Types of Criminal Record | ANT Lawyers

 As regulated in Clause 4, Article 2 of the Law on Criminal Record, criminal record is a document issued by the Department of Justice or the National Centre for Criminal Record, which have the value to demonstrate that a person is with or without a criminal conviction; is prohibited or not prohibited from holding position, managing or establishing business or not.

As stipulated in Article 41 of the Law on Criminal Record, there are 2 types of criminal record card:

– Criminal record form 01 is issued upon request by Vietnam citizen or foreigners residing in Vietnam and State agencies, political organizations, political – social organizations to serve human resources management activities, business registration activities, establishment and management of enterprises or cooperatives.

– Criminal record form 02 is issued for the agency conducting the proceedings and at the request of individuals who want to know the contents of their criminal record.

Lawyers at ANT Lawyers, a law firms in Vietnam will be available to assist client to navigate through procedures to apply and obtain criminal record in Vietnam.

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What Are Conditions to Clean Up Criminal Records? | ANT Lawyers

Offenders who have completely served their penalties shall be given conditions to do business, live honestly and integrate with the community, and when they meet all the conditions prescribed by law, their conviction may be expunged and their criminal records will be cleaned. A person whose criminal record is removed is considered as having not been convicted. There are three cases of conviction expungement, including: Automatic conviction expungement; Conviction expungement under a Court’s decision; Special cases of conviction expungement.

Automatic conviction expungement applies to people convicted not for crimes of infringing upon national security and crimes of undermining peace, against humanity and war crimes when they have completed their main penalty, the probationary period of the suspended sentence, the person has served the additional penalty, other decisions of the judgment or has expired and does not commit any new crime during the periods specified below: (i) 01 year in case of a warning, fine, community sentence or suspended imprisonment; (ii) 02 years in case of imprisonment of up to 05 years; (iii) 03 years in case of imprisonment from over 05 years to 15 years; (iv) 05 years in case of imprisonment of over 15 years or commuted life imprisonment. A convict serving an additional punishment that is mandatory supervision, prohibition from residence, prohibition from holding certain positions, prohibition from doing certain jobs, deprivation of certain citizenship rights for a period longer than those specified in points (i), (ii), (iii) above, automatic conviction expungement shall be granted when he/she finishes serving the additional punishment.

Conviction expungement under a Court’s decision is applicable to persons convicted of crimes of infringing upon national security and crimes of undermining peace, against humanity and war crimes. The Court shall decide the conviction expungement of convict based on the nature of the crimes committed, the law-observing attitude, the convicted person’s labor attitude and the following conditions:

The Court shall grant conviction expungement if the convict, after serving the primary sentence or probation period as well as additional sentences and other decisions of the judgment, does not commit any new crime over the following periods: (i) 01 year in case of warning, community sentence, or suspended imprisonment; (ii) 03 years in case of imprisonment of up to 05 years; (iii) 05 years in case of imprisonment of between more than 5 years and 15 years; (iv) 07 years in case of imprisonment of more than 15 years, life imprisonment or death sentence that is commuted.

If the convict is serving an additional sentence which is mandatory supervision, prohibition from residence, or deprivation of certain citizenship rights for a longer period than that specified in points (i), (ii) above, conviction expungement shall be considered when he/she finishes serving the additional sentence.

If an application for conviction expungement is rejected for the first time, it may only be resubmitted after 01 year from the day on which it is rejected; if the application for conviction expungement is rejected for the second time, it may only be resubmitted after 02 years from the day on which it is rejected.

Where a convict shows remarkable improvements and has made reparation in an effort to atone for the crime and conviction expungement is requested by his/her employer or local authority, the court shall decide to grant conviction expungement if has served at least one third of the above period.

In order to be automatically expunge conviction or expunged conviction according to the decision of the Court, the convict must fully comply with the decisions in the judgment including the payment of court costs and not commit any new crime within the prescribed time limit. For special cases of conviction expungement, convict must have at least one-third of the time limit for conviction expungement according to regulations and the Court shall decide to expunge conviction at the request of agencies or organizations where the person works or the local government where the person resides.

The period after which a conviction may be expunged depends on the primary sentence. If the convict who has not had the conviction expunged commits a new crime which leads to a conviction under an effective judgment, the period after which the conviction may be expunged shall start over from the day on which the primary sentence has been served or the end of the probation period of the new judgment or from the deadline for execution of the new judgment. If the convict has committed more than one crime and one of which is automatically eligible for expungement, one of which is eligible for expungement under a court’s decision, the Court shall decide expungement pursuant to the prescribed time limit for conviction expungement under the Court’s decision.

A convicted corporate legal entity shall automatically have its conviction expunged if it does not commit any new criminal offence for 02 years from the day on which the primary punishments, additional punishments, other decisions of the judgment are served or from the expiration of the time limit for execution of the judgment.

Criminal record card can be obtained at authority to reveal the current criminal conviction situation or changes of situation of such conviction.

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What Are Regulation for Automatic Conviction Expungement? | ANT Lawyers

In order to show the spirit of humanity, create conditions for those who have been convicted to reintegrate into the community and stabilize their lives, the Vietnam Penal Code has built a system to automatically have criminal records in Vietnam removed. Accordingly, former convicted persons who have met the prescribed conditions will be considered as unconvicted and they will not have to continue to bear any consequences due to their former convictions. However, the implementation of regulations on the issue of automatically expunging criminal records in practice encounters a number of difficulties and problems.

It can be seen that, the need for recognition of criminal record removal is very obvious. Remission of criminal records will show a more positive recognition of the law for people who have been convicted of crimes and facilitate their participation in work and encourage them to quickly integrate into life. In the case of automatic conviction expungement, there are a number of changes that the former convicts should pay attention.

The natural condition of automatic conviction expungement.

In order to be automatically expunged, a convicted person must satisfy the conditions for automatic criminal record remission according to the provisions of the Penal Code. Accordingly, a person who has been convicted must satisfy the following conditions: (i) have fully served the legally effective conviction of the court or the statute of limitations for judgment enforcement, including the principal penalty, has expired. and additional penalties (fines, damages, court fees…); (ii) not to commit a new offense within the prescribed time limit. These are the basic conditions proving that the former convicted person has fulfilled all the obligations for his/her offense.

The implementation procedure, if an individual who has been convicted has a request for a certificate of criminal record remission.

Accordingly, the agency competent to handle the case is the agency that manages the judicial record database. Therefore, the National Center for Criminal Records – the Ministry of Justice will guide the Department of Justice to directly regulate the Detailed procedures to clear criminal records for cases where criminal convictions are automatically cleared. Individuals who wish to carry out the procedure of automatically expunging their criminal records will only need to prepare a set of documents requesting the issuance of a criminal record card and submit it to the Judicial Records Center or the Department of Justice of a province/ city where convicted person is a residence without having to provide any other documents. After receiving the dossier, the agency managing the judicial record database will be responsible for verifying the automatic conditions for criminal record remission and issuing a criminal record card confirming “no criminal record” if the individual has no criminal record eligible individuals as prescribed by law. Therefore, the provisions of the 2015 Penal Code on criminal record remission have naturally created more favorable and flexible conditions for individuals who have been convicted than in the previous procedure.

Regarding the verification of information about former convicts, the Department of Justice will send a written request for verification to the commune-level People’s Committee or the agency or organization where the convict resides and works after serving the sentence about whether that person is prosecuted, investigated, prosecuted or tried during the criminal conviction period. Commune-level People’s Committees and agencies and organizations will send a written notice of verification results to the Department of Justice. After receiving the written notification of verification results from the commune-level People’s Committees, agencies and organizations, the Department of Justice will handle criminal record remission for citizens.

Contrary to the previous regulations that the court will be the authority to issue a certificate of automatically expunging criminal records for convicts. According to current regulations, the authority belongs to the agency managing the judicial updates database information on the convict’s criminal history and, upon request, issue a judicial record card certifying that he or she has no previous criminal record, if all conditions are met. However, in reality, sometimes the current national database might not be synchronous. Therefore, when a convicted person requests for a judicial record card, the agency managing the judicial record database must take time to coordinate with relevant agencies such as the court, the procuracy, and the public prosecutor’s office… to verify the natural condition to delete the criminal record, which takes much time.

Therefore, at present, the confirmation of criminal record remission for the case of automatically expunging criminal records remission has specific regulations, but the implementation still faces many difficulties and complications affecting the interests of the requester. Hence individuals who have been convicted must keep relevant papers and documents to easily prove their claims are legal and save time and costs. The individual could authorize a law firm to help with criminal record procedures in Vietnam.

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Criminal Record Card in Vietnam | ANT Lawyers

 Criminal record cards or Police check provides criminal or judicial information about a person in Vietnam.  The Vietnam law on criminal record governs the process to obtain the criminal records cards.

Accordingly, to obtain the Criminal Record cards in Vietnam, the applicant must apply at the provincial/ municipal Justice Department in Vietnam.  For foreigners residing in Vietnam, he/she has to submit the request to the Department of Justice where he/she resides and receives the results at Justice Department.

Documents required are:

i) the written application form;

ii) certified photocopies of passports;

iii) a copy of the permanent or Temporary resident card in Vietnam;

iv) authorization letter in case of authorized application for Criminal Record card (if the authorized persons are not the parents, spouse or children). The written authorization must be certified or authenticated in accordance with the law;

v) application letter for granting Criminal Record.

During the process of applying for the Criminal Record, the applicant might has to work with the Public Securities agencies; the Court: in case there are not sufficient evidence at the police agencies to conclude that the applicant has no criminal records or the content of the applicant’s criminal records is not clear; People’s Committees of communes, wards and townships; agencies, organizations and agencies related proceedings: in case of coordination to verify the conditions of having his/her conviction automatically written off.

In practice, there are cases when the foreigner already left Vietnam and now he/she is in need of Criminal Record for the time he/she resided in Vietnam.  We have successfully assist clients in various cases.

Our lawyers in Vietnam constantly follow up with changes of law to provide the client with update for better decision making process.

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