French ID card for newborn

[femmeaufoyer]

I am British, living with my British DH in France for a few years with his work. DC is due in December, will the baby get an ID card upon birth? I'm not sure as neither of us are French. We are not part of the French social security system (e.g: no Carte Vitale etc) as we are ex-patriated and all is covered by the company.

I'm keen to know as if the baby gets an ID card then we can use it to travel to the UK, rather than have to apply for a UK passport.

My dd was born here (dh and I are both British) and we had to apply for a UK passport. Dd doesn't get French citizenship (unless she applies for it at 18) but her children would (if born here).

It might also be worth checking into getting UK birth certificate (I have no idea if this is possible) but I haven't been able to use dd's birth cert to open bank accounts in the UK (although the UK passport got us over that problem) and the French certs are supposed to be renewed every time you need use it.

You can get UK-style birth certificate from British Consulate, which is then the basic doc for your child's UK passport application.
here

It's not a birth certificate, although many people mistake it as such, it is a registration certificate of a British citizen born abroad. It does not aid getting a British passport, if your children is going to be a British citizen at birth, no certificate will confer this, only British law will. The British embassy in Paris will confirm this is correct, YOU DO NOT NEED IT to get a British passport and will be wasting your money if you believe you do.

You need to look up French citizenship laws for children born of parents who are not themselves French citizens.

Just to copy from that link about this NOT being a birth certificate and not aiding the issue of a British passport....

"There is no obligation to register the birth before applying for a passport for your child.

A Consular birth certificate is not a United Kingdom birth certificate and should not be used as one."

PS if your child only has British nationality, you must have a British passport in order to travel anywhere outside France, including to the UK. You cannot travel to the UK without a passport / suitable ID, unless you are the Queen :-)

Getting a UK passport is no problem with a French birth cert. It's just getting anything in the UK that requires a British address doesn't work with a French cert (I've found)

Only children born in the UK can have UK birth certificates though, (think exception is babies born British military hospitals outside the UK who I think do actually get UK birth certificates, as opposed to certificates of registration of British citizen born overseas).

The problem of opening bank accounts etc without a UK address applies to anyone, us included who are British citizens without a UK permanent address, unless you count our credit card bill which is still registered to the UK so we can order lots of things online from UK websites :-)

Oooh must correct myself, you cannot travel to the Common Travel Area (which includes the UK) without a valid passport / national ID!

Sorry, I should have said, I have a c/o UK address which I used for the bank accounts. That's why I had the issue with the birth cert.

@natation - I didn't say the registration doc conferred British nationality and the link I provided makes that clear. Nor did I say it was necessary for a passport. However, if you do get one (for which you have to show that the child is entitled to British nationality), you then don't have to send lots of other documents off with the passport application since the reg doc is the only doc required for the passport. It also means that you have a doc which you can provide in the future when you're asked for a birth certificate so you have 2 primary forms of ID rather than only 1 (passport).

oh, and you can also get copies in the future from the GRO in case of loss

Thanks everybody for your replies. I was trying to find a way to travel to the UK without having to go through the hassle of applying for a UK passport whilst in France. But it looks like there's no way round it! Jkklpu...it's useful to know that if I get the registration doc then that's all I'll need to send with the passport application....that would make things more simple!

For info, not even babies with French nationality get an ID card at birth. French nationals don't actually have to have one. But it's pretty hard for adults to get by without one so most do. You have to apply for one for DCs if you are planning to travel by plane.

Indeed correct, France has not had obligatory national ID cards since 1955, only the requirement to carry valid ID which can be things other than passport or national ID, but babies can indeed have national ID cards, they've been free since the late 80s.

Out of date French National IDs are acceptable in France, causes no end of difficulties when they try to travel outside France as many don't understand, despite freedom of movement and the fact that France is also in Schengen, you do have to have a valid nationally issued form of ID and for 99% of French nationals, that means valid passport or national ID, no voting cards, not travel passes, no driving licences!!!!!

If you do apply for a UK passport through the Paris embassy it is really easy. I applied for DDs in August and it arrived 11 days later.

Thanks GreyElephant...I understand from reading the website that I have to send originals and copies of full birth certificates (me and DH), DC birth certificate (translated) and our wedding certificate. And copies of my and DH passport - is this what you sent?

That's what I sent. Make sure you send them 'recommended' as you're sending the originals of your certs. And it does cost a bit more to go through the embassy (you have no choice if you live in France) but the people on the end of the phone are fab if you have problems. Also, I spent 15? in a photo booth while performing contortions in order to hold 1week old dd's head up without my hand being seen and having her face directed at the camera, only to be told by the guy on phone that they're 'not really too worried about it when it's a baby as no one will recognise them in 6 months anyway' - though it's much easier to go to a photography shop where they do it for you for around 8? and you know you have the right thing.

I sent official copies of DH & my full birth certs, photocopies of DH & my passports and DDs Swiss birth cert. Did not send our marriage cert or translation of DDs birth cert (may have had an English translation on it though, can't remember, baby brain).

Photos have to be certified by someone British who has known you for two years. That was our problem (been here just less than two years) so i took the photo on my camera, emailed it to picture lizard, they sized it according to UK passport requirements and sent it to my mum in UK who had a friend there sign it and send it back to us. A friend had a photo taken by a local photographer but her passport application was rejected as the photo was the wrong size. Goodness knows how he got it so wrong but he did.