Certificate of No Impediment (Capacity to Marry) Translation for France

The equivalent of the certificat de capacité à mariage, and the mairie

A marriage in France is celebrated before the mairie, and the town hall expects a foreign national who is to marry there to prove their capacity to marry; in French this need is answered by the certificat de capacité à mariage or, for marital status, by the certificat de célibat. The certificate of capacity to marry issued by the Turkish civil registry offices is submitted to meet that need. In translation, however, the Turkish document is not equated with a French one: the issuing authority (the civil registry office) and the identity of the document are carried across in their original form. A French mairie may also ask for a certificat de coutume setting out the marriage law of the person’s own country; that is a separate document and is not to be confused with the certificate of capacity to marry.

Since marital status can change, the mairie usually looks for a recently dated certificate, and one issued long ago can be turned back with a request for a new copy. Certificate and translation are therefore prepared close to the date of the marriage procedure, with an eye on how much time passes between the translation and the apostille.

The multilingual CIEC form and matching names

France and Türkiye are both parties to the conventions of the International Commission on Civil Status (CIEC), so the certificate of capacity to marry can be issued in a multilingual form that sets out the standard fields in several languages; where a mairie accepts it, that form can be used without a separate translation. Not every town hall treats it in the same way, though – some still ask for a sworn translation of the monolingual copy. Asking the mairie you will apply to whether the multilingual form is accepted is thus the safest first move. Where it is not, the monolingual certificate is translated into French.

The certificate does not stand alone in a marriage file; it is read together with the passport, the birth certificate and, where required, the civil registry extract. The given name, surname and birth details are expected to be identical across these documents; a difference in the Latin-script spelling prompts the mairie to ask whether the two documents belong to the same person. Surname changes arising from an earlier marriage are carried across exactly as they appear on the certificate.

A marriage in France usually involves steps of its own, such as the publication of the banns (publication des bans) and the hearing of the couple by the mairie; those steps are no concern of the translation, but they show that the file advances to a set timetable. Preparing the certificate and its translation with a current date, in time for that timetable, therefore matters a great deal: if the certificate of capacity to marry filed at the start of the procedure has gone stale, the whole process can be sent back to wait. A Turkish citizen living abroad may also find the procedure running through a French consulate rather than directly through a mairie; learning at the outset which authority is on the receiving end ensures the document is prepared in the right form and the right language. Because the document expected along the consular route, and the form and language it is expected in, can differ according to the authority applied to, whether the multilingual copy is accepted is confirmed separately at that stage as well.

• Do not confuse the Turkish certificate with a certificat de capacité or a certificat de coutume.
• Ask the mairie whether the multilingual form is accepted.
• Keep the spelling of the name identical to the passport and the birth certificate.

Certification: the apostille and a listed translator

As the certificate of capacity to marry originates with the civil registry, the apostille is obtained from the governor’s office or the district governor’s office; the courthouse is not the place to seek it. A translation put before an official body in France must be made by a sworn translator (traducteur assermenté) on the list of a court of appeal (Cour d’appel), failing which the Turkish chain of sworn translator, notarisation and apostille is followed. The safest sequence is to obtain a current copy, complete the apostille and then translate the document with the apostille included. France is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so confirm the current position from the official HCCH list. You can handle your marriage file through our single office in Ankara Kızılay, see the cost on our pricing page and request a quotation by uploading your document. This page is for general information; confirm the form and certification required with the mairie you will apply to.