Anybody here getting married with French birth certificate?

Calfuray

I know this is a long shot, but thought I'd ask on here.

I was born in France, have been in the UK since I was a toddler. Getting married, planning on May.

The only problem is, we can't send the forms away yet as I don't know what to do about the birth certificate. I don't have an actual birth certificate, but we have a 'family book', which has the records of every birth death and marriage in the family. I'm not sure if you can use that?

Otherwise, to get a copy of the French certificate, I would need to get a translator to write a letter, get a certificate copy (which is only valid for three months) and do all the paperwork last minute, which would be a bit costly and stressful.

I don't suppose anybody knows?

TopQuark

Hello OP,

At a guess, you'll need a copy of the birth certificate. I'm doing the opposite to you, also in May. Im British and getting married in France. The mairie requires a translated birth certificate, but with 6 months validity. My OH, who is French, must have a copy of his dated 3 months or less.

So it could be that you have 6 months rather than 3 if similar rules apply; the only way to be sure is to ask.

Good luck!

Calfuray

Thanks for the reply! Hopefully I can sort something out sooner than later

FBaby

Is your concern relating to registering your intention to marry in England or France? If it is England, you don't need to show a birth certificate, just your passport (at least that was the case for me last June with my council) and proof of address in the UK.

It is an issue if you also want to register your intentions to marry with the French authorities. They do expect a copy of your birth certificate in addition to the 'livret de famille'. It is then your OH' s birth certificate (assuming he is English) that will need to be translated.

Our initial intention was to register the marriage in France too, but in the end, all the documents they required was too much aggro and we missed the deadline. We are not too bothered as I don't think it will ever be an issue that we would require a French marriage certificate and if we ever do, we will go through the process of translation.

angelil

Perhaps see with the French embassy?

My situation was the opposite to yours: born in the UK, getting married in France. You are right that getting all the paperwork done was very time-consuming, costly and stressful. I needed a certificat de coutume, a translation of my birth certificate, and a certificat de celibat - all needed to be dated within three months of the wedding. Clearly the authorities around Paris are not as relaxed as the local authority where TopQuark is getting hitched Because we didn't want to book so last-minute, we ended up doing it once six months before and again three months before. Totally frustrating and annoying - especially since, as you know, the UK birth certificate doesn't carry the same information at all as the French 'birth certificate'/livret de famille.

I think the embassy will give you the best chance of sorting it out in terms of knowing exactly what you will need. I'd find it very hard to believe that they've never come across this before (although the way the British embassy and the French authorities treated me, it really seemed like they hadn't, so...!). Good luck

FBaby

Actually just realised you didn't say where you were intending to marry!

Calfuray

Sorry, getting married in Scotland, if that helps. I did phone the registrar and ask if a UK passport would do, but they were adamant that I would need my French birth certificate. Couldn't answer if the family book would do though...

Partner is Scottish too.

FBaby

Ha, that's why it is different, I am getting married in England so the rules must be different.

In your case, it sounds like you therefore have no choice but to register to your mairie to get your 'acte de naissance'. As I said, I ordered mine online and it was sent to me within a couple of weeks (paid fee online).

If I were you, I would send it un-translated and see what they say. It's not that difficult to get what you need out of it even without speaking fluent French!

Also, meant to say in regards to the 3 months validity that it would be expected to be valid at the time of registering your intention to marry, not from the actual date of the wedding, so as long as you send after you receive it, I would expect you to be ok. Log on the webiste of the Mairie of the county where you were born and it should say what to do to apply for the acte de naissance.

angelil

^^ She could try to send it untranslated. But I fear that if they're not even accepting her passport as proof of ID she'll be on a hiding to nothing.

I tried using my French marriage certificate to change the name on my UK bank account. The customer services lady I spoke to had a working knowledge of French and could see that the certificate said what I told her it did. She was prepared to accept it and change the name on the account, but was stopped at the last minute when she went 'out the back' to photocopy it and her manager told her she couldn't accept it. Luckily my husband is French and so was able to obtain an 'extrait plurilingue' (which has translations of the marriage certificate in several European languages on it, including English) from the mairie for free, rather than us coughing up another £60 for another translation. Even once I took this to the bank, they hummed and ha'ed over it before accepting it as proof of my name change. A right palaver to say the least.

So sadly...you can't bank on UK authorities being reasonable

FBaby

Yes, I think it is a bit of a gamble. I have been more lucky with authorities accepting non translated documents either in English or French without trouble.

Thinking about it, when we went to register our intention to marry at our local office, my partner forgot to bring his passport (or read from his perspective as I forgot to tell him ), but they happily accepted his driving licence. It got worse when she asked for his divorced papers and he had brough the wrong one! Yet the register was happy to go ahead with the instruction to come back and bring the proper document. Time went by with other things on his mind and them not chasing. I'm pretty certain it was all filed and they wouldn't have picked up on it otherwise.

I suppose there is nothing to lose from sending it as is and wait to see if they insist on the translation.

Calfuray

Thank you. I didn't realise it only had to be valid for the date of the paperwork and not the marriage - that makes it so much easier!

I think I will get it translated just to reduce stress!

But thank you again, I guess I'll have to try and figure out the French websites now