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Recently, the Government issued Decree No. 280/2025/NĐ-CP dated October 27, 2025, amending and supplementing several articles of Decree No. 23/2015/NĐ-CP on issuing certified copies from the original book, notarizing copies from the original, notarizing signatures, and notarizing contracts and transactions, as amended and supplemented by Decree No. 07/2025/NĐ-CP.
According to the new regulations in the above Decree, notarizing a copy from the original is the act of an agency, organization, or competent person as prescribed in this Decree, based on the original to certify that the copy is consistent with the original.
Under Decree No. 280, notarizing a signature is the act of an agency, organization, or competent person as prescribed in this Decree, certifying that the signature in a document or paper belongs to the person requesting notarization.
Meanwhile, notarizing a transaction is the act of a competent person as prescribed in this Decree, certifying the time, location of the conclusion of a civil transaction, civil legal capacity, voluntary will, signature, or fingerprint of the parties involved in the civil transaction.
Decree No. 280 also clearly states that the person performing notarization is: the Chairman of the People’s Committee at the commune level; a person authorized or assigned to perform notarization duties as prescribed in Clause 2, Article 5 of this Decree; a notary public from a notary office or notary public office; a diplomatic officer, consular officer of a diplomatic representative agency, consular representative agency, and other agencies authorized to perform consular functions of Vietnam abroad.
Expanded Scope of Commune-Level Real Estate Transaction Notarization
From November 1, 2025, citizens no longer need to “rush back to their hometown to sign documents.” Illustrative image
Additionally, according to Decree No. 280, the notarization scope of the People’s Committee at the commune level has been significantly expanded, including transactions related to houses, land, inheritance, and wills, which were previously primarily handled by notary publics.
Notably, Decree No. 280 also does not restrict the place of residence when notarizing copies, signatures, or wills.
Specifically, according to Clause 2, Article 1 of this Decree, notarization is not dependent on the place of residence of the person requesting notarization in the following cases:
First, notarizing copies from the original and notarizing signatures.
Second, notarizing transactions related to movable property.
Third, notarizing wills and documents refusing to accept inheritance.
Fourth, notarizing authorization documents related to the exercise of land and housing rights.
Finally, notarizing the amendment, supplementation, or cancellation of transactions.
Thus, from November 1 onwards, citizens no longer need to “rush back to their hometown to sign documents.” Instead, citizens can notarize copies, signatures, wills, documents refusing to accept inheritance, or authorization documents for real estate at any commune or ward People’s Committee, without being restricted by their place of residence.
In reality, according to the current regulations in Decree No. 23/2015/NĐ-CP, there is no clear provision regarding “not being dependent on the place of residence” for all types of notarization.
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Particularly, Decree No. 280/2025/NĐ-CP also supplements regulations on the obligations and rights of the person performing notarization. According to the Decree, from November 1, the person performing notarization shall not require the person requesting notarization to submit or present the original or copies of documents and papers that have been integrated into VNeID when the person requesting notarization has presented the corresponding information from VNeID.
In cases where the person requesting notarization requests and the person performing notarization can access information and documents from the National Population Database or other databases as prescribed by law, the person performing notarization is responsible for accessing such information and documents from these databases and shall not require the person requesting notarization to present the original, copy from the original book, or certified copy for the information and documents that have been accessed.
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