# Application for CNF - timescale



## saltfish

Hello - my partner and her sister are applying for CNF - born and living in UK to 2 parents, both with French nationality but they never declared their birth as saw no need before Brexit.

Anyway, we sent all the documents, proof of residence, translations, form, covering letter etc in July from our address in UK and La poste confirmed delivery to Tribunal in Paris on 23rd July. 

We have neard nothing since, no confirmation of receipt, nada. I know the process can take a year or more but can we expect any communication acknowledging receipt and giving us, say, a case number? 

Secondly, what makes me a little nervous is we moved address after sending the application . We have redirected all mail from our old address but should we inform the Tribunal or will it just hold up the process? Will the CNF list our UK address - ie when applying for later documents will it be an issue? Any advice greatly appreciated....


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## Cat108

I made the same silly mistake with my daughter, assuming that her UK passport would be good enough to cover the EU. I'll follow this thread to see if anyone answers. There was a new law passed that took effect on Sept 1 that seems to suggest that they have to process the dossier within 6 months now. I'm not even daring to hope that this could be true. Maybe someone here knows more...


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## Bevdeforges

This is what the Service Public site says regarding the obligation of the Tribunal in the matter of requests for CNF:


> Le greffe: Service d'un tribunal composé de fonctionnaires qui assistent les magistrats dans leur mission du tribunal a un délai de* 6 mois* à partir de la *délivrance du récépissé* pour prendre une *décision*
> 
> Le délai de 6 mois peut être *prolongé au maximum 2 fois* pour la même durée.
> 
> Si vous ne recevez *pas de réponse à la fin de ces délais*, cela signifie que votre demande est *refusée*.
> 
> Le *refus de délivrance du* certificat de nationalité française doit vous être notifié: Formalité par laquelle un acte de procédure ou une décision est porté à la connaissance d’une personne* par mail* à l'adresse indiquée dans votre demande.


Just to clarify here - the Greffe has six months to make their decision, starting with the issuance of a récépissé (receipt) for the application - and that decision period can be extended (again by 6 months) a maximum of two times. So I'm afraid you're stuck waiting to get a récépissé. 

Given, too, the last sentence that any decision rendered will be sent by email (confusing, but in French, the term "mail" refers to email - go figure) you should be OK as long as your email address hasn't changed with your move. 

Actually, the usual chain of events seems to be that they will send you back your "dossier" if they need to request further documents - and only after the dossier is considered complete will they issue you a récépissé.


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