Foreigners and Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) still have inheritance rights over assets in Vietnam. But what you receive, and whether you can hold title, depends on which category you fall into under Vietnamese land and housing law. Many people believe the rumor that "losing Vietnamese citizenship means losing inheritance rights" and stay silent on the sidelines, letting others declare and dispose of the estate; others pursue title to an asset the law only allows them to receive in value, leaving their file stuck for years.
Your parents in Vietnam have just passed away, leaving a house, land and savings books. You hold US, Australian or Korean citizenship; are you still entitled to your share? Can a foreigner hold title to inherited real estate in Vietnam, or only receive its monetary value? And if you cannot fly back, who will handle the estate declaration on your behalf, and how can the money you receive be transferred abroad legally? Each question has an answer, but the answer changes entirely depending on whether you still hold Vietnamese citizenship, are a person of Vietnamese origin, or are entirely foreign; this is a boundary that even many people involved get wrong. The analysis below covers the legal framework currently in force, including the Civil Code 2015, the Land Law 2024 and the Housing Law 2023, together with tax and foreign exchange rules, the step-by-step process from abroad, and the mistakes that leave many heirs worse off.
Inheritance rights of foreigners under Vietnamese law
The most common misunderstanding DEDICA encounters when advising clients abroad is: "I renounced my Vietnamese citizenship, so I no longer have inheritance rights in Vietnam". The Civil Code 2015 says no such thing. The right to inherit is a civil right of every individual and is not tied to citizenship:
This means: if you are a child of the deceased, you remain in the first rank of heirs (comprising the spouse, biological parents, adoptive parents, biological children and adopted children of the deceased under Article 651 of the Civil Code 2015), regardless of which passport you carry or how long you have been away from Vietnam. If a valid will names you as a beneficiary, you inherit under that will. Citizenship only affects the form in which you receive certain types of assets, mainly real estate; it does not erase your inheritance rights. This point is analyzed in the next section.
Because an inheritance involving a person abroad or a person holding foreign citizenship is a civil relation involving foreign elements, the first step is to determine which country's law governs. The Civil Code 2015 sets out two foundational principles:
Applied to common situations: if your parents were Vietnamese citizens who passed away in Vietnam, Vietnamese law decides who inherits and in what proportions. Conversely, if a Korean national bought an apartment in Ho Chi Minh City and then passed away, Korean law determines who his heirs are, but the heir's receipt of the apartment (registration, title transfer, ownership limits) must still follow Vietnamese law because the property is located in Vietnam. As for wills made abroad, Article 681 of the Civil Code 2015 recognizes the form of a will if it complies with the law of the country where the will was made, where the testator resided, where the testator held citizenship, or where the immovable property is located. Thanks to this, a will validly made in the US, France or Japan can absolutely be used for estate declaration in Vietnam once it has been consularly legalized and translated with notarization.
Three categories of heirs and their rights to inherited real estate in Vietnam
Where the estate is real estate, the asset type that makes up most of the inheritance files DEDICA handles, current land and housing law distinguishes three categories of heirs abroad with three very different levels of rights. Correctly identifying your category is the most important step before starting any procedure.
Category one: Vietnamese citizens residing abroad who retain Vietnamese citizenship. The Land Law 2024 (latest consolidated version, 2026) places this group in the same category as domestic individuals: Clause 3, Article 4 provides that land users include "Domestic individuals and Vietnamese residing abroad who are Vietnamese citizens (hereinafter referred to as individuals)". In other words, if you still hold Vietnamese citizenship, you inherit and hold title to real estate exactly like someone living in Vietnam: no restriction on land type, no entry requirement. This is a clear improvement compared with the former Land Law 2013.
Category two: persons of Vietnamese origin residing abroad, meaning those who once held Vietnamese citizenship (determined under the Law on Nationality) but now hold foreign citizenship, and their children and grandchildren. This group may inherit and hold title to real estate within a narrower scope, on the condition that they are permitted to enter Vietnam:
Accordingly, a person of Vietnamese origin permitted to enter Vietnam can hold title to the house and residential land their parents left behind. But if the estate includes agricultural land or garden land not within the same parcel as the house, they cannot hold title to that land; it shifts to the "value receipt" mechanism described for the third category below.
Category three: foreign individuals (with no Vietnamese origin), plus persons of Vietnamese origin who do not meet the entry condition. Foreign individuals permitted to enter Vietnam may only own commercial housing (apartments, separate houses) within housing construction investment projects outside areas requiring national defense and security protection, including when received by inheritance (Point b, Clause 2, Article 17 of the Housing Law 2023), capped at 30% of apartments in one building or 250 separate houses per area with a population equivalent to a ward (Article 19), with a maximum ownership term of 50 years, extendable once (Point c, Clause 2, Article 20). A foreign individual married to a Vietnamese citizen living in Vietnam, however, may own housing with the same owner's rights as a Vietnamese citizen. For all assets outside this scope (housing outside projects, standalone residential land, agricultural land), the law applies the value receipt mechanism:
"Receiving the value" does not mean losing everything. The foreign heir remains the owner of their share of the estate: they may directly sign as the transferor in the sale contract for that property, may donate it to someone eligible to own it, and while it remains unsold they are recorded in the cadastral records and may authorize another person to look after it (Clauses 3 and 5, Article 44). The Housing Law 2023 contains a corresponding rule at Point b, Clause 2, Article 20: where inherited housing falls outside the ownership scope, the foreign heir is only entitled to the value of that housing. The entire sale proceeds, after tax obligations are fulfilled, may be transferred abroad under the process described in the next section.
| Category of heir | Rights to inherited real estate | Main legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| Vietnamese citizens residing abroad (retaining Vietnamese citizenship) | Inherit and hold title to all types of real estate like domestic individuals, with no entry requirement. | Clause 3, Article 4; Point g, Clause 1, Article 28, Land Law 2024 |
| Persons of Vietnamese origin residing abroad, permitted to enter Vietnam | Hold title to housing attached to residential land; inherit residential land and other land within the same parcel containing housing. Land outside this scope: receive the value. | Point h, Clause 1, Article 28; Article 44, Land Law 2024 |
| Foreign individuals (or persons of Vietnamese origin not permitted entry) | May only hold title to commercial housing in projects, up to 50 years (extendable once), capped at 30% of apartments per building or 250 houses per ward-level area; outside this scope, receive the value. Married to a Vietnamese citizen: own like a Vietnamese citizen. | Articles 17, 19, 20, Housing Law 2023; Clause 3, Article 44, Land Law 2024 |
For movable assets such as account balances, savings books, cars, capital contributions and shares, the law imposes no citizenship-based "title" restriction as it does for real estate: the foreign heir receives their full share in money or assets, needing only a notarized estate division document for banks and companies to release and pay out. Capital in enterprises may carry separate conditions under enterprise law and the company charter, so check before deciding whether to keep or transfer it.
Estate declaration process when the heir is abroad
The first point to emphasize: you are not required to return to Vietnam. The entire process below can be carried out through an authorized representative (usually a lawyer in Vietnam) while you remain abroad.
- Gather documents. The death certificate of the deceased; the will (if any); documents proving the inheritance relationship (birth certificate, marriage registration...); asset documents (real estate Certificate, savings books, vehicle registration...). All documents issued by foreign authorities must be consularly legalized and translated with notarization into Vietnamese before use in Vietnam.
- Execute a power of attorney from abroad. You may sign the power of attorney at a Vietnamese diplomatic mission (embassy, consulate general) in your country of residence; or use the mechanism under Article 57 of the Law on Notarization 2024: the principal requests notarization of the authorization offer at an office of their choosing, and the attorney-in-fact in Vietnam requests further notarization on the original to complete it, without the two parties ever meeting.
- Notarize the estate division document. Under Article 59 of the Law on Notarization 2024, heirs by law or under a will request notarization of the estate division document; this procedure applies even where there is only one heir. The notary verifies the deceased's ownership of the assets and the standing of each heir.
- Public posting. The acceptance of the notarization request must be posted for 15 days at the commune-level People's Committee of the deceased's last place of residence and of the place where the real estate is located (Article 44, Decree 104/2025/ND-CP). A notable new point: if the deceased had no last place of residence in Vietnam (for example, a foreigner who owned an apartment in Vietnam but lived and died abroad), the posting is replaced by publication on the website of the provincial Department of Justice. If no complaint or denunciation is received, the notary certifies the document.
- Complete receipt of the estate. The notarized estate division document is the basis for registering the title transfer at the land registration office (with tax and fee obligations where applicable), or for the bank to release and pay out the balance. Heirs in the value-receipt category will sign as the seller in the asset transfer contract and receive the money.
On timing: if the documents are correct from the start and the co-heirs cooperate, the notarization, posting and title transfer chain can be completed within a few weeks to a few months. Files that drag on are usually delayed not by the law but by incomplete asset papers (a house without a Certificate, or titled to a household) or by co-heirs failing to agree. The matter then moves into negotiation or litigation to divide the estate, a topic DEDICA has analyzed in a separate article on inheritance disputes involving foreign elements.
Taxes, fees and transferring inheritance money abroad
Personal income tax applies only to estate assets subject to ownership or use registration, such as real estate, cars, securities and capital contributions (Clause 9, Article 3 of the current Law on Personal Income Tax). Money in accounts and inherited savings books do not fall into this group. The rate currently applicable through 30/6/2026 is 10% on the portion of value exceeding VND 10 million per receipt, for both residents and non-residents. From 01/7/2026, the Law on Personal Income Tax 2025 replaces the old law and doubles this threshold:
More important for most families: inheritance of real estate between spouses; parents and children (including adoptive parents and parents-in-law); grandparents and grandchildren; and siblings is fully exempt from personal income tax; this rule is retained in both the current law (Clause 4, Article 4) and the new law (Clause 1, Article 4). The registration fee for transferring real estate title is 0.5% of value, but real estate inherited between the relatives listed above is also exempt under Clause 10, Article 10 of Decree 10/2022/ND-CP. So a child holding foreign citizenship who inherits a house from their parents essentially pays neither personal income tax nor the registration fee for receiving the estate; tax obligations arise only in the next transaction, for example personal income tax when the asset is later sold.
The final stage is getting the money to where you live. Foreign exchange law permits this through two mechanisms under Article 7 of Decree 70/2014/ND-CP: residents who are Vietnamese citizens may buy and transfer foreign currency abroad for the purpose of "Transferring inheritance money to heirs abroad" (Point dd, Clause 2); and non-residents and foreigners with lawful income in Vietnamese dong may buy foreign currency to transfer or carry abroad (Clause 3). The amount of foreign currency that may be transferred is not subject to a fixed cap; it is based on the value of the assets the heir is entitled to receive, under Clause 5, Article 13 of Circular 20/2022/TT-NHNN. The practical condition is that the documentation must match: the notarized estate division document, the asset sale papers, and proof of completed tax obligations. The bank will reconcile each item before executing the transfer order.
Legal risks and common mistakes in practice
Being "left out of the declaration" while abroad. This is the scenario DEDICA encounters most: co-heirs in Vietnam declare the estate themselves and omit a relative residing abroad, whether unintentionally or deliberately. The posting lasts only 15 days at the commune-level People's Committee office; someone half a world away has almost no way of learning about it in time to object. The consequences: the assets are re-titled, sometimes already sold to third parties; the omitted heir must sue to have the estate redivided, and the matter turns from an administrative procedure of a few months into a lawsuit lasting years. If you are in the line of heirs and hear that a relative has passed away, do not wait to "be invited"; proactively establish your presence in the file as early as possible.
Staying silent in the belief you lost your rights, until the limitation period runs out. Article 623 of the Civil Code 2015 sets the limitation period for claiming division of an estate at 30 years for immovable property and 10 years for movable property from the time the inheritance opens; once it expires, the estate belongs to the heir currently managing it. Thirty years sounds long, but for families separated since the 1990s, many files reach a lawyer when the limitation period is down to months, or already expired, with witnesses gone and papers lost.
Misidentifying your category. Errors in either direction cause damage. Some persons of Vietnamese origin eligible to hold title nevertheless follow word-of-mouth advice and rush to sell their inherited share cheaply, believing "foreigners cannot keep houses in Vietnam". Conversely, some foreigners persistently demand a Certificate for inherited garden land (which the law does not allow), causing the file to be returned again and again, while the correct option (signing as seller and receiving the value) is ignored for years.
Foreign documents not recognized. Birth or marriage certificates and name change documents issued abroad without consular legalization; a name on the foreign passport that does not match the name on the Vietnamese birth certificate after naturalization: both the notary office and the bank will refuse until the chain of documents proves "you are that person". This is a purely procedural risk, yet it accounts for most of a file's dead time, because every supplementation round means going back to the competent authority abroad.
Receiving the assets but getting stuck at the money transfer stage. Selling the house only to discover missing documents proving the origin of the funds, or the deceased's account frozen by the bank until a valid estate division document is produced. The result is money sitting in Vietnam while the heir abroad cannot use it. DEDICA's experience: the "exit" plan (who buys, which account receives the money, what documents are needed) must be designed at the moment the power of attorney is drafted, not after the estate has already been received.
DEDICA's role in inheritance matters involving foreign elements
Around 70% of DEDICA's inheritance clients are foreigners and Vietnamese residing abroad who cannot return to Vietnam to pursue the procedures. The service is therefore designed so you do not need to be present: the lawyer assesses the file and plans the overall strategy (which category of rights you fall into, which assets you can hold title to, which assets should be converted to value, the tax and money transfer roadmap); guides the preparation and consular legalization of documents in the country where you live; acts under power of attorney with notary offices, banks, land registration authorities and project developers in Vietnam; negotiates with co-heirs on your behalf where there is conflict, litigates and pursues judgment enforcement where needed, through to the final step of lawfully transferring the proceeds of the inheritance to your account abroad.
If you are at the stage of "just heard the news, not sure where to start", a session with a lawyer to determine your category of rights and inventory your documents is a sensible first step, before anyone else disposes of the estate.
Conclusion
Foreigners and Viet Kieu do not lose inheritance rights in Vietnam; the only questions are the form in which you receive the estate and how the procedure works. The standard roadmap has five steps: (1) determine which category you fall into (retaining Vietnamese citizenship, person of Vietnamese origin permitted entry, or foreigner), because this category decides whether you hold title to real estate or receive its value; (2) gather documents and consularly legalize everything issued abroad, and execute a power of attorney for a representative in Vietnam; (3) notarize the estate division document and complete the 15-day posting; (4) transfer title or sell the asset to receive its value, noting that inheritance between immediate relatives is exempt from both personal income tax and the registration fee, while other cases bear 10% tax on the portion exceeding VND 10 million (from 01/7/2026: VND 20 million); (5) transfer the money abroad through a licensed bank with a complete set of documents. The three most damaging mistakes: staying on the sidelines until you are left out of the declaration or the 30-year limitation period expires, foreign documents without consular legalization, and misidentifying your own category of rights. What to do as soon as you learn a relative has passed away: inventory the estate, gather your personal documents, and authorize a lawyer in Vietnam before the other co-heirs divide it among themselves.
Every inheritance file involving foreign elements differs in citizenship, asset types and the level of cooperation among co-heirs. You can send DEDICA Law Firm the information about the deceased, the list of assets and the documents you currently have; our lawyers will determine your category of rights, the suitable option for receiving the estate, and the roadmap for transferring the proceeds to where you live, even if you cannot return to Vietnam. Contact DEDICA for advice on your specific case.
This article is for reference only, based on legislation in force at the time of writing (June 2026). Every case has its own facts; please consult DEDICA's lawyers for accurate advice on your situation.
