My Thai niece is at school in the UK. She is applying in the UK for a visa to join a school trip to France. TLS London list of documents require an "official translation of the birth certificate".

Any advice where I can get this? We plan to use a notary public in Bangkok to certify the copies of the parent's passports.  Would a notarised copy of the translation of the birth certificate be acceptable? I will call TLS later today but I would welcome any advice. Thanks.

I can answer this myself. Just spoke to TLS London. They said that I just need the translation certified by a lawyer or notary public. Same process for the certified copies of passports.

Good. Don't forget parental consent forms either, I don't know if the French ask for this as part of the visa procedure but any minor traveling without both parents can be asked to show parental consent (in the fight against child abduction, human trafficking etc).

 

And atleast the visa itself should be free since the application is for the purpose of a school trip (= educational purposes). And the visa handling fee can obviously be avoided too by applying directly at the embassy rather than the optional service provider (TLS, VFS, BLS).

 

Schengen Handbook for embassy staff:

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4.4.2. Mandatory rates applicable to all applicants or certain categories of applicants: 
Legal basis: Visa Code, Article 16 (4)

0,00 euro: School pupils, students, post-graduate students and 
accompanying teachers who 
undertake stays for the 
purpose of study or 
educational training

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Source: https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/visa-policy_en

Thank you. I did prepare the consent forms. But I wasn't aware we can avoid the visa fee as its a school trip. Thanks!