Vietnam mulls adding place of birth to new passports as countries refuse visas

The passport complies with the country’s laws as well as standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, Ministry of Public Security spokesman To An Xo said at a press meeting Wednesday.

The passports of some other countries like Japan, South Korea and Switzerland too do not have place of birth, he pointed out.

Most countries accept Vietnam’s new passport and Germany, Spain and the Czech Republic have yet to accept it due to technical issues, he said.

The ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are working with the three countries to resolve those technical issues, and in the meantime, the public security ministry would add place of birth manually, and citizens could go to the local immigration office or Vietnamese representative agencies abroad for this, he added.

The new passport began to be issued on July 1.

Germany and Spain have said they would not issue visas to holders of the new passport due to the place of birth omission, and the Czech Republic said it does not recognize the new passport.

The Immigration Department under the Public Security Ministry had said Tuesday there were “no problems” with the new passport, and so its issuance would continue.