act under your authorization throughout the process in Vietnam: notarizing the estate division deed, monitoring the posting, working with banks, the land registry and the tax authority, and advising on transferring the inheritance proceeds to Korea in line with foreign exchange rules. If a dispute arises, or you were left out of a declaration already made, DEDICA negotiates among the co-heirs or litigates in court to recover your share of the estate.

If you are in Korea and need to receive a relative's estate in Vietnam, send DEDICA Law Firm scans of what you have: passport, civil status documents, asset papers. Our lawyers will check them against the requirements of notary offices and banks, list what needs to be added, and draft the power-of-attorney wording, so you complete everything in a single round of legalization without shuttling between Korea and Vietnam. Contact DEDICA for advice on your specific case.

This article is for reference only, based on Vietnamese law as at the time of writing (June 2026), with the provisions applying from 1 July 2026 and 11 September 2026 clearly noted. Every estate has its own facts; please consult DEDICA's lawyers for advice tailored to your case.