I’ve got my son his first UK passport (I’m English, wife is French), and thought it would be straightforward for my daughter, so paid the UK passport office, got all the documents to post, then noticed the French birth certificate (of my daughter) has my date of birth wrong by 10 days (my son’s was correct).
I’ve got straight onto the townhall that issued it, and provided them all the evidence and documents they could need to show their mistake, but they’re asking for a French translation of my UK birth certificate, and it pains me to pay out another 100 euros or so for their error. I’m assuming there’s no free service to get a multi-language UK birth certificate translation as is possible in France? I can’t afford to delay too much, as there’s a window in which the UK passport application has to be processed within once started.
Do they say specifically traduction assermenté?
If not do one yourself and make it look as official as you can. That worked for us with OH’s CPAM application.
If not you should only have to pay €25-40 to get a single page translation.
Since Brexit the multi language UK certificates no longer exist.
The irony is I have a sworn translator who worked on my daughter’s birth certificate and they put my correct date of birth, probably because they worked on my son’s at the same time, so reused most of that. Doesn’t make any sense to have a different DOB on my son’s birth certificate compared to my daughter’s, but French bureaucracy will probably put the onus on me and demand that commonsense and autonomy cannot prevail.
The added problem is, if I ordered my birth certificate (they said it must be less than 6 months old), it takes about 3 weeks before they even send it, so by the time it’s all done and my application sent, I think I’d be out of time. I’m tempted to just send the documents, and hope they just read the officially translated ones in English, and ignore the rest.
They have no right to say that! A UK certificate remains valid.
You’d think it would be something that remains static, however when I got PACsed and later married, they were insistent on birth certificates being less than 6 months old, and translated officially.
I’ve emailed back and explained that the UK doesn’t do multi-lingual birth certificates, and have also explained the time sensitive nature. I doubt I’ll get very far though.
French bureaucracy is working at its finest. Just got a letter in the post from the townhall where my daughter was born, and they say the request to modify my incorrect birth date is not justified under their ‘regulatory framework’, therefore I have to go to a competent court within my area and they will decide instead… Clearly my British passport request is never going to be completed in time now.
Are the barriers so high here to anyone admitting they made a mistake, particularly if the mistake was made by anyone official ? I despair
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Is there any chance you’d get a proper answer about this by going and seeing them? I wouldn’t be taking it to court, that sounds like a diversionary tactic, at least not till someone like a solicitor told me it was the only way, I’d be asking around or visiting mairie in a quiet moment to find out how to put pressure on them - there must be someone whose pressure they would respond to.
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Before you go down the tribunal judiciaire route, I would definitely do as Karen suggests and go and see the town hall in person.
Because as can be seen from the examples given on the “service public” site, an incorrect date of birth is considered merely a drafting error (erreur de forme - although they also refer to it as an “erreur matérielle”), not a substantive erreur (erreur substantielle).
You can find the following explanation of the distinction yourself by Googling something like “ANTS corriger acte naissance”. I would print it off and show it to them.
If you continue in the “service public” site and click on the questions (“comment faire rectifier etc”), you’ll see that only substantive errors require court action. Drafting errors are supposed to be rectified by the relevant town hall.
Good luck!
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Thank you @KarenLot and @Helenochka appreciate the replies.
I wish I could go see them in person, but I’m living on the other side of the country these days. I will try and call them and see if I can speak to someone reasonable. The same townhall issued my son’s birth certificate; it’s evident it’s a simple administrative error, but I fear it will delay my daughter’s passport, and I will end up having to pay a second time… In the meanwhile I’m just going to send all my documents to the passport office in the UK and hope they don’t look too closely at the French version.
That was going to be my second suggestion! Send it all off and hope nobody notices the mistake.
Who cares, rock on 
Now if it was her DoD it would be another matter.
if the HM Passport Office look at the certificate and see it doesn’t tally with the dates on the translation and my birth certificate, it will prevent my application from happening, at least within the two month window.
Unless you can convince the town hall that under the rules set out perfectly clearly on the service.public website it is their responsibility, and not a court’s, to rectify what is a “simple erreur de forme”, then you’re going to miss the 2-month window in any case.
Is this passport needed fairly quickly?
If so, it’s probably safe to assume from your experience of the town hall so far that they’re a bunch of w*nkers. In which case I’d send off the application to the passport office and hope for the best.
Sorry if this is repetition. Were you given any paperwork by the hospital when your daughter was born?
@Helenochka - It seems the problem is the townhall requires a multi-lingual copy of my birth certificate, which the UK can’t provide, therefore I have to do it via a local court who can then hopefully sort it out without that. I don’t have an immediate rush for the passport (my daughter has a new French passport now ready to be collected), but I didn’t want to forfeit the £90 already paid. I sent all my documents off a couple of days ago, so fingers crossed it goes through! I’ve nothing to lose at this point.
@Jennifer11 - It was a long time ago, so I don’t recall unfortunately. I remember walking from the hospital to the townhall to register my daughter’s name, and I guess they would have taken down my details then.
It was just a thought really. I wondered if you had something like a hospital document with the right date on it, then you could tell the Passport Office that it’s in the process of being corrected.
@Jennifer11 I appreciate the idea; I don’t recall receiving paperwork from the hospital, or at least nothing I have to hand today. The townhall does have my son’s birth certificate, along with a lot of my documents showing they made a mistake, and I don’t think they’re denying it’s their administrative error, it’s just things in France have to been done in a certain way, and they can’t (or won’t) exercise any autonomy on the matter.
