translation of forms

[IAIN]

We're hoping to move out soon and need to know which official forms are absolutely necessary to have translated in advance.

[Will]

I think the vast majority of users of this forum who live, or have lived, in France will never have been asked for an official translation of a form, despite what it may say in certain text books.

Best thing is to wait until you come across one of those particularly zealous officials who demand an official translation, then ask for a list of approved translators, and get then the form in question translated.

[Chas]

Been here 6 1/2 years and have not yet been asked for a translation of anything - but we live in hope!!!  [:D]

[Gardian]

Absolutely right Will.

But ........ when your E106 expires, ask Newcastle for the 'It's expired, no further rights' letter in both English and French.  It seems that not all the CPAM offices need it in French, but ours did.

[Val_2]

As said never been asked for an official translation in 17 years until three years ago when my girl started her BTS studies and joined SMEBA for the students who demanded an official translation of her birth certificate which is only three lines anyway - Name, date and place of birth, even a Klingon could have understood that. Anyway our friend translated it officially in her capacity as a translater and it was rejected, the mairie signed an attestation that it was correctly translated and there was no official problem with it and this went on for two years until my girl started Uni last year in OUR dept. She had to start again with the CROUS and CAF and SMEBA and this time the first copy was accepted no problem and her new Carte Vitale arrived a week later for which she has used twice now. Sometimes as said, it is some jobsworth creating havoc for you and you must keep on and on until they give in.

[allanb]

[quote user="Will"]I think the vast majority of users of this forum who live, or have lived, in France will never have been asked for an official translation of a form, despite what it may say in certain text books.[/quote]I think that's true.

When we arrived in France one of the first things we did was to apply for cartes de séjour, and for that we were told we needed "certified" translations of birth and marriage certificates.   Like a sucker, I got them done, at €25 each.  Soon after that the EU abolished the need for the cards, so we dropped the application. 

But in any case, we have done far more complicated things since then without a single certified translation.  I think I threw away €75.

[lacote0_0]

Perhaps more important than getting translations at an early stage is to get original documents as late as possible. If you are required to produce birth and marriage certificates etc., these must normally be less than 3 months old.

[5-element]

On at least 2 occasions here in France, I had to provide official translation of documents. But that might be because my life has been rather complicated[:)]. One was for a divorce document from the UK. Another was for next husband's birth certificate (outside E.U.) if I remember rightly. All very expensive, especially since I could have done the translations myself...

[lacote0_0]

France is party to a convention which provides for production of

official documents in several languages, but the UK is

not, so that certificates from the UK may still require to be translated.

[IAIN]

Thanks to all users, it's what we suspected -- nasty rumours.

                                                                             Iain