The Department of Immigration in Vietnam has finally authorized the issuance of the modified passports that now include birthplace information, an official from the Ministry of Public Security told the local media this week.
Lieutenant General To An Xo said starting September 15, the ratified passport will be available. The lieutenant added that the ministry has appealed to all Vietnamese representative agencies abroad to follow the protocols set in Vietnam.
In addition, the Public Security Ministry will supply the government and the National Assembly’s Standing Committee with a resolution to include birthplace on the information page of the new passports.
The official said: “The move aims to facilitate foreign travel of Vietnamese citizens, as recently several countries suspended the issuance of visas to holders of the new Vietnamese passports due to the lack of the birthplace information.”
When the Ministry of Public Security started releasing the new Vietnamese passport on July 1, the only visible difference was the change of color from green to blue. However, even before July ended, the German Embassy denied the issuance of visas to the holders of the new passport because it lacked the birthplace information.
A few days in, other countries followed and stopped recognizing the blue Vietnamese passports — Czech, Spain, and Finland. Nonetheless, they later accepted the new passports on the condition that the birthplace information is added to the passports in the appendix section.
The US Embassy recently released a statement saying they will no longer allow visa interviews for those blue-covered passport holders, effective October 3.