Certified True Copies of Documents

Certifying a document means verifying that a true copy (a copy reproduced from an original document in multiple sets) is complete, accurate, and identical in content to the original. Documents that commonly require a certified true copy are important documents that exist in only one original, such as a birth certificate, household registration book, marriage certificate, passport, land use right certificate, or important contracts and documents of companies and enterprises.

For anyone required to provide a certified true copy for use in Vietnam, Clause 2, Article 3 of Decree 23/2015/ND-CP sets out the legal effect of a certified copy as follows: "A copy certified from an original under this Decree has the same legal effect as the original used for comparison in transactions, except as otherwise provided by law…" In other words, when carrying out legal procedures before a competent state authority, a certified true copy has the same legal effect as, and may be used in place of, the original.

Current Vietnamese law does not set a validity period for a properly certified copy. This could be understood to mean that a valid certified copy remains valid indefinitely. In practice, this creates a number of problems, because the information on the original document may have changed, or the original may no longer be legally valid, while the certified copy continues to be used. To address this, many agencies and organizations that accept certified copies have adopted an internal rule limiting the validity of a certified copy to 6 months from its date of certification. This is not, strictly speaking, required by law, but it is a practice widely adopted by many agencies and organizations to reduce the risk of fraudulent documents being used.

Similarly, in Canada, a certified true copy is often only accepted if it was certified within the most recent 6 months. For example, when proving driving experience to apply for a driver's licence test in Ontario, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation requires you to present your original foreign-issued driver's licence, along with a certified true copy translated into English that is no more than 6 months old.

For this reason, whenever you need to provide a certified true copy, be sure to check the specific requirements of the procedure and certification process involved to make sure the certified copy you already have has not expired.

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