# Translate Apostilles for French Citizenship ?



## kingalbert4321

We're in the process of getting all our U.S. documents together for French citizenship application. We've got birth certificates, marriage licenses, death certificates (parents), police background checks, all properly government issued and apostilled by the the proper authority.

I'm getting appropriate court recognised translations of all these documents into French. Do I need to have the apostille page translated too ? I've seen some translation services break out this cost separately (that may be a clue).

Note that this is for the French Citizenship application, which is stricter than something like CPAM.


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## pgcfriend2

This link below is from the Los Angeles French Consulate regarding asking for French nationality by marriage. Under the section "*Les pièces à fournir"* there are three PDF files that you can download.

L’acquisition de la nationalité française à raison du mariage

The first PDF lists the documents required to apply for citizenship by marriage. I have attached that PDF. Section 3a talks about the birth certificate and says that both the birth certificate and the apostille have to be translated into French.

I don't know your situation but I would get all the apostilles translated.

Note: A few months ago I submitted an application for a document that needed to be filed with the registry. I found out that they had changed the list of documents needed but hadn't updated the PDF on the website. I had to pay for a second prepaid envelope to send back everything because of their error. Afterwards I sent an email of the text from the PDF stating what I needed and have them verify it was accurate. I strongly suggest that you do the same before sending your application. I'd hate for you to send it and find out it's wrong, especially since they say it can take a year to process citizenship requests.


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## kingalbert4321

It's very simple to get the apostilles translated, so I'm going to get it done. Your reference to point 3a in the document is clear. 

French citizenship application has now moved to an on-line system for many departments, including ours. They have a document simulator which generates a list of required documents, but the on-line system appears to determine the document list after completing all the individual questions. I'll be sure to compare the two lists to see if they align.

Thanks for the help.


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## pgcfriend2

That's great they have the online system in France. I would hope there's a slim chance of the online system being wrong but you never know. I'm in the US. I will contact the LA consulate to see if the online system is available here.


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## BackinFrance

pgcfriend2 said:


> That's great they have the online system in France. I would hope there's a slim chance of the online system being wrong but you never know. I'm in the US. I will contact the LA consulate to see if the online system is available here.


Don't expect an online system, either in France or elsewhere, to be more efficient.


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## pgcfriend2

BackinFrance said:


> Don't expect an online system, either in France or elsewhere, to be more efficient.


You're probably right. My brother-in-law who lives in Guebwiller says the problem is management  No computer system can fix that.


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## kingalbert4321

A note on the online system. It's real new. A few months ago, it only applied to a few departments in France. Now it supports loads more, but not ALL. I don't expect it to be any more accurate or efficient. The site makes clear that you can send your dossier by old fashioned mail, if you want. But when we applied for our visas during the pandemic via the mail, the prefecture accidentally misplaced my wife's dossier. They found it, but it caused a 3 month delay. I'm hoping for better confirmation via the new on-line system.


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## balthy

I had certified translations done by an official translator recognised by the French Consulate and it included translating of the apostilles. I got the documents apostilled, then translated.


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