Minister of Public Security: Household registration and temporary residence books will be abolished from July 1, 2021

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Uong Chu Luu chaired the working session on the morning of October 21. Photo source: quochoi.vn

This morning (October 21), the National Assembly discussed online a number of contents with different opinions.Draft Law on Residence (amended). Politburo member, Minister of Public Security, General To Lam has given instructions on this issue.

Abandon household registration and temporary residence book

Reporting at the meeting, Politburo member and Minister of Public Security, General To Lam affirmed that the drafting agency will absorb the opinions of National Assembly deputies and coordinate with the National Assembly's Law Committee to continue perfecting the draft Law to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at this session.

Clarifying some contents of the draft Law,Minister To LamEmphasizes three basic goals of amending the Law on Residence: First, it is necessary to ensure that citizens' right to freedom of residence is not hindered or obstructed, and this is a very important priority.

Second, is to determine the legal position of people in Vietnam territory, no matter where they are, they must have a legal position to conduct transactions in life.

Third, management must not cause trouble or harassment to the people.

The second content that Minister To Lam mentioned is the transition period after the Law project takes effect. The National Assembly Standing Committee proposed two options for transitioning the Household Registration Book and Paper Temporary Residence Book after the Law takes effect. That is, the Household Registration Book and Temporary Residence Book have a transition period until December 31, 2022. Option 2 is that the Household Registration Book and Temporary Residence Book will expire from the time the Law takes effect, which is July 1, 2021.

General To Lam. Photo: Doan Tan/VNA

“We recommend implementing option 2, because based on our capacity and reality, we can ensure immediate implementation. In addition, when the Law comes into effect, the citizen identification card is a legally valid document, so it is not necessary to retain other types of documents (Household registration book, Temporary residence book). If not decisive, it will be very troublesome for the people and the management agency,” Minister To Lam emphasized.

According to the Minister, abolishing the household registration book is the wish of the people, "this change will bring excitement to the people so we must thoroughly implement it on schedule. During the discussion session of the National Assembly Standing Committee, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan strongly supported the abolition of the household registration book, to avoid causing trouble and harassment for the people. It is true that the current household registration book has many "follow-up" regulations, therefore, it is necessary to change the management method in the entire system of state management agencies", Minister To Lam affirmed.

The Minister also added that 90% of the information on the population database has been collected, only waiting for appraisal and review, and the remaining 10% will be completed in 2020 to be put into operation.

The Minister said: "We have a roadmap for implementation. We propose that the National Assembly limit the time so that agencies can have a roadmap for implementation and be more proactive and urgent in completing the targets and tasks of building an e-Government soon."

"For nearly 30 administrative procedures at the ministerial level and dozens of procedures at local government levels that require the presentation of Household Registration Books and Temporary Residence Books, the Government, ministries, ministerial-level agencies and other relevant agencies urgently review the legal documents they have issued that contain provisions related to Household Registration Books and Temporary Residence Books or require the presentation of documents confirming residence to amend and supplement them in accordance with the provisions of this Law, ensuring that they can be implemented smoothly and consistently from July 1, 2021," he said.

Small houses can still be registered as permanent residence.

In this morning's discussion, the third issue that delegates were interested in was the concepts of permanent residence, temporary residence, and temporary residence. Regarding this issue, according to Minister To Lam, the above concepts have been specifically regulated in the Law. Specifically, each person must have a legal place of residence, which is a permanent residence. In addition to a permanent place of residence, one can temporarily reside or stay elsewhere for a certain period of time.

"Regarding permanent residence regulations, there is no minimum area because in reality, some families only have an apartment of a few dozen square meters.²If many generations have lived in that apartment, then parents, children and future generations, if still living there, can still register for permanent residence. Regulation 8 m²"New permanent residence registration only applies to people staying with others or renting," Minister To Lam emphasized.

Minister To Lam also said that abolishing paper household registration also creates conditions for cases of separation or divorce but cannot transfer household registration or refuse to transfer household registration out of the ex-husband or ex-wife's house because the head of household does not agree.

In fact, there are thousands of people who cannot transfer their household registration after divorce because their husbands and parents-in-law, who are the heads of the household, do not allow the transfer. After the Law takes effect, the management agency will base on the Court's decision to transfer the household registration of citizens to their new permanent residence.

Minister To Lam emphasized that the revised Law on Residence is a major reform. If we manage citizens and residence well, there is no need for a general population census because it is managed systematically and very accurately, contributing to reducing administrative procedures related to residence.