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CPAM--Birth Certificates


Grecian
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Having finally managed to obtain our E121's from Newcastle, after nearly 6 weeks of living permanently in France, we went armed with all documents possible, both original and photo copies to our nearest CPAM office, to register.

We were greeted by a very pleasant gentleman and were attended to immediately. Things were going fine until he came to our birth certificates, when we given a 'non', he informed us that our 'short' versions of our birth certificates were not exceptable in France, and he would require long versions which must include parents full names. Back to square one.

Having read up extensively on all things health in France, I must say I have not seen it written in any publication I have read, or in fact on these boards, that a 'long' version of our birth certificate is required. I would be interested to hear if anybody has come across the same problem, or in fact managed to secure a carte vitale with a 'short' version.

 

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Does this help ?

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/728584/ShowPost.aspx

There is a link in the thread for obtaining your birth certificate, however I have found the quicker way is to google 'Registrars office in XXXXX' (where ever you were born) and see if they have an on line facility, or better telephone them. Certificates are £7 each, sometimes an extra £1 for admin or CC charge (can't remember) plus I would think postage for France.

( Some sites will guide you to certificate ordering sites where they charge considerably more, be careful)

I have found phoning and giving as much detail as possible is the best way.

(In fact I'm rather hoping to receive a certificate in the post today - but strictly for Family History research)

 

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[quote user="Grecian"]

I would be interested to hear if anybody has come across the same problem, or in fact managed to secure a carte vitale with a 'short' version.

[/quote]

My short certificate was initially accepted by our local CPAM office but I subsequently received a letter requesting a full certificate.

We phoned the local registrar's office just as Russethouse describes. They ask for a few details such as parent's forenames. I seem to remember we received the certificate pretty promptly.

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We supplied long certificates to CPAM which were accepted, but then came a request for a translation of one of them (not both).  When we queried it we were told that someone had made a mistake and that the language itself was not the problem, just that they could not read the handwriting on the certificate.  I provided my own typewritten translation which was accepted.

Might be a good idea to type out the details and pin them to the certificates you submit.

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With birth cerificates you can get your mairie to stamp them with "Certifié" written on them and they are valid in France with no need for professional translation. Obviously you just need to explain them to the secretaire or if you are well known tothem,no problems.
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[quote user="Val_2"]With birth cerificates you can get your mairie to stamp them with "Certifié" written on them and they are valid in France with no need for professional translation. Obviously you just need to explain them to the secretaire or if you are well known tothem,no problems.[/quote]

Depends whereabouts you live perhaps. We are known at our mairie but they will not certificate anything and refer us to the local notaires' office - fortunately our notaires are very helpful ...

Sue

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Thanks for all the helpful information provided.

I tried RH's suggestion of 'googling' the Registrars office where I was born, but found their price a lot more expensive than using the Home Office website and paying for a priority delivery. It has still cost us £26 each for duplicate long birth certificates, which up until today have not yet arrived.

This may seem a silly question, but are we allowed to visit a doctor in France, without being allied to CPAM? We both have our E-forms, but as explained already cannot register with CPAM until receipt of long birth certificates, and if I understand the situation correctly, cannot use our UK EHIC cards as we are French residents.

 

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Not a silly question.[:D]

Just visit the doctor, and pay for the consultation at the end (22 or 23€ I think it is now).  You will be given a feuille de soins completed by the doctor which you can give to the CPAM once properly registered to reclaim a percentage back.

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I tried RH's suggestion of 'goggling' the Registrars office where I was born, but found their price a lot more expensive than using the Home Office website and paying for a priority delivery. It has still cost us £26 each for duplicate long birth certificates, which up until today have not yet arrived.

Certificates are a standard charge £7 plus the £1 admin or CC fee, however often what happens is that an official looking link comes up and they want 3 or 4 times the amount - one reason that I often phone the registrars office direct. I had a real problem with Eton records like this recently. Phoning was much better as  I gained extra info 

 The GRO is fine but sometimes there is a queue and it can take weeks (sorry !)

Tony F Dordogne is the expert

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Simplistic and naive perhaps but why would they want them in the first place. What purpose do the serve, short or long ?

You are:

A/ a British citizen as demonstrated by your passport

 and

B/ over 60 or 65 and in receipt of a UK pension as demonstrated by your E121

Jobs for the boys and paper for it's own sake it seems to me.

Perhaps they're checking to see if secretly you're descendants of Adolf of something [:'(]

What would one do if abandoned and adopted and had no knowledge of ones parents ?

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You are quite right RH, I think I got duped beleiving I was looking at the official site where I was born in Exeter, which as I mentioned was charging more than the GRO, for the certificates. But I guess that will have to go down to experience, having never order a birth certificate before, although I suspect that I am not the first to fall for it.

My wife's certificate showed up this morning, but I am still waiting for mine to appear.

 

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[quote user="ErnieY"]Simplistic and naive perhaps but why would they want them in the first place. What purpose do the serve, short or long ?

What would one do if abandoned and adopted and had no knowledge of ones parents ?[/quote]

In the case of Mr Clair, who was adopted as an infant, we had to get his adoption certificate translated instead of his birth certificate.

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There's nowhere published that demands a birth certificate for entry into the assurance maladie.  In the case of having a spouse/partner/child as an 'ayant droit' you need to produce a marriage certificate/PACS/livret de famille - but no birth certificates.

I wonder if it's a case of people following the old 'take with you every document under the sun' advice on these forums, then the officials thinking "Oh, I may as well have a copy of that as well - hold on, it's not in a recognised legal format......"

 

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[quote user="Sunday Driver"]There's nowhere published that demands a birth certificate for entry into the assurance maladie.  In the case of having a spouse/partner/child as an 'ayant droit' you need to produce a marriage certificate/PACS/livret de famille - but no birth certificates.

I wonder if it's a case of people following the old 'take with you every document under the sun' advice on these forums, then the officials thinking "Oh, I may as well have a copy of that as well - hold on, it's not in a recognised legal format......"[/quote]

Whether that is the case or not, we took ours with us, then only handed over what was asked for as it was asked for, and that definitely included our birth certificates (then we entered the world of "short" certificates, as already discussed[:-))]).

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Well, we went along to our local CPAM office, armed with our long birth certificates this afternoon, and saw a different gentleman than we did 2 weeks ago. He made me splutter through the whole procedure in French, even though he was slipping in the odd few words in English. The bottom line this time around, he never asked to see our passports or utility bill, he just took our 121's, copied our birth and marriage certificates, and rib code, and said that's it. The whole procedure could not have taken more than 2 minutes. It makes me wonder if we had seen him the first time, if our short birth certificates would have 'slipped' through.

The only thing which I am now confused about, is that I offered our passport photos for our CV's which he refused, and just said later. Can somebody please explains what happens next, from what I could make out we will received something in the post, does this mean that when the 'something in the post' shows up, we will have to go back with our photos and get our CV's from the office? Or has our man in our local office got things wrong?

 

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