Residence permit: which papers to have translated, and which to leave as they are

You have your appointment at the prefecture (the French local authority). On the table: the appointment letter, the photographs, the proof of address, and, in the middle of it all, a birth certificate that is not in French. That is exactly where your application becomes admissible or not, and that is what this article is about.

The rule, in one sentence

Any paper written in a foreign language must come with its French translation, produced by an approved translator. Not by a bilingual friend, not by an app, however good it may be. The prefecture does not assess the quality of the translation: it checks for the stamp of a sworn translator registered with a court of appeal. Without that stamp, the document counts as missing.

It is frustrating when you have a perfect command of both languages. But it is also what makes the process simple: you have nothing to prove, only a document to have certified. If you want to make sure of a translator's status, here is how to check it.

The documents that come up in every application

Every permit has its own list of papers, and every prefecture publishes it. But in the applications we handle, it is always the same documents that raise the question of language.

The birth certificate. Requested for almost every permit, often as a full copy. If you were born outside France, it is very likely written in another language. This is document number one. Our article on translating a birth certificate according to the country of origin sets out the specifics.

The marriage certificate and the children's birth certificates. The prefecture wants your family situation as it stands today, not as it stood five years ago. If you married abroad, the certificate has to be translated. If your permit rests on marriage, our guide to French nationality through marriage is a useful complement to this list.

The passport. Not every page: only those carrying your identity, the validity and the visas. If those entries are in the Latin alphabet and legible, a translation is rarely requested. In Arabic, Cyrillic or Chinese, it is.

The judgment, where your situation involves one. Divorce, child custody, adoption. It is the longest document, and the one most often discovered the day before the appointment. The case of an adoption granted abroad is covered in a dedicated article.

Then, depending on the permit applied for, the papers that support your situation: diploma and academic transcripts for a student, employment contract and payslips for an employee, bank statements where you need to show that you have sufficient resources.

What you can leave as it is

This is the part that saves money, and the part nobody will spell out for you at the counter.

Anything already in French stays in French: electricity bill, rent receipt, proof of accommodation. Your visa, if a French consulate issued it, is in French. Your photographs have no language.

If your birth certificate comes from a European Union country, there is a shortcut. Ask the town hall that issued it for a "multilingual standard form": an official document, free of charge, which translates each field of the certificate into the language of the destination country. Attached to the certificate, it removes the need for a translation. An Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or Polish certificate that comes with its form does not need our services.

That shortcut ends as soon as the certificate carries a marginal note: acknowledgement, correction, judgment. The form only translates the standard fields. If your application rests on what is written in the margin, a full sworn translation is required.

First application or renewal

At renewal, not everything has to be done again. As a general rule, the civil status documents translated and filed with the first application are not asked for a second time, unless your situation has changed in the meantime: a marriage, a birth, a divorce.

What does come back are the papers proving that you still meet the condition attached to your permit: a new contract, a new enrolment, new resources. That is where the foreign language can reappear.

What about the apostille?

We are asked this on every application. The apostille is a stamp that authenticates the signature and the capacity of the authority that issued your document. It does not bear on its content.

For a document from a European Union country, the prefecture cannot require it. For a document from another country, it may be requested, and it is the country that issued the document that affixes it, never France. If you are already in France and your document was left without an apostille back home, the step is settled there, often through the consulate. Our article on the apostille and legalisation explains the difference between the two.

Before you order

One piece of advice worth money: open the list of papers published by your prefecture, for your permit, and tick it off. Lists change, they differ from one permit to another, and nothing is more irritating than paying for the translation of a document nobody asked for.

Once that list is settled, we take over. A birth certificate or a passport is translated at €27 per page. A marriage certificate, €34. A judgment, €35. You receive a signed and stamped PDF by email, on average 24 to 48 hours later, and the paper version if your prefecture asks for it.

If you have several papers, send them all to us at once for a quote: we tell you what has to be translated, what does not, and the firm price before we begin. We also answer your questions on WhatsApp or by phone.

Administrative information verified on 24 August 2026.