Timeline for My father is a French citizen, but he was not on my birth certificate. Can I get a French passport?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
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| Aug 25, 2020 at 12:49 | comment | added | tomosmarzin | Thanks for the answer, it seems like the correct route to take. I wonder what contitutes 'establishing parentage' - I was always treated as his son, plenty of evidence of that, just not an official document. Anyhow I shall submit and then look into consulting with a lawyer. Cheers. | |
| Aug 25, 2020 at 12:44 | vote | accept | tomosmarzin | ||
| Aug 25, 2020 at 9:20 | comment | added | Relaxed | In France's case, the Nicolo decision was not based on the European Convention on Human Rights but on the Rome treaty. However, none of this directly involves the European courts (ECJ or ECHR), it's about French courts using these texts and a few others as a kind of “Bill of rights” to set aside statutes. | |
| Aug 25, 2020 at 9:19 | comment | added | Relaxed | @chx Indeed, the ECHR doesn't even have the power to overturn a specific (court) decision but many countries (including France) have opened up the possibility to ask for a review if the country has been found guilty of a violation in a particular case. Obviously, some countries in the system care even less. | |
| Aug 25, 2020 at 9:12 | comment | added | chx | The ECHR repeatedly found it has no jurisdiction to annul domestic laws or administrative practices. This very likely needs to be done within France but I am not a lawyer and I do not even play one on television. | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 20:03 | history | edited | Relaxed | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Aug 24, 2020 at 20:01 | comment | added | Relaxed | @phoog Historically, French courts absolutely refused to set aside statutes (this is called the écran législatif or loi-écran theory), interpreting the constitution and international treaties is supposed to be the legislature's role. Since then, the high courts did open some possibilities (especially the state's council 1989 Nicolo decision) but a cursory look did not reveal any precedent dealing with this particular provision. | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 16:15 | comment | added | phoog | Regarding "it doesn't look promising": it would be a long shot, but there have been challenges to various provisions of Dutch nationality law on the argument that the provisions are inconsistent with some right or other guaranteed by EU law. This approach is of course well established in the US; I don't know how prevalent it is in the EU. It might be possible to make an argument along these lines concerning the "before 18" provision. That would, of course, be an expensive and slow process, but it would (as you state) need the formal refusal of a nationality certificate as its starting point. | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 15:07 | comment | added | Relaxed | With the article, I could find a bunch of precedents, it doesn't look promising. | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 15:04 | history | edited | Relaxed | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Aug 24, 2020 at 15:00 | comment | added | Relaxed | @phoog Yes, that's correct, found the relevant article in the code civil and I don't think it changed. I will edit my answer. | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 13:43 | comment | added | phoog | Wikipedia does say "Parentage to the parent from whom the French nationality is claimed, must be established while the child is still a minor (under 18)." I don't know whether there have been significant changes to French nationality law since 1980, and I haven't yet checked the current law. | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 13:38 | comment | added | phoog | "A verbal refusal or some official telling you you're not entitled to it (refus de guichet) doesn't help you, you want a formal decision with a written explanation to be able to dispute it in front of the courts": this is really key. I've heard more than one story of people failing to pursue some benefit or other in a timely fashion because of advice from an official that they were not qualified, and then when they realized the official was wrong, it was too late. | |
| Aug 24, 2020 at 9:36 | history | answered | Relaxed | CC BY-SA 4.0 |