-
French residency cards: Rights group welcomes deadline to fix renewals process
The government has been given six months to remedy problems with the Anef website and other ongoing issues
-
Price of new cars in France dropped for first time in five years in 2025
The cost to purchase a new car has increased 29% since 2019
-
French rail strike June 10: how to find out about affected services
Action may impact TER, TGV, Intercités, Transilien and RER trains
Why do you need ‘a recent’ birth certificate?
The term état civil in France describes a individual’s administrative circumstances (name, address, date of birth, marital status etc).
It was at one time kept on a document called the fiche d’état civil and although this has been abolished the term is still used. For many transactions, for example, the purchase of a property, a birth certificate (acte de naissance) has to be produced to prove your état civil.
In France a birth certificate is kept up to date with significant changes to a person’s état civil. For this reason it is usual to be asked for a certificate that is not more than three months old. However, if it is explained that, in Britain, a birth certificate is issued at birth and does not change throughout life, an older birth certificate will usually be accepted.
For some official purposes a French translation of the certificate is required, made by a traducteur assermenté (court approved “sworn” translator). The EU has proposed that states recognise each other’s basic documents, without a translation, however in practice it is down to the mood of who you are dealing with.
