Madameshofleur

Can anyone help to advise me? I am moving to Hyeres in 2 weeks.

Am wondering if I should try and get birth certificates, a change of name certificate and marriage certificate translated before I go. If so, am unsure what level of certification I need to gain. Am thinking school enrolment with Mairie and registering with a doctor. Is it more striaght forward to wait and see what different organisations require? Or does anyone on here know?

If I do get them done over in France, does anyone know of a good (and non-expensive person/compay) in Hyeres or close by, that could do these for me? I have done a little research but the online translation services make me nervous as you have to download your documents for them first, for them to give you a quote.

dmu

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!
You must get your documents translated and certified by an accredited French translator. You can get a list of them at your Mairie, Palais de Justice, Commissariat, ... or simply Les Pages Jaunes. Unfortunately they are an elite group and all charge the earth for putting their stamp on the translation, which is routine, but you have to accept this!
Wait until you're here and know exactly which documents need to be translated and certified. My two were born in France and I had all the necessary French documents to enrol them at school - others will come along to say which English documents need to be translated and certified for this and for joining the French Social Security system. And maybe for other purposes....
Welcome to French Bureaucracy!!
P.S. Just checked on Pages Jaunes. There are several Traducteurs assermentés in Hyères.

Madameshofleur

Thanks DMU.

Very helpful. Well at least that's one thing I can cross off my list for now. Getting us out of the country a hard slog! You've put my mind at rest that I shouldn't have done this ages ago.

Thanks again.

F

cy3mwt

Agree with DMU, we had to send our certificates to Paris for 'translation'. Frustrating as there is very little to translate, but you need the official stamp.
Saying that, we had to take our translated documents (cost over €100) into a government office to change our driving licences. Some English friends of ours took their original untranslated UK certificates into the same office, but saw a different person who accepted the original certificates! Welcome to France.

cmread

A change of name certificate? In my experience, changes of names confuse L'Assurance Maladie something fierce, so be prepared for trouble. The fact that you have a certificate could mean nothing to the idiots who work there.

Be prepared to here things such as 'In France, we don't change our names,' which is utter nonsense. Just look up change of names and you will find whole legal services dedicated to it in France for the French.

Or you might hear 'You, personally, have to apply to a tribunal here in France to change your name'. You don't, not at all. That's for anyone who changes his name in France, not for people who have changed their names in other countries.

Or then there's the all-time favourite: 'You have to get your birth certificate changed to reflect your new name'. You do not have to do this and probably it is impossible for you to do this.

Whatever the idiots tell you, just stand your ground and submit all the documents. Then keep bothering them until they deal with them. I found calling every 2 weeks helped.

It will all depend on how reasonable your local fonctionnaires are. Around here, in Lille, it is my opinion that those who work for l'Assurance Maladie could be replaced with goldfish and the level of service would improve.

It's not just me who thinks this, the French think that l'Assurance Maladie contains the most officiously obnoxious fonctionnaires in France.

Good luck!

Chatter Static

The Nantes international team have taken useless to new levels which is a compete contrast to how we found them in the south, But on a plus side the plumbers and electricians in the north turn up when they say they will and get the job done well

dmu

This isn't UTTER nonsense, just odd to non-French!
Married, divorced, remarried or widowed French women keep their maiden names forever more as far as Administration is concerned. Social Security, Taxes, whatever. I'm French by marriage and my Carte d'Identité and all things official announces Smith, épouse Dupont. To the Powers-that-Be, I'll always be Smith whatever my future marital status.
@OP. What exactly is your "change of name certificate"? If your present marriage took place after this change of name, then it shouldn't concern French Administration. They need justification of your existence at birth and civil status at present.
P.S. Forgot to mention that French Birth Certificates have ALL changes in marital status since birth written in the margin, for both men and women, which is why the employees (for want of a better word) say that the Birth Certificate should be amended. They don't realise that things are different outside of France....

cmread

In England, you can change your given name, not just your surname, you know. In fact, you can change both. You can change them to anything you like as many times you like as long as no fraud is involved. It doesn't cost much and it doesn't involve any court.

I had changed my given name. I am well aware that they consider that my maiden name is mine forever. That wasn't the problem. I accept that. The problem was that they wouldn't recognise my given name change. They wanted me to change my birth certificate and, of course, that wasn't possible or necessary.

They deal with foreigners all the time at l'Assurance Maladie and they could and should have known this. They are just incompetent. They don't care. They just open their mouths and out comes some bit of nonsense that is of no use at all.

In the end, though, despite all this, they saw it my way, but it took quite a bit of time.

EuroTrash

I think I'd have changed my name back again on the spot and got a carte vitale with the same name on it as my birth certificate.

Who's bothered if the name on your CV isn't what people call you in real life, as long as you get your reimbursements.

cmread

Because I didn't like the name my parents had given me and I didn't want to be called it and that was that.

Some people are given less than ideal names, you know. And yes, it does matter, it matters quite a bit to me.

But it really doesn't matter how much it matters to me. The fact is that changing one's name is legal and l'Assurance Maladie has to accept that. And, in the end, as I said, they did accept it. So it can be done.

EuroTrash

I don't use my given name - not professionally nor socially.
But it's on my passport and bank account and carte vitale etc etc and I actually quite like having it that way. I feel that it distances the 'real me' from the official persona that deals with all the dull administrative side of life. It's like the authorities don't know who I really am, and I like that.

PS no I wasn't christened EuroTrash!

cmread

Well that's how you arrange things in your life and I'm glad it works for you, but that's not how I arrange things in my life.

As I said, though, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks or what you would do, changing my name was legal and it had to be accepted. I have had a look at the form for getting French citizenship and have found that it has a place for name changes. If one part of French bureaucracy can accept the idea of name changes, all the other parts should as well.

cupoftea

Your name change can only ever be a 'nom d'usage'. Your legal name in France is ALWAYS your birth name. No getting round that.

cmread

They accepted it. It is the name on my carte vitale. Official documents are sent to me in that name. It is what I am officially known as, not a 'nom d'usage'.

cupoftea

This is the link from the Service Publique website. As I understand it, there is a right to choose, but birth name is still the legal name.
Nom d'usage : utilisation du nom de son mari ou de sa femme - Service-public.fr