Inheritance Declaration Procedures for Foreigners in Vietnam: 2026 Update

Inheritance declaration procedures for foreigners in Vietnam are going through their busiest period of change in years: notarization now follows the Law on Notarization 2024 from 01/7/2025, a new personal income tax law applies from 01/7/2026, and document legalization rules will change once Vietnam's accession to the Apostille Convention takes effect. Follow an outdated online guide and your file may be rejected at the very first step, with each redo adding months of paperwork shuttling between two countries.

Your parents in Vietnam pass away leaving a house and savings accounts, but you live in the US, Australia or Europe: who will sign the paperwork for you, monitor the public posting, and deal with the notary office and the bank? As a foreign citizen, do you still have inheritance rights, can you hold title to the house, or are you only entitled to its value? And how must birth or marriage certificates issued abroad be processed so they are not rejected? These are the questions nearly every client living abroad asks when a relative in Vietnam passes away. Each has a clear legal answer, but there are also procedural traps that can leave a file stuck for years if the steps are taken in the wrong order. This article analyzes the current legal framework, the step-by-step declaration procedure under the latest 2026 rules, and the risks to avoid, even when you cannot return to Vietnam.

Inheritance rights of foreigners under Vietnamese law

The most common misconception among this group of clients is: "holding a foreign passport means you can no longer inherit in Vietnam". This is wrong. The Civil Code 2015 does not distinguish by nationality or place of residence when determining who is an heir: a child who has become a US citizen, a spouse holding Korean nationality or a sibling settled in Canada all have the same inheritance rights as someone living in Vietnam.

For cross-border estates, Article 680 of the Civil Code 2015 sets the choice-of-law rule: inheritance is determined by the law of the country of which the deceased was a national immediately before death, while the exercise of inheritance rights over real estate follows the law of the country where that real estate is located. What does this mean for you? If your parents were Vietnamese citizens and the estate consists of houses, land or deposits in Vietnam, the entire division of the estate and the procedure for receiving it follow Vietnamese law, whichever passport you hold.

Where there is no will, the estate is divided among statutory heirs under Article 651 of the Civil Code 2015: the first rank consists of the deceased's spouse, biological parents, adoptive parents, biological children and adopted children; heirs of the same rank receive equal shares. No provision excludes "mixed-race" children, children holding foreign citizenship or children who left Vietnam long ago from the ranks of heirs. If someone in the family tells you otherwise, be careful: you may be facing the risk of being omitted from the declaration so that your share is divided away. Wills made abroad follow separate recognition rules on capacity and form under Article 681 of the Civil Code 2015; that is a topic large enough for a separate article.

One point worth clarifying upfront, because it determines how you receive real estate later in this article: current law distinguishes three groups of "people abroad". Vietnamese residing abroad who still hold Vietnamese citizenship remain Vietnamese citizens; persons of Vietnamese origin residing abroad are those who once held Vietnamese citizenship (or whose parents or grandparents were Vietnamese citizens) but no longer do; and foreigners with no Vietnamese origin. All three groups have the same right to inherit; the difference lies in the form in which they receive the assets, especially real estate.

The 2025-2026 changes to inheritance declaration procedures

From 01/7/2025, the Law on Notarization 2024 replaced the Law on Notarization 2014. The first change is in the very name of the document: the two former instruments, the "inheritance declaration document" and the "estate division agreement", are now merged into one instrument called the estate division document (văn bản phân chia di sản) under Article 59 of the Law on Notarization 2024, applied even where there is only one heir. If you handled procedures for a relative before 2025, do not be confused when the notarial organization uses the new name; the substance is unchanged: proving who the heirs are and agreeing on how the estate is divided.

The second change is practical for those far away: notarization request files can now be submitted online or by post under Clause 1, Article 42 of the Law on Notarization 2024, instead of having to be filed in person. Documents must still be signed before a notary, but an heir abroad can take part through an authorized representative; that mechanism is analyzed in detail in the procedure section below.

The third change concerns the public posting step (niêm yết), where files with foreign elements most often get stuck. Decree 104/2025/NĐ-CP (replacing Decree 29/2015/NĐ-CP) keeps the posting period but spells out what happens when the deceased resided abroad:

The posting takes place at the office of the commune-level People's Committee of the deceased's last place of permanent residence; if the estate includes real estate, an additional posting is made where the real estate is located. The notable new point: where the deceased's last place of residence was not in Vietnam (for example, a foreigner who bought an apartment in Ho Chi Minh City and later passed away in their home country), the posting is made at their last place of permanent or temporary residence in Vietnam; if that cannot be determined, the notice is published on the website of the provincial Department of Justice. This resolves the bottleneck that once left many files "with nowhere to post" and stalled indefinitely.

Two more changes arrive in 2026: from 01/7/2026, the Law on Personal Income Tax 2025 takes effect and raises the tax threshold for the taxable part of inheritances (detailed table below); and Vietnam has acceded to the Apostille Convention, so from 11/9/2026 as expected, public documents of member states will only need an Apostille certificate instead of today's multi-step consular legalization chain. Until then, all foreign documents must still be consular-legalized under the current rules.

Step-by-step inheritance declaration when the heir lives abroad

The full process has six steps. The most important point for someone abroad: nearly every step can be carried out through an authorized representative in Vietnam, so you are not required to fly back.

1. Review the estate and identify the heirs. Check whether there is a valid will; list the estate (house and land certificates, savings books, capital contributions, vehicles...); identify every person entitled to inherit, including those abroad, so that no one is omitted.
2. Prepare and legalize documents issued abroad. Birth certificates, marriage certificates, death certificates, documents proving the inheritance relationship... issued by foreign authorities must be consular-legalized and then translated into Vietnamese by certified translation before filing.
3. Execute a power of attorney for a representative in Vietnam. The heir abroad signs the power of attorney at a Vietnamese diplomatic mission or consular post in the host country; the attorney-in-fact in Vietnam completes the notarization accepting the authorization.
4. File the request to notarize the estate division document. Under Article 59 of the Law on Notarization 2024, the file includes: the death certificate of the deceased; the will (for testamentary inheritance) or documents proving the inheritance relationship (for statutory inheritance); papers on ownership and use rights of the assets; and identity documents of the heirs.
5. Public posting of the notarization for 15 days. The commune-level People's Committee certifies the result within 03 working days after the posting ends; if there is any complaint or denunciation about an omitted heir or about the estate, the notarization must be suspended for resolution.
6. Sign the estate division document and collect the results. The notarized estate division document is the basis for registering the transfer of houses and land at the land registration office under Decree 101/2024/NĐ-CP, for the bank to release deposits, and for handling other assets.

The power-of-attorney step is the key that saves you the trip home. On the notarial authority of Vietnamese missions abroad, the Law on Notarization 2024 provides clearly:

You can therefore go to the Vietnamese Embassy or Consulate General where you live to notarize a power of attorney, a document declining the inheritance, or even a will. For a power-of-attorney contract where the two parties are in different places, the "relay" notarization mechanism in Article 57 of the Law on Notarization 2024 lets the principal sign first at one organization and the attorney-in-fact sign next at another, with the file remaining legally seamless. The authorized representative (usually a lawyer) then files the documents, monitors the posting, signs the estate division document and completes the title transfer on your behalf, strictly within the scope of the authorization.

On the financial side, 2026 is a transition year between two personal income tax laws, so the time you receive the inheritance determines which tax rules apply. A point many people miss: inheritance tax applies only to securities, capital in economic organizations, real estate and assets subject to ownership or use registration; money in an inherited savings account does not fall within this taxable category.

For heirs who are non-resident individuals in Vietnam (the situation of most clients settled abroad), the new tax law provides directly:

Inheriting houses and land in Vietnam: holding title or receiving the value

This is the question that worries people most, and the answer depends on which of the three groups described at the start of this article you belong to.

Vietnamese citizens residing abroad

The Land Law 2024 is a turning point for this group: Clause 3, Article 4 places Vietnamese residing abroad who are Vietnamese citizens in the same "individual" category as people in Vietnam. If you still hold Vietnamese citizenship, you inherit, take title on the Certificate and dispose of houses and land with the same full rights as a person living in Vietnam, far more openly than under the former Land Law 2013.

Persons of Vietnamese origin residing abroad

A person who has renounced Vietnamese citizenship but is of Vietnamese origin and is permitted to enter Vietnam may own a house attached to residential land use rights under Clause 1, Article 44 of the Land Law 2024, including inheriting residential land use rights and other land within the same parcel containing a house under point h, Clause 1, Article 28. The key condition is simply being "permitted to enter Vietnam"; you do not need permanent residence registration or repatriation.

Foreigners

For housing, a foreign individual permitted to enter Vietnam may only own commercial housing (apartments or separate houses) within housing construction investment projects, outside areas where national defense and security must be safeguarded; ownership is capped in quantity (no more than 30% of the apartments in one building) and limited to 50 years, renewable once (Articles 17, 19 and 20, Law on Housing 2023). Inheriting housing outside these conditions, for example a standalone house outside a project, entitles you only to the value of that house. For land use rights, the Land Law 2024 provides:

"Not being granted a Certificate" does not mean losing the asset. You remain a lawful heir: you may transfer or gift that part of the estate and enjoy its full value; while it is not yet sold, you are recorded in the cadastral register (Sổ địa chính) and may authorize someone in writing to look after and temporarily use the land under Clauses 3 and 5, Article 44 of the Land Law 2024. What does this mean for you? Nobody "loses everything" because of nationality; the difference between the three groups is only whether you receive by holding title or by converting to value, and identifying your group correctly from the start determines the file strategy: keep the asset, sell and transfer the money, or gift it to relatives in Vietnam.

Legal risks and common mistakes when declaring an inheritance from abroad

The first risk is foreign documents that fail the standard: in DEDICA's hands-on case experience, this is the leading reason files are returned. A birth certificate without consular legalization, a translation not done by certified translation, a death certificate issued abroad and not processed correctly: each such error forces you to start over from the host country, from re-issuance and legalization to couriering papers back to Vietnam. One such loop typically costs several weeks; a file with three or four errors can lose half a year on paperwork alone.

The second risk is more dangerous: being omitted from the declaration. A scenario DEDICA has encountered many times: a person of Vietnamese origin left Vietnam long ago, the parents pass away leaving houses and land, and the co-heirs in Vietnam handle the procedure themselves and "forget" to declare the person abroad. The 15-day posting at the commune-level People's Committee is precisely the legal mechanism designed to catch this, but you are half a world away from Vietnam and realistically cannot read the notice board at the commune. If a declaration omitting you has already been completed, you still have the right to demand redistribution, including by suing in court; the limitation period for claiming division of an estate under Article 623 of the Civil Code 2015 is 30 years for real estate and 10 years for movable property from the time the inheritance opens. Disputes of this kind are a separate topic, but the preventive message is clear: speak up and have a representative monitoring the file in Vietnam as soon as your relative passes away; do not wait until "whenever I can get back".

The third risk is delay itself. Once the above limitation periods expire, the estate belongs to the heir who is managing it under Article 623 of the Civil Code 2015. Meanwhile, during your absence the asset may be exploited, leased out or even shifted away by whoever is managing it; and old civil status papers proving family relationships, especially pre-1975 or handwritten-era documents, only become harder to collect with time.

The fourth risk is one few people anticipate: receiving the inheritance but being unable to transfer the money abroad. Foreign exchange law does allow it: Vietnamese citizens may buy and transfer foreign currency abroad to remit an inheritance to an heir living abroad under point đ, Clause 2, Article 7 of Decree 70/2014/NĐ-CP; non-residents and foreigners with lawful income in Vietnamese dong may also buy foreign currency to transfer or carry abroad under Clause 3, Article 7. On the limit:

In other words, the transfer limit equals exactly the value you are entitled to, but the bank will only execute when you prove the source of funds with a complete set of documents: the notarized estate division document, the sale contract if real estate was sold for cash, and proof that tax obligations have been settled. The common mistakes are taking cash, selling assets through informal "hand-written" deals, or letting the money wander through relatives' accounts, only to discover at the bank that there is no longer any way to prove the lawful origin of the funds.

Finally, let us repeat the misconception corrected at the start of this article, because its consequences are very real: quite a few people believe "a foreign passport means no share", then hastily sign a document declining the inheritance or assign their share to relatives for a token price. Your inheritance rights are protected equally by law; do not give them up over an unfounded remark.

DEDICA's role in inheritance declarations for foreigners

Most of DEDICA's clients in inheritance matters live abroad and either cannot return to Vietnam or can manage only one or two short trips. The service is therefore designed around exactly that reality: advising on the overall strategy from the outset (which group you belong to, whether to take title or sell, the tax and remittance roadmap); guiding the preparation of each document in the country where you live, from notarization and consular legalization to translations; drafting and guiding the signing of the power of attorney at the Vietnamese mission; then acting under that authorization to carry out the entire procedure in Vietnam: working with the notarial organization, the People's Committee, the land registration office, the bank, and even the project developer if the estate is a house still being paid for in installments.

When disputes arise, such as uncooperative co-heirs or a declaration that omitted you, DEDICA represents you in negotiations among family members, participates in court proceedings and follows the judgment enforcement stage until you actually receive your share, including the final step of transferring the proceeds to your account abroad. If you are unsure what your file is missing, you can send DEDICA copies of the documents you have for an initial assessment by a lawyer before deciding whether a flight back to Vietnam is needed at all.

Every inheritance case with foreign elements differs in nationality, civil status papers, asset types and the level of family consensus. DEDICA Law Firm stays with you from the first consultation, reviewing documents and building the inheritance plan until the assets or the money reach you abroad, with no requirement for you to be present in Vietnam. Contact DEDICA today for a lawyer to assess your file and propose a specific roadmap for your case.

This article is for reference only, based on the laws in force at the time of writing (June 2026). Every case has its own facts; please consult a DEDICA lawyer for precise advice on your specific situation.