The 2014 Law on Marriage and Family: Keeping Pace with Urban Life and Digital Governance in Ho Chi Minh City

In Ho Chi Minh City – a special-class metropolis with a large population and diverse, complex family and marital relationships – the implementation of the Law reveals a picture marked by many positive outcomes, while also highlighting the need for further institutional improvements to keep pace with social change.

When the law has to keep up with the “pulse” of a major city

A notable feature in the implementation of the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family in Ho Chi Minh City is the early and relatively coordinated involvement of the local government. As soon as the Law took effect, the city rolled out an implementation plan, clearly assigning responsibilities to the justice authorities as well as relevant departments, agencies, and local units to ensure consistency in application and timely handling of arising issues.

In the context of a major city, “bringing the law to life” cannot rely solely on guiding documents; it requires a targeted legal awareness and education strategy. Ho Chi Minh City considers family law outreach a regular task, focusing on provisions that directly affect residents, such as marriage age, marriages involving foreigners, determination of parentage, adoption, and prevention of domestic violence.

Notably, the city’s legal communication efforts go beyond broad coverage to ensure inclusivity, reaching vulnerable groups: it organizes law knowledge competitions, records and broadcasts TV programs, and produces user-friendly materials such as the Marriage–Family Handbook distributed at marriage registration, an audio law program for the visually impaired, 4,800 premarital education kits, and over 140,000 legal leaflets.

- 572,261 domestic marriages registered; 34,034 marriages involving foreign elements.

- Over 13 million civil registry records digitized; 100% of civil status files processed through the electronic system.

- Cleansed 675,732 birth records and 147,301 marriage records; piloted online marriage registration and online marital status verification.

Civil status digitalization: shifting from “processing individual files” to “managing data”

If public awareness campaigns are the “soft front,” then administrative reform and digital transformation are the “hard lever” enhancing citizen services. Reports show that the volume of marriage procedures in Ho Chi Minh City is substantial: 572,261 domestic marriages and 34,034 marriages involving foreign elements.

Under this heavy workload, digital transformation has become the fundamental solution. The city has digitized over 13 million civil status records, integrating them into the civil registration and management system; 100% of civil status dossiers are received and processed electronically. This lays a crucial foundation for reducing paperwork, shortening processing time, and cutting compliance costs for citizens.

Another significant advancement is the linkage of administrative procedures across life stages, minimizing the “one task – one file” problem: from birth registration - permanent residence - health insurance; death registration - removal from residence - funeral allowance; and integrating marital status verification with marriage registration.

At a deeper level of data governance, Ho Chi Minh City regularly cross-checks civil status records with the National Population Database, having cleaned 675,732 birth records and 147,301 marriage records, aiming for data that is “accurate, complete, clean, and living.” The city is also among the first localities to pilot online marriage registration and online marital status verification, processing thousands of cases during the trial phase. Notably, these online models lay the groundwork for implementing the new provisions under Decree No. 07/2025/ND-CP: when registering a marriage in Vietnam, civil registration authorities no longer require submission of a marital status certificate, instead relying on enhanced verification using electronic databases.

In a large urban context, situations often arise that go beyond “a single agency handling” them. Ho Chi Minh City has strengthened coordination among the justice sector, police, courts, and the Women’s Union—especially for complex cases such as marriages involving foreign elements, residency verification, support for women and children who are victims of domestic violence, legal aid, and handling sensitive matters.

This approach conveys an important message: enforcing the Marriage and Family Law is not just about processing procedures, but also about establishing mechanisms to protect rights—personal rights, children’s rights, and equality rights—through timely and substantive inter-agency coordination.

The ten-year picture of implementing the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family in Ho Chi Minh City reveals a clear reality: the law only fully realizes its value when enforcement is carried out through both awareness-raising communication and service-quality-enhancing reforms and digitization. Achievements in legal education, procedural interconnection, data cleansing, and piloting online public services are helping embed the progressive principles of the Law into each civil status record, every decision affecting children’s rights, and every effort to prevent and combat domestic violence.Looking ahead, completing the legal framework in line with proposals on issues such as separation, property, surrogacy, authority, gender transition, and criteria for “serious marriage” will be key for the Law to continue “staying one step ahead” of social changes, thereby reinforcing the foundation for Vietnamese families that are prosperous, progressive, happy, and civilized—consistent with the enduring objectives of legal policy.

TP Hồ Chí Minh

Luật Hôn nhân và Gia đình

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TP Hồ Chí Minh

Luật Hôn nhân và Gia đình

chính quyền số

đời sống đô thị