Land Law 2024 – Some Takeaways For Vietnamese Residing Overseas
From 1 January 2025, under the new Land Law 2024, Vietnamese who reside overseas and still hold Vietnamese nationality (Vietnamese citizens) will be treated as Vietnamese individuals residing in Vietnam in the matters relating to land use rights in Vietnam, while the land use scheme applicable to persons having Vietnamese origin (người gốc Việt Nam) remains as same as to the one applicable to overseas Vietnamese under the Land Law 2013. This is one of the key changes under the Land Law 2024 relating to Vietnamese residing overseas. This article provides some highlights of the land use scheme applicable to these two groups of land users: (i) Vietnamese citizens and (ii) persons of Vietnamese origin.
This post is written by Cao Khanh Linh and Nguyen Bich Ngoc.
Overseas Vietnamese – Who Are They?
The Land Law 2024 is silent on determination of “Vietnamese residing abroad” and “persons of Vietnamese origin”. Therefore, one should refer to the Law on Vietnamese Nationality to determine (i) the Vietnamese nationality or Vietnamese origin of an overseas Vietnamese, and (ii) which respective documents evidencing such citizenship or Vietnamese origin should be showed before Vietnamese authorities.
According to the Law on Vietnamese Nationality, “overseas Vietnamese” (người Việt Nam định cư ở nước ngoài) means (i) Vietnamese citizens and (ii) persons of Vietnamese origin, who permanently reside in foreign countries. The feature differentiating these two groups is whether a person still has Vietnamese nationality or not.
How Overseas Vietnamese May Acquire Land Use Rights In Vietnam?
Under the Land Law 2013, the same land use scheme applies to Vietnamese citizens permanently residing abroad and the persons of Vietnamese origin residing overseas.
Under the Land Law 2024, Vietnamese [citizens] residing overseas will be entitled to the land use scheme applicable to domestic Vietnamese citizens; while the persons of Vietnamese origin will have a narrower scope of land use rights (LURs).
The Land Law 2024 does not clarify whether an overseas Vietnamese can use his/her foreign passports for completing the relevant procedures to obtain LURs in Vietnam or he/she must obtain a valid Vietnamese passport first.
The table below summarizes the methods via which Vietnamese citizens and persons of Vietnamese origin can acquire land use rights.
In a nutshell,
· Persons of Vietnamese origin may not receive a transfer of LURs as Vietnamese citizens, except (i) LURs in industrial zones/industrial clusters/hi-tech zones, (ii) residential LURs in residential housing projects, and (ii) residential LURs associated with residential houses by way of a purchase, lease purchase, inheritance or receipt of gift being residential houses;
· Persons of Vietnamese origin may not receive LURs as gifts or inheritance (except where the LUR is associated with inherited or donated residential houses as indicated above) as Vietnamese citizens; and
· Persons of Vietnamese origin may be allocated land with land use fee, and/or leased land by the Government.