While serving a prison sentence, can I register for marriage?

According to Clause 5, Article 3 of the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family, “marriage is when a man and a woman establish a marital relationship with each other according to the provisions of this Law on marriage conditions and marriage registration”.

Marriage and family relationships are established and implemented according to regulations, respected and protected by law.

Prohibited acts, according to Clause 2, Article 5 of this Law, include:

“a) Shameful marriage, sham divorce;

b) Early marriage, forced marriage, fraudulent marriage, obstruction of marriage;

c) A person who is married but marries or lives with another person as husband and wife, or an unmarried person who marries or lives with a person who is married;

d) Marriage or cohabitation as husband and wife between people of the same direct bloodline; between relatives within three generations; between adoptive parents and adopted children; between former adoptive parents and adopted children, father-in-law and daughter-in-law, mother-in-law and son-in-law, stepfather and wife's stepchild, stepmother and husband's stepchild;

d) Claims to property in marriage;

e) Forced divorce, fraudulent divorce, obstruction of divorce;

g) Performing childbirth using assisted reproductive techniques for commercial purposes, commercial surrogacy, fetal sex selection, and asexual reproduction;

h) Domestic violence;

i) Taking advantage of the exercise of marriage and family rights to traffic people, exploit labor, sexually abuse or commit other acts for the purpose of profiteering”.

It can be seen that the current law on marriage and family does not prohibit people serving prison sentences from marrying or others from marrying people serving prison sentences.

In addition, Article 8 of the 2014 Law on Marriage and Family stipulates the conditions for marriage as follows:

“1. Men and women getting married must comply with the following conditions:

a) Men from 20 years of age or older, women from 18 years of age or older;

b) Marriage is voluntarily decided by men and women;

c) Not having lost civil capacity;

d) The marriage does not fall under one of the cases of prohibited marriage as prescribed in points a, b, c and

d Clause 2 Article 5 of this Law.

2. The State does not recognize marriage between people of the same sex.”

Article 44 of the 2015 Penal Code, amended and supplemented in 2017, stipulates the deprivation of certain civil rights as follows:

“1. Vietnamese citizens sentenced to imprisonment for crimes against national security or other crimes in cases prescribed by this Code shall be deprived of one or more of the following civil rights:

a) The right to run for election as a delegate to a State power agency;

b) The right to work in state agencies and the right to serve in the people's armed forces.

2. The period of deprivation of certain civil rights is from 01 year to 05 years, from the date of completion of the prison sentence or from the date the judgment takes legal effect in case the convicted person is given a suspended sentence".

Thus, people serving prison sentences are not deprived of the right to marry, so they can still register for marriage if they meet the conditions and do not fall into the prohibited cases according to the provisions of law.

However, the marriage registration procedure is stipulated in Article 18 of the 2014 Law on Civil Status as follows:

“1. The man and woman submit a marriage registration form according to the prescribed form to the civil registration office and must be present when registering the marriage.

2. Immediately after receiving all the documents as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article, if the conditions for marriage are found to be met as prescribed by the Law on Marriage and Family, the civil status official shall record the marriage in the Civil Status Book and have both the man and woman sign the Civil Status Book. Both the man and woman shall sign the Marriage Certificate; the civil status official shall report to the Chairman of the People's Committee at the commune level to organize the handover of the Marriage Certificate to the man and woman.

In case it is necessary to verify the marriage conditions of both the man and woman, the processing time shall not exceed 05 working days.

Thus, in principle, both the man and woman must submit a marriage registration form and be present when registering their marriage, and sign the marriage certificate together. Although the law does not deprive those serving prison sentences of their right to marry, because they are under the State's management, detention, and re-education, it is very difficult to get them to comply with the mandatory regulations on marriage registration procedures as stated above in practice.

In case of a genuine desire to get married while one of the two is serving a prison sentence, the person who wishes and meets the conditions can submit a request to the prison, and the People's Committee of the commune where one of the two parties resides, to facilitate the implementation of marriage registration procedures at the place of detention.

Minh Hoa (t/h)

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