Just wanted to say that actually the full rules (in ALL their complexity) are at the Home Office website Erica - if you have the time for reading with a new baby in the house!!!! And, by the way, I did not think Tracey was being the slightest bit "snotty". WHERE did that come from????
Anyway,Erica, good reading and best of luck. Oh, and congratulations on the birth of your baby my dear.
Hi Debra, to be fair, I did edit my comment as I realised it wasn't appropriate. However, I posted it as 'no opinions' because I was merely posting the government link, thereby allowing everyone to look at the rules and make their own opinion, according to their own circumstances.
Tracy is a long established member of this site and in nearly three years of posting has never ever been 'snotty'!
No opinions, this is the French law as of today for foreign children born in France.
For sure, I was only talking about current rules, it is automatic at 18, you can apply at 14 providing the children have lived here for 5 years.
I only mentioned this stuff to clarify that children do not acquire French nationality under any circumstances simply by being born here.
It never was automatic.Young people had to choose as it often meant giving up their nationality of birth and complying with specific rules concerning military service for example.
Just to clarify. a baby does not acquire French nationality just by being born here. This is only automatic when the child reaches the age of 18, otherwise the child has to comply with the following condition: http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F295.xhtml
Erica, I think you should ring the British Embassy in Paris. You say that the baby's father is your fiancee not your husband. I think you may have to get an American passport for your baby. It used to be that a child took the nationality of the country in which it was born, later a child took the nationality of the father but as I understand UK law now, where parents are not married, the child takes the nationality of the mother, even if father is named on the birth certificate.
Best to give them a ring before you start spending money Erica! Passports from the UK Embassy in France are expensive.
Hi Erica,
What an amazing number of responses, are you any the wiser?
In a nutshell, this page from the British Consulate is fairly clear. You have the original birth certificate as the baby was born in France (and presumably registered here within the obligatory 3 days).
The complication as far as I can see it is that you are not married. Did you make a declaration of paternity at the mairie before your baby's birth? This is critical if you wish to claim a British passport, otherwise your baby is American, not British and not French, therefore you have to look at American rules, which I can't help with as I am British.
If the baby is registered as British, I can help, if she is American I am sure there is someone else who has the relevant experience.
You need two bits of paper one from the hospital and one from the Mairie. Armed with those two you go to the British Consulate (I did Paris) wher they will send you after a few days a British passport for you child. That was my experience three years ago but maybe now all is subcontracted to a private organisation (WorldBridge"Services"?) who if in charge will charge you lots. I counsel you to provide at all times hordes of copies, translated originals (bien tamponnees) etc because these exercises are daily becoming more difficult.
Thank you Kate!!!
Exactly, we would be flying, so we definitely need identity for her.
If you're driving, it should be ok, but you need ID to board a plane.
Hi,
France and Portugal are both in the Shengen area - so you won't have to show passports or national ID cards when crossing the border - in theory.
Bonne chance
Wow! What a small world! When he gets home I'll tell him and he'll get a kick out of it. How did we get connected on here? Did you just know my name from his Facebook?
Thank you so much for all your information! You are a diamond. As far as choosing between passport and/or birth certificate, we might as well get her both since we will need it. Especially when I eventually need to apply for her American papers, which should be even more fun I imagine. When we were originally instructed by the mairie's office to apply for her French passport (sitting in front of a woman with a sign above her head that said she was essentially the qualified "French Identity Card and Passports Lady" with baby on our laps, and we are very very clearly not French) they instructed us to go to a specific infant passport photographer, so I think we should be good in that arena. They charged us 17 euros to apply for a French passport, which is much less than 365, but nevertheless we were not reimbursed after the application rejection.
Yes.
"J" as in.... Jamie???
You have the right paper. I think Debra is right you may have to apply to Paris for a passport, but I'm sure the people in Bordeaux will give you good advice! BTW I'm J's cousin!
Hi Debra, my fiancee isn't home so I am afraid I had the wrong information about the piece of paper I have. I dug it out from our file, and it is in fact called a "Copie Integrale Acte De Naissance" with a Mairie stamp on it, so it is obviously not from the hospital. Is an "integrale" copy the same as a "copie d'extrait"?