We got married in France 25 years ago, we are both English and I was divorced so the admin was indeed onerous..it took so long that when i finally took the bundle to the Mairie they pointed out that my notarised translated birth certificate was now "more than six months old" ..I had to have it retranslated! We thought id would be quick and easy, it would have been quicker and easier to return to UK ...Good luck the French love their administration hoops and love to make you jump through them
Hi, we got married 6 years ago in France, had to provide the documents as you have been asked of, and they had to be translated, found a company on line that I emailed the document, they did the translation, posted the certified docs back, everything had to be less than 3 months old at date of the wedding, a letter from me stating I was single, all sent to consulate and stamped and then handed to Mairie for the bands to be posted for 2 weeks. Me view was that I wanted to get married here, so had to follow the rules so did… No real hassle but it was additional cost.
To be honest it is easier to go with the flow and provide what they ask for, or go to UK get married there and come back to France and have a 'wedding" in the garden with a friend doing the necessary.
I think this is why if you go to wedding sites like Confetti, the advice on getting married in France is -- Don't!
Would it be easier if you nipped back to the UK, got 'married' at the registry office and then came back and did your 'wedding' here with friends and family?
Courage !
I married a Frenchman 2 years ago - apart from making sure the birth certificate was in date (no more than 6 months old on the wedding date) it was ok.
Got a copy of my full birth certificate ordered from UK and sent to a sworn translator.
Certificate de coutume and no impediment you need to contact the consulat - they'll issue you with the non impendment andan official letter saying the certificate de coutume doesn't exist for us.
Also supplied copies of our id and that of our 2 temoins
utility bill for proof of address (and as bill was only in my name I did an attestation sur honneur that my now husband lived with us)
and also my French divorce court order
You need to give the complete dossier to the mairie no more than 3 weeks (but they prefer to say a month) before the big day .
The only trouble we had was the birth certificates being in date - mine + translation were going to be about 5 weeks over the limit so had to reorder which then made oh's french extrait de naissance (which should be no more than 3 months old) just out of date.
A French friend and his French Canadian girlfriend were so frustrated by the whole business they were about to give up. She comes from outside Quebec Province in a French speaking but otherwise English administered county in New Brunswick. So, they had all of your hassles. I jokingly suggested they go to Scotland. I think many people know about Gretna Green, the blacksmith's anvil and so on, well that is just across the border from England so was a simple solution in the past that is now an event. In fact you can go anywhere in Scotland as I did in 1969 when I was still 20 (majority was still 21 until 1970) and my girlfriend at that time a French citizen aged 18. What I was saying is that as long as both are 16 or over, in this case mid-30s so no problem, they could also go anywhere in Scotland. As long as they had passports and perhaps birth certificates. Anyway, they found out what they needed. He is a teacher, she got extended summer leave and off they set for Scotland on a cheap Ryanair flight. They hired a camper, had a brilliant four week holiday (bar the rain) and at the end of it came back married as well.
Thanks for your comment Veronique. It does indeed illustrate the disjointed logic (everyone knows the relevent information is never present, so it has to be translated and notarised to prove that the information is absent ;-))
The issue is that the legal sources that I have found don't state the information they need, just the document type, therefore, in my twisted logic, the fact that the information they want to see isn't present, isn't my problem, and I have no legal obligation (if I understand the sources correctly) to present anything further. Or am I missing something?
The reason for the birth certificate being under 3 months old is because Fr birth certificates have extra info added to them throughout your life as your situation changes eg marriage/divorce/pacs/dissolution of pacs/adoption by eg rupert murdoch etc so your BC is supposed to show you are free to be married. This obv isn't the case with UK BCs so other bumf has to be supplied ... did you know the UK has the highest rate of bigamy in the EU?
Merci!
Yes, a few years ago we got Pacsed, and didn't need any of the trah-laah-laah, just passport and any old birth cert... but then we discovered that the Pacs (literally) wasn't worth the price the notaire charged, and gives zero assurance for neither person involved!
So while the commune is going through its "agglomeration" pains. I hope to slip under the radar and hope they will point the finger at the old regime and accept the legal extracts I have found.
Been here for over 10 years, been with my French partner for over 10 years, now have two kids (obviously French), looked into getting pacs'ed last year and the dossier was sooooo lourd (no language problems - I'm bilingual - just so much unnecessary crap) that I just gave up, they want sworn translations of even my parents' birth certificates, which have to be less than 6 months' old, the other documents you mention are required too. eh bein oui, on est en France...! :-O
Courage ! Vous allez en avoir besoin ! ;-)
Some people just go to organisations to fill in the file for them, like pleasehelp.fr :)
I got married last year, the documents that I needed were a certified translated birth certificate and divorce certificate, copy of my passeport, proof of address.That was all no coutume certificate.There was no need as the uk was in the EU so the woman in the town hall told me.Thats my experience but each official will have a different idea, I imagine.
Thank you everyone for your very useful advice.
We are now married, and yes, I lost my argument, and needed to provide all the documents on the list.
My advice to anyone who is about to go through this administrative hoop....
When you order your birth certificate, order two (at least) because you will need to send one to be translated, and one (plus a photocopy) to the embassy for the certificat de coutume....
Richard