Recently issued “blue-cover Vietnamese passports” not acknowledged by several EU countries

The new “blue cover” passport model issued by Vietnam starting July 1st does not include the owner’s place of birth, but only a 12-digit number that has to be manually checked by border officers. This procedure is not feasible, so the passports will not be recognised across several European countries.

Germany was the first to announce that it will no longer issue visas for Vietnamese citizens owning the new type of document.

“From now on, the new blue Vietnamese passports cannot be visaed due to the lack of information on the place of birth. The matter is currently being examined by the responsible German authorities in cooperation with the other Schengen countries.

“However, until this has been clarified, the German diplomatic missions in Vietnam cannot accept the new blue passports for processing visa applications”, clearly explained the German Embassy in Vietnam.

Embassy of the Czech Republic in Hanoi also stated:

“The new Vietnamese passport (also known as the blue passport) issued from 1July, 2022, lacks the place of birth, resulting in the border officers being unable to verify the identity of the passport holder. [...]

“The Czech Republic agrees with other member states of the European Union (EU) and stops recognizing the new passport model. The decision is effective from this moment. The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Hanoi is unfortunately unable to accept the visa/stay permit application from the applicant presenting the blue passport. The Czech Republic is actively working with other EU member states and the Vietnamese side to resolve this issue”.

Finland joined the countries not accepting the document.

“Finland has decided to temporarily suspend recognition of Vietnam’s new passports. The new passport does not contain information of the place of birth of the passport holder, which is a requirement for personal identification and also for processing of Finnish visa/residence permit applications”, representatives of the Embassy of Finland in Hanoi commented.

Spain, on the other hand, changed its mind and, after mutual discussions, decided to accept the passport, yet request Vietnamese owners one more valid ID card that includes the place of birth.

Following these issues, the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam decided to change the new documents and add the necessary place of birth, or manually fill-in the requested entry on the already existing blue cover passports.

Source: traveltomorrow.com