Ministry plans to add 'place of birth' to new passport version

The Ministry of Public Security is planning to add the “place of birth” to the new passport version to facilitate citizens’ seeking of visas to the Schengen countries.

The granting and use of the new passport will be among the issues about which Minister of Public Security General To Lam will be questioned at the National Assembly Standing Committee session on August 10.

Compared to the old passport, the new version is produced by using modern technology to meet higher security requirements and standards of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), according to the Ministry of Public Security’s (MPS) report sent to lawmakers prior to the meeting.

Images of Vietnam’s typical landscapes and cultural heritages are featured in the new passport with the aim of introducing the country’s land and people to international friends, it noted.

So far, the MPS has granted 272,000 passports of the new version.

In the report, Lam said according to the ICAO regulations, compulsory information in a passport consists of the type of passport, full name, passport number, date of birth, sex, and passport expiration date. ICAO also gave detailed regulations on the design and layout of information on the page of personal details to ensure consistency among countries in the world.

The new passport version has closely followed the above-mentioned rules and completely met international standards, the minister affirmed.

Explaining why the new passport doesn’t contain information about the place of birth, he said ICAO did not designate other information like the place of birth as mandatory. According to the Law on Exit and Entry of Vietnamese Citizens, information in passports also doesn’t include the place of birth.

On that basis, the MPS issued the new passport version without the place of birth to facilitate citizens’ entry, he added.

Regarding some European countries’ refusal to grant visas on the new passports, Vietnamese authorities have worked with those countries and found that this is only a technical issue.

Since a passport without information about the place of birth may cause difficulties for management in some countries, to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese citizens to seek visas to the 26 Schengen countries, the ministries of Public Security and Foreign Affairs have agreed to add the place of birth in the appendix of the new passport if its holders wish.

In the long term, the MPS will revise the passport design and add the “place of birth” in the page of personal details, it noted, adding that it is collecting opinions about this issue from the parliament’s committees for defence - security and legal affairs, Government Office, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.