Decree 293/2026/NĐ-CP took effect on 11 September 2026.[1] From that date, it provides an Apostille route for qualifying Vietnamese public documents for use in an applicable Convention state and, in the other direction, exempts qualifying Apostilled public documents from an applicable Convention state from Vietnamese consular legalisation.[1]
For non-Convention or objecting states, documents outside the Apostille scope, and other matters outside the Decree, the consular-certification or legalisation route continues.[1]
Operator note: an Art. 26 refusal of an incoming Apostilled document is a different question from whether the document falls outside the Apostille route. Do not assume that consular legalisation will cure a refusal ground.
An Apostille does not decide whether the document is accurate.[1]
It does not decide whether a recipient accepts it for the purpose you have in mind.[1]
It does not remove every translation requirement.[1]
It does not turn every corporate, personal or commercial paper into an Apostille document.[1]
The applicable route depends on the direction of travel, the country relationship and the document category.[1]
An agency, organisation or individual applying for an Apostille remains legally responsible for the document’s purpose of use, content, authenticity and legality.[1]
The Decree has two directions
Chapter II concerns Vietnamese public documents going out: who can request an Apostille, which Vietnamese documents are in scope, and how the Vietnamese issuing route works. Chapter III concerns foreign public documents coming in: when Vietnam accepts an Apostille issued abroad and when it can refuse one.[1]
Chapter II addresses Vietnamese public documents. Chapter III addresses Apostilled foreign public documents used in Vietnam.[1]
Start with the direction of travel
The first question is not “Can I get an Apostille?” It is where is the document going?[1]
| If the document is… | The starting question | What the Decree changes |
|---|---|---|
| Issued outside Vietnam and to be used in Vietnam | Is it a public document from a Convention state that has an applicable relationship with Vietnam, and was it Apostilled by that state’s competent authority? Check first whether a treaty, Vietnamese law or Vietnamese practice exempts or does not require consular legalisation or another certification procedure. | A qualifying document is exempt from Vietnamese consular legalisation, but still faces the translation and underlying-filing rules. |
| Issued in Vietnam and to be used abroad | Is the destination an applicable Convention state, and is the Vietnamese document within scope? | Apostille may be used. It is not mandatory where the document is exempt from, or the destination’s treaty, law or practice does not require, certification or authentication; a simpler or exempting treaty rule prevails. |
The phrase “has an applicable relationship with Vietnam” is the part to check. Convention membership alone is not the test.[1]
Decree 293 says the Apostille route does not apply between Vietnam and a state where the Convention is not in force between the two countries, including where an accession objection prevents that relationship.[1]
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is required to publish the applicable-country list and each relevant state’s position on pre-effective-date Vietnamese consular certifications.[1]
For a filing with a hard deadline, confirm that corridor before you prepare the document pack. Do not infer it from a generic list of Apostille Convention members.[1]
An Apostille authenticates origin, not content
An Apostille confirms the origin of a public document: the signature, the signer’s position and authority, and the relevant seal or stamp.[1]
It does not confirm the document’s content or form.[1]
Operator note. The legal distinction has ordinary consequences. These are planning implications, not holdings of the Decree:
- A degree can be Apostilled without resolving whether a particular employer or regulator accepts that degree for a role.
- A corporate document can be Apostilled without resolving whether it satisfies the recipient’s current filing list.
- A notarised translation can be part of the chain without making the underlying document accurate, current or sufficient.
Operator note: treat an Apostille as an origin check, not a due-diligence result, an eligibility decision or a promise of acceptance.
Public document does not mean every document
For Vietnamese documents going abroad, Decree 293 Art. 10 lists documents made, issued or certified in procedural and enforcement activities, administrative documents, notarised documents and certified documents among the public documents that can fall within the regime.[1] It gives examples including civil-status records, criminal-record certificates, diplomas and study records, medical documents, notarised contracts and notarised translations.[1]
The exclusions are part of the route, not footnotes.[1]
The Decree keeps certain Vietnamese documents outside the Apostille route, including documents issued by Vietnamese diplomatic or consular officers in their official work. Administrative documents directly connected to commercial or customs activity are also outside the route, except where they were eligible for consular certification under the applicable rules before the Convention took effect for Vietnam; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to identify the categories in its published guidance.[1]
The same distinction prevents a crude “corporate document” rule. A document not made, issued or certified by a competent agency, organisation or person acting within its legally assigned functions, duties and powers is outside the scope if it has not been notarised or authenticated.[1] A private or corporate paper may enter the public-document categories only through that qualifying act. The filename does not decide eligibility.[1]
Category is not enough. Art. 11(2) also makes a document ineligible where it has unlawful erasures or alterations, is supported by forgery, a non-original or inauthentic signature or seal, an unauthorised signer, title or authority, or a mismatch with the registered specimen.[1] It also covers a document declared invalid, recalled, cancelled or unlawfully issued by a legally effective decision, judgment or other instrument of a competent authority; a document legally barred from being taken abroad; and Vietnamese electronic data without a valid digital signature meeting the legally required technical format.[1]
For foreign documents coming into Vietnam, Art. 26 lists the refusal grounds: the document is not a public document under the law of the country where it was made, is diplomatic or consular, or is an administrative document directly related to commercial or customs activity; the Apostille was not issued by the competent authority or lacks the required Convention-form content; the document or Apostille shows forgery, erasure or unauthorised alteration; the content violates Vietnamese law, infringes the interests of the Vietnamese State, or contravenes fundamental public-order or social-morality principles; or the Apostille has been cancelled or withdrawn.[1]
Reasonable doubt is a different case. If a Vietnamese agency or organisation receiving the document has reasonable grounds to doubt an Apostille’s authenticity and cannot query the issuing state’s electronic register, it may ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in writing to assist with verification under Art. 28. That verification route is distinct from an Art. 26 refusal ground.[1]
Operator note: do not classify a document from its filename. Start with the issuing authority, the document type and the receiving authority’s stated requirement.
Translation did not disappear
For a qualifying foreign public document used in Vietnam, the Apostille removes the additional Vietnamese consular-certification or legalisation step. Article 27 still governs translation and certification.[1]
Decree 293 says that a foreign public document used in Vietnam which is not in Vietnamese must be translated into Vietnamese, with the translation notarised or certified under Vietnamese law unless a sector-specific rule says otherwise.[1]
So the change is not “foreign documents now work in Vietnam without further steps.” The narrower change is that a valid qualifying Apostille document does not require an additional Vietnamese consular-certification or legalisation step. A Vietnamese receiving body must not demand that additional step, but it still applies the rules and related documents that govern the underlying filing.[1]
For a market-entry, employment or corporate filing, treat the authentication route as one part of the dossier.[1] The Apostille does not resolve the separate document, translation, timing or substantive requirements in that dossier.[1]
The transition has five practical cases
Article 36 has four clauses. For planning, its transition rules split into five practical cases; the electronic rollout is addressed separately below.[1]
First: a Vietnamese consular-certification application validly accepted before 11 September but still unresolved continues under the former rules, including where supplementary verification is pending.[1] Any resulting consular certification is used in a Convention state under the applicable treaty or the principle of reciprocity.[1]
Second: once that process returns a result, the person who was issued the Vietnamese public document may request an Apostille for it under Decree 293; issuance remains subject to the Decree’s requirements.[1]
Third: a Vietnamese public document already consular-certified before 11 September may be the subject of an Apostille application for use in an applicable Convention state without reissuing the original document; issuance remains subject to Decree 293’s requirements and the applicable fee.[1]
Fourth: a foreign public document from an applicable Convention state that Vietnam had already legalised before 11 September remains usable in Vietnam. The receiving body may not require an Apostille merely because the regime changed.[1]
Fifth: from the date the Convention takes effect in the relevant relationship, an Apostille issued before that date by the competent authority of the applicable Convention state is also accepted unless an Art. 26 refusal ground applies.[1]
None of those rules makes an old document suitable for every purpose.[1] Documents can have their own validity periods, and the receiving body still applies the rules of its filing.[1]
Online submission is not the same thing as e-Apostille
Decree 293 creates both a paper route and an online-submission route for the stated electronic-document cases. It separately provides for electronic Apostilles, a public electronic register and QR-based verification.[1]
Until the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Apostille Information System is operating, the issuing authority provides paper Apostilles. Online receipt and processing can nevertheless use the Ministry’s administrative-procedure system connected to the National Public Service Portal, with eligible electronic steps implemented there.[1]
e-Apostilles, the public e-Register, QR integration and fully online processing begin when the Apostille Information System is put into operation, on the date announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.[1] A qualifying foreign e-Apostille issued by the competent authority of an applicable Convention state has the same legal value as a paper Apostille and cannot be denied legal effect merely because it is electronic.[1]
Operator note: online submission can exist before the full e-Apostille and e-Register layer is operational.
A document-readiness checklist for September
Before you change a filing plan, work through these seven questions:
- Which way is the document moving? Into Vietnam or out of Vietnam?
- Is the other country on the Ministry’s applicable-relationship list? Do not substitute generic Convention membership for that check.[1]
- Is this a public document in the relevant system? Record the issuing authority and whether notarisation or certification is already part of the chain.[1]
- Does an exclusion apply? Pay particular attention to diplomatic, consular, directly commercial and customs-related papers.[1]
- What does the recipient require beyond authentication? Translation, recency, a specific form, a sector approval or a substantive eligibility test may still apply.[1]
- Is an existing legalisation chain still usable? Check the transition rules before restarting a completed process.[1]
- Are you relying on a digital feature that has not been announced as operational? If so, build a paper route and a time buffer.[1]
For Vietnamese documents on the paper route, the Decree sets processing periods of one working day for one to four documents, two days for five to nine, and four days for ten or more, measured from receipt of a complete and valid dossier.[1]
After the Apostille Information System is operating, an electronic-Apostille application submitted fully online has separate timings: during the working day for one to four documents received before the applicable cut-off, one working day for five to nine, and three working days for ten or more.[1]
The stated periods exclude Art. 15 verification time.[1] Verification may be triggered where signature, seal, title or authority data is absent or has not been officially introduced, where there is reasonable doubt about authenticity including forgery or unlawful alteration, or where information suggests that the document is prohibited or restricted for use abroad.[1] The requested authority normally has five working days to respond, or up to ten working days for a complex case; after 15 days without a response the issuing authority must follow up, and after 30 days it returns the dossier and document, with later resubmission possible if the verification result arrives.[1]
Verification is not merely a longer clock. Confirmation leads back to issuance; an authenticity failure leads to refusal and return; suspected forgery or issuance by an unauthorised body can lead to retention and transfer; and a genuine document barred or restricted for foreign use is refused and referred to the sector authority.[1]
The applicant has up to seven working days to complete a single supplementation request, and that supplementation period is not counted in the resolution period.[1] Any one-time extension for an objective reason, system technical incident or force majeure—not an Art. 15 verification case—must be notified in writing before the deadline, stating the reason and the new resolution period.[1]
What remains open
The effective date does not settle every operational detail.[1]
This article has not verified the Ministry’s current applicable-country list, the published position on pre-effective-date Vietnamese consular certifications, the specific office designated to issue Apostilles, the current form, or the announced go-live date for the Apostille Information System. The Ministry is required to publish the country list and pre-effective certification positions on its portal and the National Public Service Portal.[1] It is separately required to publish categories and operational guidance for documents within and outside the Apostille scope on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs portal.[1]
It also does not decide whether a particular document is acceptable to a university, employer, bank, licensing body or other recipient. Decree 293 governs authentication and reception rules.[1] In Vietnam, the agency or organisation receiving the document examines it against applicable law and related documents, then decides acceptance within its functions and powers.[1]
The Decree changes authentication. It does not decide the receiving body’s substantive acceptance.
Evidence and further reading
Method
Primary-text review for this draft: 28 August 2026. Decree 293/2026/NĐ-CP was retrieved from the Government Gazette’s signed-PDF attachment and read in Vietnamese. The relevant provisions include Articles 1, 3–28, 30, 33–36. The Vietnamese signed text is the citation authority; this English article is a reading and operational-planning guide.
This draft separates: the regime’s effective date; the scope of a qualifying Apostille document; document authentication; translation; transition treatment; and the future electronic-service rollout. It does not state that every Convention state has an applicable relationship with Vietnam, that every document may be Apostilled, that an Apostille validates a document’s content, or that a recipient must accept a particular filing.
Research and operational planning only. Not legal, tax, immigration, investment, banking, licensing or accounting advice. Formal decisions should be checked with the competent authority and qualified professionals in the relevant jurisdiction.
Sources
[1] https://congbao.chinhphu.vn/van-ban/nghi-dinh-so-293-2026-nd-cp-470150.htm