Having babies in France

[ChilliPip]

My husband and I both English, both permanent residents in France, and expecting our first baby in May. When the baby is born, will he / she be automatically French or English? If English, do we have to register the birth with the British consulate? If French, can we apply for English nationality? etc etc

Any info or advice gratefully received.

Thanks

[Teamedup]

Your child will be british. You must register the birth within 48 hours at the Mairie where the baby is born and they will give you a slip of paper that doesn't look much, and in fact only has a shelf life of several months. Renewable upon request.

You will then have to register the birth with the British Consulate. They will let you know exactly what details they want and how much they want paying for a birth certificate. Also your baby will need a passport also from the british consulate. This will be valid for five years at a time. If memory serves right then after the first five years the second five year passport is usually free, just updating photos etc I suppose making it up to the 10 years that we adults pay for.

The current rules are that if your child was born in France and then resides in France for five full years between the age of 11 and 18 then they can chose or not to become a french citizen. If they do nothing at this age they become automatically french, however to become french they would still have to prove it. AND if they wish to not be french they still have to prove that they could be french and are some other nationality and then refuse french citizenship. This is all done at the Tribunal d'Instance.

So if you leave France and your child doesn't qualify to be french then they will just remain british.

 

We had all this to sort out three years ago and as far as I know the system hasn't changed since. As your child grows up and if you remain in France then you could probably get your Mairie or the Tribunal d'Instance to let you know what you are supposed to do.

 

 

[Clarkkent]

One other point - to add to TU's excellent summary. Under both French and UK nationality laws, there is nothing to stop your child, if it wishes, having both nationalities.

[Teamedup]

Yes CK is quite right. If your child takes french nationality they then have dual nationality.

[Mistral]

Just to add a couple of comments. It's actually three working days (not 48 hours) to register a baby and many state hospitals do it for you. You will need to check with yours. And it is possible to apply for French nationality at 13 if the child was born in france and  has been a resident from the age of 8. But in that case the application is done by the parents.

An important point. For children born in france and who fulfil the residency requirements, it's not a "demande de nationalité" but a "declaration de nationalité" French nationality is a right, they just have to prove that they have that right (not as easy as it sounds sometimes as TU can tell you)

 

[Teamedup]

I didn't know that the parents could apply Mistral and would never have been so presumptious anyway.

 

All I remember about registering the birth was that someone from the Mairie was in the hospital on the Monday morning and our first was born very late on Friday night.

[Evianers]

My advice would be to start saving now! Having worked at the British Embassy in Bruxelles, the cost of registering a child with the authorities, although certainly worthwhile, does cost a large amount. It would be lovely - but naive - to think that the costs of registration have either come down in price, or that those in Paris are less than in Bruxelles. Also if you need to travel with your baby, he/she will need their own passport under British law.

[naps]

One tip, phone the Embassy prior to the birth, they can send all the relevant forms relating to registering the birth and getting a passport, this will also contain all the details regarding the price and paperwork required. 

I recall that it was expensive, when we went through the motions 2 years ago, somewhere in the region of 200 euro's for the combined application. You can apply for the birth certificate and passport at the same time, which is useful as you only have to send all your documents one (your birth certificates and your passports).

One final tip regarding the passports.  Obviously it's difficult to get a good photo (with eyes open) of a newborn.  We went to a typical in-shop phototgrapher and we struggled with the first child, but for the second someone recommended lying them on the floor (on a white sheet) and we had no problems at all..