Documents for marriage in France

[SwatiSG]

Hello all. Since I am going through the procedure myself right now, I thought I will share my experience with you. If it helps someone else spend less time chasing bureaucracy across the seas, it will be worth it. However, be warned that I have yet to submit my file. However, in case there is any additional information or something that does not work/is contradictory to what I am putting down now, I will change it as and when it happens.

Well, I am an Indian and getting married to a French national in France. Frankly, we were not prepared for this and had planned on getting married later but we contacted this NGO called CIMADE ( http://amoureuxauban.net/ ) for advice on legal procedures and they told us the simplest thing would be to get married in France while I was here on a student visa, rather than trying to get our marriage in India recognized here. Every other lawyer and consulate official gave the same advice.

So anyway, there are three documents that I need to submit from my side.

1. Certificat de coutume: no hassles, the Indian embassy issues it within a day or two for 25 euros.

2. Certificat de celibat: I had no clue what this was. we have nothing like this in India. So we consulted the French consulate in india and they told us we could get my parents to make an "Affidavit of Honour" in front of a notary saying that I was celibate. I am hoping this will work.

3. Certificat de naissance: (less than 6 months old) This is what has been giving me the most headache. The Indian embassy does give a birth certificate if asked for it, on the basis of the passport. However, my fiancé showed the papers we had got to the Marie and they outright rejected it. They said that their laws clearly mention that it has to be an authentication by the local authorities and if the local authorities in India, as a matter of law and procedure, do not issue such certificates then they want a document from the Embassy stating that and nothing else.

Going back to the embassy has served me no purpose because they refused to issue me something on the basis of the copy of the birth certificate I had. After asking around quite a lot, we found that this is a new system called "apostille" in the international arena. so my parents have to go back to the city where I was born (where they no longer stay), get the local municipality to attest the birth certificate and then visit one of the five registered offices in India for the second step which is authentication of my birth certificate. The French government accepts the document only after the second step has been completed.

Check: http://meaindia.nic.in/onmouse/apostille.pdf

I am still waiting for the procedures to be completed in India. However, I am very glad that we had contacted CIMADE for help. They had been very very helpful and gave us sound advice. You can also visit the site ( http://amoureuxauban.net/) and contact the people in your area.

Cheers!

[Bliss]

Hello Swati,

First of all, congrats on getting married, soon:) I went through the same procedures a year ago when I was a student and my husband was a french. I did submit all these documents.For the problem about the birth certificate, I asked to my Local municipal office in India to issue me another one,as my old one was misplaced.And you just have to give a copy of ur school certificate or Passport.They issue it in 2 days with the current date.That's all.May be you could simply approach your regional office in India and get the procedure done without any headache

Good Luck with your paper works !

[SwatiSG]

Hi, thanks for the reply and the congratulations!

I guess it would have been a lot less hassles for me if I knew from the beginning what was required. The fact is that I approached the Indian embassy and when they said they can issue the required birth certificate- which they did- I was totally unprepared for the refusal from the City Hall! I was on the verge of submitting my file and it was totally out of the blue. Which is why I thought I should put this up, if there are others who are in the process of gathering documents or will be in future.

For me otherwise as well it was posing problems since I am here in France right now and my family is presently based in Chandigarh while I was born in Ranchi...so you see if one of them have to go there, then go to Delhi to get it authenticated would have been difficult. Still, thankfully they have been able to contact a friend in Ranchi and it seems like I will get my papers soon. Fingers crossed!

All I learnt from this experience was that once you know the correct procedures, its easy. But if not, then it takes a lot of stumbling in the dark and can be quite a pain! Whew!