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The German Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, will now recognise all passports issued by the Vietnamese Ministry of the Interior since January 1, 2023, and on, containing the date of birth of the passport holder.
The decision has been announced by the German Embassy in a statement published in its website last week, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported.
“A Vietnamese passport issued on January 1, 2023 and showing the place of birth on the identity page is recognised. Thus, it is possible to re-issue a multi-year visa type C (the work has been paused while waiting for the new passport to be recognised),” the Embassy notes in its statement.
It further points out that the Vietnamese passports issued between July 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022, which do not contain the place of birth on the identity page, will be recognised only if the information of the place of birth is added later in the appendix.
In July 2022, Germany became the first European Union Member Country to refuse granting Schengen visas to holders of the new Vietnamese passportsdue to the absence of information on the passport holder’s birthplace.
The new dark blue cover Vietnamese passports, replacing the traditional green, has not been recognised by Spain eitherfor the same reasons.
Announcing its decision, the Spanish authorities have insisted that birthplace is important information for personal identification and also required for the processing of Schengen visa applications, and without it, no passport can be admitted for a Schengen visa application.
In spite of such claims, days later, on August 8, the Spanish Embassy in Hanoi started accepting visa applications from all citizens of Vietnam who hold the country’s new passport, in spite of the absence of the birthplace.
The move was taken after compulsory technical consultations of the Spanish authorities, which concluded that Vietnam’s new-style passport or the dark blue cover passport is acceptable for visa processing, since the same includes all the needed information in line with international regulations.
In order to make amends for the lack of the birthplace information, the Embassy has imposed a new requirement for applying for a Schengen visa in Hanoi, that of including their valid ID cards in their applications in order to provide this information.
While several countries, like Finland and the Czech Republic, have also stopped issuing visas to these types of passports in the summer of last year, France had continued to issue visas for Vietnamese holding the new passports without the birth of place informationthough warning them that they might not be able to use the same visa to enter other Schengen Area countries, like Germany.
Yet, later on October 17, France ceased accepting visa applications from Vietnamese applicants holding passports without birthplace informationwarning that all passports submitted contain information on the place of birth on pages two, four, or five.
>> EU Chamber of Commerce Advises Vietnam to Drop Tourist Visa Requirement for All Europeans
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