Decree No. 114/2016/ND-CP on fees for adoption registration and fees for issuing licenses to foreign adoption organizations

DECREE

(vi) Agreement on the amount of reserve left behind and the deadline for selling the purchased cash foreign currency to the authorized credit institution. registration fees for adoption, fees for issuing licenses to operate foreign adoption organizations license for the operation of foreign organizations adopting children 

Pursuant to the Law on Government Organization dated June 19, 2015;

Pursuant to the Adoption Law dated June 17, 2010;

Pursuant to the State Budget Law dated June 25, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on Fees and Registration Fees dated November 25, 2015;

At the proposal of the Minister of Finance;

the Government issues this Decreeetermining fees for adoption registration, fees for issuing licenses to foreign adoption organizations.

Article 1. Scope of Regulation

This Decree stipulates the persons liable to pay, the agencies collecting the registration fee for adoption and the license issuance fee for foreign adoption organizations; exemptions and reductions of the adoption registration fee; the collection, payment, management, and regulation of such fees; and the budget for implementing adoption procedures and issuing licenses for foreign adoption organizations in Vietnam.

Article 2. Interpretation of Terms

In this Decree, the following terms shall be understood as follows:

Article 1. The registration fee for adoption includes:

a) The domestic adoption registration fee is the fee collected in cases where Vietnamese citizens permanently residing in Vietnam adopt other Vietnamese citizens permanently residing in Vietnam.

b) The international adoption registration fee is the fee collected in cases where Vietnamese citizens residing abroad, foreigners permanently residing abroad, or foreigners permanently residing in Vietnam adopt Vietnamese citizens; and in cases where foreigners residing in border areas of neighboring countries adopt Vietnamese children permanently residing in border areas of Vietnam.

c) The adoption registration fee at Vietnamese representative offices abroad is the fee collected in cases where Vietnamese citizens temporarily residing abroad adopt other Vietnamese citizens temporarily residing abroad.

Article 2. The license issuance fee for foreign adoption organizations is the fee collected from foreign organizations that have been granted or extended a license to operate in the field of international adoption in Vietnam by competent Vietnamese state authorities.

Article 3. Persons liable to pay the fee

1. Vietnamese citizens permanently residing in Vietnam who adopt other Vietnamese citizens permanently residing in Vietnam must pay the domestic adoption registration fee as prescribed in point a, Clause 1, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting the adoption registration application to the People's Committee of the commune.

2. Vietnamese citizens residing abroad and foreigners permanently residing abroad who adopt Vietnamese citizens must pay the international adoption registration fee as prescribed in point b, Clause 1, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting the adoption application to the Adoption Bureau (Ministry of Justice).

3. Foreigners permanently residing in Vietnam who adopt Vietnamese citizens permanently residing in Vietnam must pay the adoption registration fee as prescribed in point c, Clause 1, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting the adoption application to the Department of Justice.

4. Foreigners residing in border areas of neighboring countries who adopt Vietnamese children permanently residing in border areas of Vietnam must pay the adoption registration fee as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting the adoption application to the People's Committee of the commune.

5. Vietnamese citizens temporarily residing abroad who adopt other Vietnamese citizens temporarily residing abroad must pay the adoption registration fee as prescribed in point d, Clause 1, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting the adoption application to the Vietnamese representative office abroad.

6. Foreign adoption organizations that are granted or extended a license to operate in Vietnam must pay the fee as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 6 of this Decree when submitting the application to the Adoption Bureau (Ministry of Justice).

Article 4. Cases of exemption and reduction of registration fees for adoption

1. Exemption from registration fees for domestic adoption in the following cases:

a) Stepfather or stepmother adopting a spouse's child; uncle, aunt, cousin, or paternal or maternal uncle adopting a nephew or niece;

b) Persons adopting the following children: Children with disabilities, infected with HIV/AIDS, or suffering from serious illnesses as stipulated by the Adoption Law and guiding documents;

c) Persons who have rendered meritorious service to the revolution adopting a child.

2. Reduction of registration fees for foreign adoption in the following cases:

a) Stepfather or stepmother adopting a spouse's child; uncle, aunt, cousin, or paternal or maternal uncle adopting a nephew or niece shall be granted a 50% reduction in the registration fee for foreign adoption;

b) Adopting two or more siblings as adopted children, from the second child onwards, shall be granted a 50% reduction in the registration fee for foreign adoption;

c) In cases where the adoption falls under both subclauses a and b of this clause, the person paying the fee may choose to apply the reduction rate as provided in subclause a or subclause b of this clause.

3. Exemption from registration fees for re-registration of adoption as prescribed by the law on adoption.

Article 5. Fee Collection Authorities

1. People's Communes collect registration fees for domestic adoption and fees for cases where foreigners residing in border areas of neighboring countries adopt Vietnamese children residing in border areas of Vietnam.

2. Departments of Justice collect fees for cases where foreigners residing in Vietnam adopt Vietnamese citizens.

3. The Adoption Agency (Ministry of Justice) collects registration fees for foreign adoption, except for the cases specified in Clause 1 and Clause 2 of this Article; fees for issuing and extending licenses for foreign adoption organizations.

4. Vietnamese representative offices abroad collect registration fees for adoption at Vietnamese representative offices abroad.

Article 6. Fee Collection Rates

1. The collection rates for registration fees for adoption are as follows:

a) The collection rate for registration fees for domestic adoption: VND 400,000 per case.

b) The collection rate for registration fees for cases where Vietnamese persons residing abroad or foreigners residing abroad adopt Vietnamese citizens: VND 9,000,000 per case.

c) The collection rate for registration fees for cases where foreigners residing in Vietnam adopt Vietnamese citizens: VND 4,500,000 per case.

d) The collection rate for registration fees for cases where foreigners residing in border areas of neighboring countries adopt Vietnamese children residing in border areas of Vietnam: VND 4,500,000 per case.

đ) The collection rate for registration fees for adoption at Vietnamese representative offices abroad: USD 150 per case. This fee is converted into the local currency according to the selling rate of the US dollar published by the bank where the Vietnamese representative office has an account.

2. The collection rates for fees for issuing and extending licenses for foreign adoption organizations are as follows:

a) Fee for issuing the first license: VND 65,000,000 per license;

b) Fee for extending the license: VND 35,000,000 per license.

Article 7. System for Collection, Submission, and Management of Registration Fees

1. The agency collecting registration fees shall open a temporary budget account at the State Treasury at the same level to organize the collection of registration fee payments; weekly, it must submit 100% of the collected registration fees into the temporary budget account at the State Treasury. At the latest by the twentieth day of each month, the agency collecting registration fees must submit all the registration fees collected in the previous month into the state budget (after deducting the amount of registration fees that must be refunded to the payer of the registration fees) according to regulations; monthly, it must declare and submit registration fees into the state budget and settle accounts annually according to the legal regulations on tax management. In cases where the agency collecting registration fees is a Vietnamese representative office abroad, it must declare and submit adoption registration fees according to the guidelines of the Ministry of Finance.

2. In cases where registration fees for adoption have been collected but the file has not yet been transferred to the Department of Justice and the adoptive parent requests to withdraw the file, the agency collecting registration fees is responsible for refunding the registration fees paid to the payer of the registration fees. If the payer of the registration fees continues to apply for adoption, the registration fees already paid will be offset against the registration fees due for the subsequent application. If the payer of the registration fees does not continue to apply for adoption, the agency collecting registration fees will deduct from the temporary budget account at the State Treasury to refund the registration fees paid to the payer of the registration fees and this amount will be deducted from the registration fees collected and submitted to the state budget, and implement declarations and settlement of registration fees with the tax administration authority according to the legal regulations on tax management.

Article 8. Budget for Implementing Work Related to Adoption; Issuance, Extension, and Amendment of Licenses for Foreign Adoption Organizations Operating in Vietnam

1. The budget for implementing work related to adoption; issuance, extension, and amendment of licenses for foreign adoption organizations operating in Vietnam shall be guaranteed by the state budget according to the provisions of the Law on State Budget Decentralization.

2. The agency responsible for implementing adoption work; issuance, extension, and amendment of licenses for foreign adoption organizations operating in Vietnam shall be responsible for preparing annual revenue and expenditure budgets of the state budget and submitting them to the competent authorities according to the provisions of the Law on State Budget.

3. The budget for implementing work related to adoption includes:

a) Receiving, inspecting, and evaluating the files of adoptive parents and children recommended for adoption; obtaining opinions from psychological, medical, family, and social experts to comprehensively assess the conditions of adoptive parents and children recommended for adoption according to the law;

b) Funding for social welfare institutions receiving state budget support to prepare files of children at those institutions who are recommended for adoption;

c) Costs for contacting relevant parties regarding the adoption of children, verifying the origins of children recommended for adoption, and completing the procedures for transferring children recommended for adoption;

d) Communication, sending documents, exchanging correspondence with competent authorities to resolve adoption matters;

đ) Printing, issuing forms, documents, ledgers, archiving, digitizing adoption-related files;

e) Payment expenses for individuals directly involved in collecting registration fees, including salaries, wages, allowances, contributions stipulated based on salary, excluding salary payment costs for civil servants receiving state budget salaries according to prescribed regulations;

g) Expenses for serving the work of monitoring and tracking the development of adopted children;

h) Other direct expenses for resolving adoption matters.

4. The budget for implementing work related to issuance, extension, and amendment of licenses for foreign adoption organizations operating in Vietnam includes:

a) Receiving, inspecting, and evaluating the files of foreign adoption organizations applying for issuance, extension, and amendment of operating licenses in Vietnam;

b) Interviewing, inspecting, and assessing the qualifications and professional experience of the proposed heads of foreign adoption offices in Vietnam;

c) Inspecting the conditions, status, and legal capacity of foreign adoption organizations in the country where they were established;

d) Organizing training sessions for foreign adoption offices in Vietnam;

đ) Directly monitoring the development of Vietnamese children adopted abroad;

e) Other direct expenses for resolving the issuance, extension, and amendment of licenses for foreign adoption organizations operating in Vietnam.

Article 9. Transitional Provisions

In cases where applicants for adoption have paid domestic or international adoption registration fees, or foreign adoption organizations have paid fees for license issuance, extension, or amendment before January 1, 2017, the collected fees will be managed and used according to the provisions of Government Decree No. 19/2011/NĐ-CP dated March 21, 2011, detailing the implementation of certain articles of the Law on Adoption.

Article 10. Effective Date

1. This Decree shall take effect from January 1, 2017.

2. From the date this Decree takes effect, the phrases "adoption registration fee," "collection rate, management, and usage system of registration fees" in Clause 1, Article 1; the phrase "Clause 1 and" in Clause 3, Article 38; the provisions in Clause 1, Articles 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, and 46 of Government Decree No. 19/2011/NĐ-CP dated March 21, 2011, detailing the implementation of certain articles of the Law on Adoption shall cease to be effective.

Article 11. Implementation Organization

1. The Ministry of Finance shall guide the preparation of budgets, management, use, and settlement of state budget funds ensuring work related to adoption and issuance, extension, and amendment of licenses for foreign adoption organizations operating in Vietnam.

2. Ministers; Heads of agencies equivalent to ministries; Heads of government agencies; Chairpersons of provincial and centrally-administered city People's Committees; related organizations and individuals are responsible for implementing this Decree./.