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it will be much easier if you can speak and read vietnamese. Where is your wife? She is vietnamese, she must know where to register and who to help. You can go to people's committee in your living place to register
or call 19006518 to know more information. I'm not sure if they can speak English, just try. Goodluck to you.

If you need to, you can file for the birth certificate after your baby is born. I didn't file for my child's birth certificate until my child was 3 months old and had no problems.

In general, Law of Vietnam does not require you Marriage Certificate to put your name as a father in the birth certificate.
But I know you want to register your marriage as well. So the first thing you have to do, I think, is going to Justice Department of the city you're living. Because Justice Department is the organ that provides both Marriage Certificate and Birth Certificate to you and your child. You should go with your wife so that she can ask about the procedure by Vietnamese and understand exactly what the Department guides.
You should prepare some like your passport, your wife's ID. You also need Application for marriage status certificate by your Embassy and People's Committee of your wife's ward.
Hope you find it helpful.

I'm on week 3 of doing my marriage certificate. First you need to go to your wife's local justice department (So Tu Phap) that her house book is registered to and not where you live.

Each region's So Tu Phap have different ways of registering a marriage to a foreigner. Ask for the instruction paper that details every document they require and a couple marriage registration forms. Some will purposely make you re-do your forms saying you wrote on the old forms but they are exactly the same. It's their subtle way of asking for money. Play dumb and just do it again.

In can be a frustrating process depending on your region. I've run into every Vietnamese person asking for bribes from crazy doctor to lawyers that translate my document. Crazy doctor made me do an IQ test and kept hinting he's short on time and I might fail. I didn't pay him but still scored an IQ of 120 when average IQ is 97 for this specific test.

I've asked around to see if there is any marriage registration services but they all wanted $1200 to $1800 just to hand in all my notarized and translated documents.

Patience is the key. They purposely red tape you hoping you will fork over some money to them. Best of luck on your marriage registration.

The process has been very simple for me. We got the list from So Tu Phap. Got my birth certificate and passport translated(around 100,000 I think). We both needed medicals at 750,000vnd each and another 500,000 each for the doctors under the table fee(2,500,000). If she is from hanoi you do not need a police check. 1,000,000 to process the paper work, go back for the interview and your done. You may have to give a little extra at So tu Phap to get the paperwork finished. So the most you should pay is 4,500,000 to 5,000,000. I paid 3,600,000, no tip at So Tu Phap, I must have gone on a good day.


One more thing. This took me two weeks to file everything.

It is so simple. Go to the nearest marriage registrar office and get married !. After 3 years in hanoi if you do not where the office is ask your girl friend ( wife) to find out where the nearest office to  her local police area where her family book is registered.  Go in person and get the  application forms, requirements check lists on marrying foreigners. Book a date. Maybe a long wait for 6 months or more. Or $ 100 under counter would get a date next week or tomorrow.
You will need:
(1) Letter from you marriage registrar office in your country that you have no previous marriages and is free to marry.
(This has to be certified by your local embassy here).
(Translate this to vietnam through a recognised notary public office in Hanoi)
Ask your wife.
(2) No objection letter from your local embassy..( that is your country does not object for you to get married to a Vietnamese national).
(3) medical report for both of you. You both must attend a recognised hospital for a complete medical check
(4) letter from your girls local police to certify the identity of hers.
(5) your passport / work permits certified copies by the public notary office (nguyen cong trung).
(6) any other documents the registrar will ask,  to make the procedure more  difficult and cumbersome.  This,  the $ in your pocket will help to resolve.

All above will take time. So start now.

Note: there is a legal issue if a child is born to a vietnamese national by a foreigner without being married. You are in trouble. Please consult a laywer for more advice. This law point is largely ignored,  but could be effective, as I have heard a few cases

I hope above will be helpful.

START NOW

Peter

Not sure where your fiance or wife is from, but in Hanoi this process is very fast. Maybe I can give a little more detail as to what you need exactly. First visit So Thu Phap in Ha Dong 1B Tran Phu Street. The list you get says you will need a single status paper, which I got directly from the US Embassy($50) and brought straight to Vietnamese Consular at 40 Tran Phu in Ba Dinh to have it verified. It takes one day and cost 30,000vnd. You are correct you need a Medical check at a certified hospital, So Thu Phap will give you a list of the closest hospitals to your home. We didn't book an appointment or anything, just asked about what time they are available to do the check up and went there right away. If you do it in the morning you can have the paper back that afternoon, we did it on a Friday and had to wait until Monday to get the paper back. Then you need to bring your passport to a translation office, I used one near Vincom, it took one day to complete. That is it. It will take 15 days to process your paperwork after turning it in to So Thu Phap then you go there as a couple for some questions, then the paperwork states you must show up right away when they finalize the papers normally takes 10 more days. If she is from Hanoi she will only need to show her ID, single status which takes a day from her Districts Ward, the health paper, and family house book, will not need to get any police checks. Follow the instructions and do everything they ask and at the most it should take one month. Don't listen to these guys and worry that it is something that will take 6 months or 1 year or it is impossible. As for the kid, register him or her at your embassy and they will be your nationality.


Also if you get your single status paper from the US Embassy it is in Vietnamese and will not need to be translated. Only have the stamp verified at the consular.


Update : Turned in all the papers at So Thu Phap this morning, the initial instructions said I would have to wait 10 to 15 days to get an appointment for our interview. But we have our interview Monday at 2pm. Anyone know what kind of things are asked in these interviews?? One thing, they are making us use their translator at some small fee, since I can't speak enough Vietnamese to talk and answer. So the actual time I have invested in this is about 1 hour of filling out forms, a visit to the doctor and waiting the weekend for the report. A visit to the US Embassy for my single status and a one day wait to have it verified by the Vietnam Consulate. They didn't even take my translated passport, they just photocopied my information page and visa with the stamp.

We got married in her home town and the interview was horrible...4 men 1 women shouting and screaming at her...took all I had not to rage hell onto them. We got denied. Had to go back to Shanghai and return in two months. Had to pay bribe of several thousand USD. Love to see them again. Best of luck