A young woman from the Czech Republic contacted us in search of her Vietnamese father. The time frame of her birth was in the 1980's, and the Czech Republic had a good relationship with Vietnam. Many Vietnamese were able to obtain work visas, and later returned to Vietnam. This was true in this case as well. Searching for people given these circumstances is a very formal process with limited but useful options:
The Czech police keep a register of people living here.You need only name and date of birth and they are able to provide to you an address. The down side is that only keep this information for release for 10 years, so this was of no use here.
Court records were searched, and a birth certificate was located which provided a name, although the courts being unfamiliar with Vietnamese names, had a few mistakes.The young woman wrote a letter to her father, but her father's mother did not recognize the letter as being important, fortunately kept it, but did not give it to her father immediately. About a month later, he was able to read the letter, replied, but entered a wrong mailing address, and the letter was never received. To make a long story short, in frustration, he decided to call his daughter at the phone number she provided, and she was able to meet her father, and brother who was studying in Paris. Now has a wonderful extended family and is very happy.