Legalization of documents for EU citizen spouse visa

[Atkinsos]

I have read much on this topic but have yet to find someone who found a solution to the problem.

The country in question is France, the agency TLS.

They have refused to accept a MFA translated & certified marriage & birth cirtificate as proof of marriage & UK citizenship of our daughter. Insisting that the documents be legalised by the UK Embassy.Thereby refusing us the 'free & easy visa' route.

The UK Embassy say they do not offer this legalization service.

In theory one can apply directly to the French Embassy, They have not even replied to this request, possibly because the mail was in English!

But practicaly speaking without involving SOLVIT it may be difficult & then once at an interview they may still insist on legalization of the translations & originals by the UK Embassy.

I have read that the Thai embassy in London offer this service of translation & legalisation but we live in Thailand and if a solution isnt found it looks like we will always be living in Thailand!

If anyone has had experiance of this catch 22 between TLS & the British Embassy I would be grateful to know how they got around it.

[theoldgit]

I personally would involve SOLVIT.

I dealt with the French Consulate last year when they rode roughshod over the Schengen regulations when my partner applied for a visa, it was nothing to do with interpretation, they just refused to abide by the rules.

Like you've experienced they ignored emails and subsequent letters via EMS, though they were signed for.

I made contact with SOVIT and they responded pretty quickly, and the French did back down though not with good grace.

The lady from SOLVIT actually said they were facilitators and that's exactly what she did in sorting the issue. I would add that even though they responded pretty quickly it's probably not the best option if it's an urgent application, probably something the French rely on.

[taxout]

I'm not clear why the UK Embassy said no. It's clear the embassy does offer legalisation services: "We are able to legalise certain signatures from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, FCO legalisation certificate (Apostille) and UK Notaries Public."

https://www.gov.uk/notarial-and-documentary-services-guide-for-thailand

I can make two reasoned guesses, though.

First, it's possible that the Embassy doesn't recognise the particular MFA official's signature on the documents you have. They only recognise signatures of a few MFA officials, not all MFA-signed documents. In that case you need another certificate from an MFA official the embassy recognizes which certifies the MFA signature on the document you have; legalisations often involve such a convoluted chain of certifications.

Second, some countries will only legalise a foreign document if it's to be used in their own country. If this is for use in France, perhaps the UK Embassy has rejected it for that reason.

Edited March 4, 2015 by taxout

[Atkinsos]

It appears it could be my mistake. I only read the gov.uk website to the point of :

We are unable to certify photocopies of: foreign ID’s and passports, marriage, birth and death certificates.

At this point I telephoned the consular notarial svs. Explaining the certificates I wished to have notarized and for what purpose & was calmly refused point blank but was offered the service of them signing a stat declaration to give to TLS. They would not budge on this but in my haste I probably did NOT mention that the translation was authorised by the Thai MFA.

As today is a holiday I cannot confirm this but it does appear that if I had pointed this out to the person on the phone I could now be ok.

Actually I phoned twice & neither of the assistants prompted me for a the MFA translation option with me only saying 'I have an authorised translation with the original', It was a case of 'under NO circumstances will they legalise a marriage/birth certificate & translation'.

We are going to Bkk on Monday where I will be visiting MFA, the British Embassy & TLS to get this sorted I hope.

SOLVIT may not be necessary only me reading the full text on the gov website before going into full panic mode.

Many thanks 'taxout' & 'oldgit' for all your help. Next week I will update on this to save others angst.

[Donutz]

You might still wish to involve Solvit or inform EU Home Affairs (EU council) about this as the French are once again doing things wrong. No where in the 2004/38 directive are translations and legalisations an absolute requirement, one simply needs to proof that one is a genuine family member (by marriage, birth, ...) of the EU national. They may request certification and translations if they are not certain about your their being an actual family relationship but by no means would this be an absolute requirement. They do probably ask for all this to both discourage EU/EEA applications and making things more easier for themselves (extra certainty that their is an actual family relationship).

Besides that the French are also acting inproperly by not responding to direct contact and thus hoping that people will simply bugger of to the even less competent service partner.

In all it's a rather insulting, ridiculous and wrong aproach that the French are taking. The only chanche of seeing an end to this in my view is to inform relevant authorities (EU Home Affairs, the EU representation in Thailand or " EU embassy' if you wish to call it that etc.).

Edit: Not having dealt with the French in BKK myself but I get this picture in my head if I think about what their embassy must be like:

Edit2: The French have to give you an appointment within 2 weeks of your request. If they do not reply this does not excuse them from having to give you an appointment at their embassy within this timeframe.

Edited March 4, 2015 by Donutz