Overseas Vietnamese (Việt kiều) inheriting assets in Vietnam often face a paradox: the right to inherit is almost always intact, yet the asset sits frozen for months because the heir is in the United States, Australia or Canada and cannot fly back to pursue the paperwork. A house or a savings book can be frozen, or claimed by other co-heirs who leave your name off the record, simply because a few documents have not been legalized or a proper power of attorney is missing.
Now that you hold US or Australian citizenship, can you still receive your parents' house and land in Vietnam, or only the cash value? If you cannot return to Vietnam all year, who will sign the file on your behalf and deal with the notary office and the bank? And once you have received it, how do you legally transfer that inheritance to your account abroad? These are the three groups of questions that leave most distant heirs uncertain. This handbook walks through the core parts in turn: what you are entitled to and in what form, how the estate is divided, the procedure for receiving and remitting the assets abroad, the taxes and fees payable, and the risks to avoid in 2026.
What overseas Vietnamese and people of Vietnamese origin are entitled to inherit in Vietnam
The most common, and most damaging, misconception is the belief that holding a foreign nationality strips you of the right to inherit in Vietnam. This is not true. Nationality does not erase your status as an heir. The law draws a distinction at only one point: the form in which you receive the estate, and that depends on the type of asset, not on the passport you happen to hold.
First, you need to know which country's law governs your inheritance. The Civil Code sets the principle by the nationality of the deceased, not by the nationality of the heir.
This means that if your father or mother was a Vietnamese citizen at the time of death, Vietnamese law determines who the heirs are, and you remain among them no matter which passport you now carry. For real estate specifically, Vietnamese law applies additionally because the property sits on Vietnamese territory. It is from this principle that the differences between asset types arise.
Bank deposits, savings books and movable property
This is the easiest group. For money in accounts, savings books, cars, gold and other movable property, an heir who is overseas Vietnamese or a foreign national receives their full share, with no restriction on the form of ownership. What remains is simply to complete the estate declaration, then withdraw and transfer the funds, a step covered in the procedure section below.
Housing and land use rights
This is the conditional group, and the one most often misunderstood. The law divides people of Vietnamese origin residing abroad into two groups. Those permitted to enter Vietnam may hold title to housing together with the residential land use right, almost like a domestic citizen, which means you can keep your parents' house and transfer the title into your own name.
The remaining group, namely foreign nationals without Vietnamese origin and people of Vietnamese origin who do not qualify to own housing, may still inherit but cannot be named on the certificate. Instead, they are entitled to the value of the asset, that is, the cash received after the property is sold or transferred.
What does this mean for you? If you are of Vietnamese origin, still hold documents proving that origin and are permitted to enter Vietnam, you can fully keep the real estate. If you do not fall into that category, you lose nothing in value either: your share of the inheritance is converted into money. What you need to prepare is a plan for dealing with the house, not the fear of being stripped of your right.
Capital contributions, shares and special assets
If the estate consists of a capital contribution in a company, shares, or intellectual property such as the trademark or copyright of a family business, inheritance is subject to separate rules and is usually more complex. This is a specialist topic on which DEDICA has a dedicated analysis. In this handbook, you need only remember that such assets are still inheritable, but you should ask a lawyer about the procedure for updating member or shareholder status after receiving them.
How the estate is divided with and without a will
How the estate is divided depends on whether the deceased left a valid will.
Where there is a valid will, the estate is divided according to the wishes expressed in it. A question that arises very often with overseas Vietnamese: does a will drawn up abroad by your parents, or one you yourself intend to draw up abroad, have legal force in Vietnam? In principle, a will made abroad may be recognized if it is valid in form under the law of the place where it was made. But when brought back to Vietnam for the estate declaration, it must still be legalized and notarially translated, and any disposition of real estate in Vietnam must conform to Vietnamese law. This is a point that very easily gives rise to dispute, so a clear will in proper form from the outset is the best safeguard.
Where there is no will, or the will is invalid, the estate is divided according to law, that is, by line of heirs. The law ranks relatives in order of priority.
The first line of heirs comprises the spouse, parents and children, sharing equally among themselves. Only when no one remains in the first line does it pass to the second line, comprising grandparents and siblings, and then the third line. As a child residing abroad, you still belong to the first line of heirs and have a share equal to that of your siblings in Vietnam. One further common misconception should be made clear: a biological child, whether a child from a previous marriage, a child of a mother holding foreign nationality, or a child born out of wedlock, belongs to the first line of heirs and receives an equal share so long as the parent-child relationship can be proven. There is no concept in the law of "a mixed-race child therefore has no share".
Precisely because each child has an equal share, being left off the record when co-heirs in Vietnam carry out the declaration on their own is a very real risk for those far away, analyzed in detail in the risk section.
The procedure for receiving the estate while you are in the US, Australia or Canada
Most of our clients in this group can return to Vietnam only once or twice, briefly, and some cannot return at all. It is therefore almost essential to design the process so that you sign documents from afar and authorize someone in Vietnam to carry out the rest. The procedure usually comprises five steps.
- Prepare and legalize documents from abroad. These include the death certificate of the deceased, documents proving the family relationship such as birth and marriage certificates, and your passport. Documents issued abroad must undergo consular legalization and be notarially translated into Vietnamese.
- Execute a power of attorney for a lawyer or relative in Vietnam. Because you are not present, the power of attorney may be signed at a Vietnamese diplomatic mission abroad, or notarized in your country of residence and then legalized for use in Vietnam. This is the step that allows a lawyer to pursue the entire file on your behalf.
- Notarize the estate-division document and post the public notice. The authorized person submits the file at a notarial organization to draw up the estate-division document. That document must be publicly posted for a period before the notary signs to certify it.
- Transfer title or convert the asset into cash. If you qualify to be named on the certificate, proceed with registration of the title transfer for the property. If you are entitled only to the value, the option is to sell or transfer it to convert your inheritance share into money.
- Remit the inheritance funds abroad. Once the money is in hand, carry out the procedure to buy and transfer foreign currency to your account abroad in accordance with foreign exchange management rules.
The documentation in step one is where files are most often sent back and forth, so it must be done correctly from the start. Here there is a major legal change that heirs in the US, Australia and Canada should grasp.
At step three, the reason an estate file always takes at least about half a month lies in the public-posting requirement. This is the window during which anyone who has been left out can speak up before the division is finalized.
One point that works in favor of those far away: if the last place of residence of the deceased was not in Vietnam, the law still provides a mechanism for posting at the commune-level People's Committee in Vietnam or publishing on the portal of the provincial Department of Justice, so the fact that the deceased once lived abroad does not deadlock the procedure.
The final step, remitting funds abroad, is the one that worries people most but in fact has a clear legal framework. Transferring inheritance funds to an heir abroad is a lawful remittance purpose, and the amount transferred is not capped at a fixed figure.
In other words, you may transfer exactly the value you actually receive, provided you can produce documents proving that the source of the funds is a lawful inheritance. For this reason, keeping the full set of estate-declaration papers and proof of the asset sale is the condition for the remittance step to go smoothly.
Taxes and costs when receiving an inheritance
A piece of good news that many people are unaware of: in most cases, overseas Vietnamese inheriting from their parents pay no personal income tax on the real estate portion. Tax law exempts personal income tax on the inheritance of real estate between close lineal relatives, namely between spouses, between parents and children, between grandparents and grandchildren, and between siblings. Likewise, real estate inherited between those close relatives is also exempt from the registration fee when the title is transferred.
Where the heir does not fall within the close-relative group above, the portion of asset value exceeding the exemption threshold is subject to personal income tax at a rate of 10%. Note the timing: the new Law on Personal Income Tax, effective from 1 July 2026, raises the taxable threshold on inheritance to above VND 20 million per occurrence, replacing the previous level. There is also the fee for notarizing the estate-division document, calculated on the value of the estate, together with the costs of translation and document legalization. Total costs therefore depend chiefly on whether you fall within the close-relative group exempt from tax and on how large the estate is.
Legal risks and common mistakes
Most of the trouble for distant heirs comes not from a lack of rights but from a few mistakes about procedure and timing. Below are the situations we encounter most often.
Being left off the record when co-heirs in Vietnam carry out the declaration on their own. This is the most distinctive and most dangerous risk for overseas Vietnamese. While you are abroad, some co-heirs in Vietnam carry out the estate declaration without listing your name, then transfer the title or even sell the asset to someone else. When you discover this, you are forced to file a lawsuit seeking re-division of the estate on the ground that an heir was omitted from the declaration, and if the asset has already passed to a bona fide third party, recovering it becomes all the more complex.
Leaving it too long and running into the statute of limitations. Many people think a parent's estate can be dealt with whenever they get around to returning. The law does not allow indefinite delay.
For movable property such as bank deposits, the limitation period to request division is only 10 years. Anyone who leaves the asset untouched too long risks losing the right to request division, with the estate falling to whoever is managing it. The time the inheritance is opened is counted from the date the deceased passed away, so identifying this milestone from the outset is very important.
Foreign documents not legalized. A file missing the consular legalization stamp or lacking a notarized translation will be refused by the notarial organization and the bank, forcing you to start over, losing further months and the cost of sending documents back and forth between the two countries.
Uncooperative co-heirs. The estate-division document in principle requires the consent of the heirs. It takes only one person far away who will not sign, or the parties failing to agree on how to divide, for the file to stall. At that point negotiation through a representative is needed, or a lawsuit if there is no other way.
Property without a certificate or held in a household's name. If the real estate has not been granted a certificate, or is registered in the name of a household rather than the individual deceased, determining which part is the estate becomes complex and must be resolved before the declaration.
Getting stuck at the foreign-currency remittance step. Having completed the declaration but not kept enough documents to prove that the source of the funds is the inheritance, the heir may run into difficulty when the bank reviews the application to remit funds abroad.
DEDICA's role in inheritance matters with foreign elements
For an heir in the US, Australia or Canada, the greatest value of a Vietnamese lawyer is not merely carrying out the paperwork, but devising an overall plan so that you ultimately receive the estate without flying back many times. DEDICA helps you prepare and legalize the file from abroad, acts under power of attorney to deal with the notarial organization, the bank and the project developer, negotiates among co-heirs when there is disagreement, and takes part in court proceedings when a lawsuit becomes necessary, such as a case for re-division of the estate because an heir was omitted from the declaration.
Once the estate is ready, we advise on the plan to bring the proceeds home to you: for inheritance funds, the procedure to buy and lawfully transfer foreign currency; for real estate you do not qualify to be named on, the plan to sell or transfer it and then remit the value to your account abroad. The aim is for you to sit abroad and still follow the progress and receive your share.
Conclusion
In short, as overseas Vietnamese in the US, Australia or Canada, you almost always retain the right to inherit assets in Vietnam; the only question is the form of receipt and the procedure. For bank deposits and movable property, you receive your full share. For real estate, if you qualify to own you are named directly on the certificate, and if not you receive the value. The procedure for receiving the estate comprises five steps: prepare and legalize documents from abroad, execute a power of attorney for someone in Vietnam, notarize the estate-division document and post the 15-day public notice, transfer the title or convert the asset into cash, then remit the funds abroad under foreign exchange rules. The three mistakes that most often prolong a file or cost you your entitlement are: leaving it too long and hitting the statute of limitations, documents not legalized, and being omitted by co-heirs in Vietnam during the declaration. If you cannot return to Vietnam, authorizing a lawyer to act from the very first step of reviewing the file is the surest way to avoid starting over.
Every inheritance file with foreign elements differs in nationality, asset type, number of heirs and the documents on hand. DEDICA Law Firm accompanies you from reviewing the file and legalizing documents abroad, through representation in the declaration and resolution of disputes, until the money or the value of the asset reaches your account in the US, Australia or Canada, even when you cannot be present in Vietnam. Contact DEDICA for legal advice tailored to your family's specific situation.
This article is for reference only, based on the law in force at the time of writing. Each matter has its own particular facts; please consult a DEDICA lawyer for accurate advice.
