Is it possible to register the birth of a child before marriage age?

Reply:According to Article 8 of the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family, the conditions for marriage are as follows:

Article 8. Conditions for marriage

1. Men and women getting married must comply with the following conditions:

a) Men from 20 years of age or older, women from 18 years of age or older;

b) Marriage is voluntarily decided by men and women;

c) Not losing civil capacity;

d) The marriage does not fall under one of the cases of prohibited marriage as prescribed in Points a, b, c and d, Clause 2, Article 5 of this Law.

According to the above analysis, your girlfriend is not yet 18 years old. She is not old enough to get married. If you are not old enough to get married, it is considered a violation of the law. However, if you two have consensual sex and at the time of sex, your girlfriend was 17 years old, therefore, you are not criminally responsible for your actions.

* Is it possible to register the birth of a child before marriage age?

The 2014 Law on Marriage and Family defines a child as a child born before marriage but acknowledged by the parents:

Article 88. Determination of father and mother

1. A child born during marriage or conceived by the wife during marriage is the common child of the couple.

A child born within 300 days from the date of termination of marriage is considered a child conceived by the wife during the marriage.

Children born before the date of marriage registration and recognized by their parents as the common child of the couple.

Every child born has the right to be registered for birth, therefore, the child has the right to register for birth. According to Clause 2, Article 15 of Decree 123/2015/ND-CP, the procedure for registering birth for children whose father and mother are unidentified is as follows:

2. In case the father is not yet identified, when registering the birth, the child's surname, ethnicity, hometown, and nationality will be determined according to the mother's surname, ethnicity, hometown, and nationality; the father's section in the Family Register and the child's Birth Certificate will be left blank.

3. If at the time of birth registration, the father requests to carry out the child recognition procedure as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 25 of the Law on Civil Status, the People's Committee shall combine the child recognition and birth registration; the content of birth registration shall be determined as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 4 of this Decree.

Accordingly, at this time, the husband will fill out the child adoption form, and at the same time present evidence proving the father-child relationship.

Thus, according to the above regulations, the birth registration procedure for a child does not require a marriage certificate of the father and mother. When registering a birth, according to the provisions of the Civil Status Law and guiding documents, it is not required to carry out the adoption procedure for the child to have the father's surname.

If the father requests to acknowledge the father and child, the procedure is carried out as follows in Clause 2, Article 15 of Circular 04/2020/TT-BTP as follows:

Article 15. Combining the settlement of birth registration and recognition of father, mother and child

1. When registering the birth of a child and someone requests to register the recognition of father, mother, or child, the People's Committee of the commune where the father or mother resides shall combine the procedures for birth registration and the procedures for registration of recognition of father, mother, or child.

In case of birth registration combined with recognition of father, mother, and child, where one party is a foreigner or a Vietnamese citizen residing abroad, the authority belongs to the People's Committee at the district level where the father or mother, who is a Vietnamese citizen, resides.

2. The application for birth registration combined with registration of recognition of father, mother and child includes:

a) Birth registration form, Application for recognition of father, mother, child according to prescribed form;

b) Birth certificate or documents replacing the Birth Certificate as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 16 of the Law on Civil Status;

c) Evidence proving the parent-child relationship as prescribed in Article 14 of this Circular.

Thus, in this case, the two children will carry out the birth registration procedure for their child and the adoption procedure at the same time according to the above order and documents. The two children will carry out this procedure at the People's Committee of the commune where they reside.