Inheritance is the transfer of assets, property obligations, and benefits from a deceased person to a living person. The beneficiary can be an individual or an organization. Inheritance plays a very important role in life. In general, the law on inheritance is intended to ensure that people related to heritage assets can preserve ownership of this part of the inheritance. Thus, this person’s heirs can also use and establish property-related relationships if that person dies.
Because without inheritance, problems that arise with the estate after a person dies will be difficult to resolve satisfactorily. However, currently the law only regulates the issue of inheritance division without mentioning the nationality of the heirs. So how is the right to inherit property of foreigners in Vietnam understood according to Vietnam’s inheritance law? Let’s find out in the next part of this article.
2. What are foreigners in Vietnam?
Pursuant to the Vietnamese Nationality Law, foreigners are people with foreign nationality or stateless people who are permanently or temporarily residing in the territory of Vietnam.
In terms of the legal status they enjoy, foreigners are divided into three groups: foreigners who enjoy diplomatic status and regulations similar to diplomatic status; foreigners enjoy status under individual agreements; people who are doing business, living and settling in Vietnam.
Because Vietnam is on the path to integrating with the world and opening its doors to many economic development opportunities, it also attracts many foreigners to live and work here. Also from this, legal issues related to foreigners in Vietnam appear more often than in the previous period. Among them, the civil sector is also an area that many people are interested in. One of the issues related to foreigners in Vietnam in the civil field is the right to inherit property of foreigners in Vietnam. Do foreigners have the right to inherit property in Vietnam?
The legal status of foreigners in Vietnam is established on the basis of the law of the host country (Lex domicili) and the law of the country of that person’s nationality (Lex patriae). The legal status of foreigners is also regulated in multilateral international treaties (United Nations Charter, 1966 Convention on Civil Political Rights, Convention on Economic – Cultural – Social Rights 1966…) and other bilateral international treaties (Mutual Legal Assistance Agreements, Agreements on Promotion of Investment Protection…).
The rights and obligations of foreigners in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have been stipulated in many legal documents such as: Constitution 2013, Law on Vietnamese Nationality 2014, Civil Code 2015 , Labor Code 2019, Marriage and Family Law 2014, Investment Law 2020; Ordinance on entry, exit, and residence of foreigners in Vietnam in 2000, Ordinance on privileges and immunities for diplomatic missions, consulates and representative agencies of organizations international in Vietnam in 1993,…
3. Right to inherit property of foreigners in Vietnam
Vietnamese civil law stipulates that there are two forms of inheritance: inheritance by law: inheritance by will and inheritance by law. In case the property inheritance rights of foreigners in Vietnam are determined by will, they have the right to inherit the property. Or in cases where inheritance is divided according to law but these foreigners are also in the line of inheritance, the right to inherit the property of the foreigner is also established. However, it is necessary to pay attention to regulations on property ownership for foreigners in Vietnam.
In case the asset is real estate and foreigners are not eligible to buy houses associated with land use rights in Vietnam, these people will only enjoy the value of houses attached to land use rights without enjoy land use rights as stipulated in Article 186 of the 2013 Land Law .
