Overseas Vietnamese · papers
The papers, honestly
What the offices usually ask of couples coming home, and how little of it touches the day itself.
What the offices usually ask of couples coming home, and how little of it touches the day itself.
This page is for couples who grew up abroad and are coming home to marry. We are a photography team, not a law firm, so what follows is what couples have told us over the years, not legal advice. Confirm the current rules with the office or your consulate before you book anything.
The registration and the ceremony are two separate things, and most overseas couples we photograph register where they live and hold the ceremony here. If you do want to register in Vietnam, which office you go to depends on your passports, not your address, and the slow part is always the proof that you are free to marry. Give it two to three months. None of it changes the photographs.
Almost every worry we hear on this comes from the two being mixed up in people's heads. They are not the same event and they do not have to happen in the same country or the same month.
A good share of the couples we photograph register quietly at home, weeks before or after, and come here for the second one. Nobody at the wedding knows or asks. If that is your plan, it is a normal plan.
From what couples have described to us, the route is decided by what you hold, not where you live.
If both of you still hold Vietnamese nationality, it is normally handled by the People's Committee of the ward or commune tied to the Vietnamese partner's registered address. This is the simpler route and the faster one.
If one of you now holds only a foreign passport, it generally moves up to the provincial Department of Justice, and everyone we have spoken to says it takes noticeably longer and asks for more. Our page for foreign couples covers that side.
We are repeating ourselves on purpose: rules change, offices differ, and we photograph weddings for a living. Ring the office or your consulate and ask them, not us.
It is the proof that you are free to marry. Couples expect the passport to be the hard part and it never is.
If you have been abroad for years, the ward at home often cannot certify your marital status, because your life has not been there. You will usually need the equivalent document from the country you actually live in, then translated and legalised, and that chain of offices is where the weeks go. Start this one first, before the flights, before the venue, before us.
Two smaller things couples have mentioned: some offices ask for a health certificate, and some ask for documents to be recent rather than simply valid. Ask what "recent" means where you are going, in writing if you can.
Two to three months is comfortable. Two weeks is not. Nothing here is difficult, but every step has a queue, and a queue does not care that your family has already booked the restaurant.
If the date is tight, do the simple thing: register where you live, and let Vietnam be about the ceremony. We have never once seen a family mind.
Very little, which is the point of this page.
If you want the registration photographed, we will do it, and we will tell you plainly what it looks like: a desk, a queue and fluorescent light. The frames worth having are the two of you outside afterwards with the certificate, in daylight, for about ten minutes.
Do not put it on the same morning as the ceremony. The office runs on its own clock, the ceremony hour is chosen by your family, and the light will not wait for either. Give the paperwork its own day, even if that day is otherwise empty.
Everything else is the wedding day itself, which is where the work is. If your parents are coming with you and this trip is the rare one where everybody is in the country at once, the family portrait page is worth a look.
| What | Included | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Wedding day, photo and film | Our team, from getting ready to the party | from $3,000 |
| Family portraits | 2 working hours, up to 6 people, in the family house if you want | $480 |
| Ao dai portrait session | 2 working hours, one location, for the two of you | $380 |
Usually yes, and which office you go to depends on your passports rather than on where you live. Couples where both still hold Vietnamese nationality are normally handled by the People's Committee of the ward or commune of the Vietnamese partner's registered address. If one of you now holds only a foreign passport, it generally goes to the provincial Department of Justice instead and takes noticeably longer. We are a photography team, not a law firm, so treat this as what couples have told us and confirm the current rules with the office or your consulate before you book flights.
In the cases couples have described to us: passports, proof that you are free to marry, and sometimes a health certificate. The proof of being single is the part that catches people out. If you have been living abroad for years, the ward at home often cannot issue it for you and you will need one from the country you live in, translated and legalised. Start that one first, because it is the slowest.
Plan in months, not days. Couples who gave themselves two or three months were relaxed. Couples who arrived with two weeks and a wedding date were not. Nothing about the paperwork is difficult, but every step has a queue and a stamp.
No, and a good share of the couples we photograph do not. They register where they live, quietly, weeks before or after, and come to Vietnam for the ceremony and the family. The ceremony is what the family will remember and it is what we photograph. Nothing in the album depends on where the signature happened.
We can, and we will tell you honestly that it is a desk, a queue and fluorescent light. A few frames of the two of you with the certificate outside afterwards are worth having. Do not put it on the same morning as the ceremony, because the office runs on its own clock and the light will not wait for it.
A full wedding day photographed and filmed by our team is from USD 3,000. A two hour session, for the two of you or with your parents, is USD 380, and family portraits are USD 480 for up to six people. A deposit of USD 100 holds your date and locks your price.