DOCUMENT CHECKLIST

Documents to bring

✔A valid U.S. passport and French visa for you and all your accompanying dependents.

✔A Qui de Droit certificate – official document proving you are in France with a grant from the Commission. Keep it with you while traveling.

✔An original birth certificate or a certified copy of your birth certificate (and certificates for your dependents). An old photocopy may not be accepted as a legal document (and may also not be legible enough) so we suggest obtaining a new official copy. A birth certificate is often required to obtain a resident permit or for registering with the French national healthcare system. You may be asked to have a legal translation made of the original by a traducteur assermenté. 

✔Original or certified copy of marriage license (even if the spouse is not accompanying the grantee) or divorce certificate. You may be asked to have a legal translation made of the original by a traducteur assermenté.

✔Some students will be asked to show the original of their college or university diploma if they are planning to enroll in a French university. They may also be asked to have a legal translation of the original made while they are in France.

✔ Vaccination records for you and any accompanying dependents.

All of these items (except for the passport and visa) may not be absolutely necessary, but you may well use them for university registration, signing up for French healthcare, or for legal documents such as residency permits, etc. Each embassy website should have a list of recommended translators who can provide you with certified translations of your documents (birth certificate, marriage license) if necessary. You can also consult the Annuaire des Traducteurs Assermentés de France (directory of certified translators in France).

We suggest you bring at least 2-3 photocopies of these documents and have scanned copies at your disposal.

Obtaining your documents

Passport 

• You should apply for an American passport through the US State Department Bureau of Consular Affairs as early as possible. 

• Passports must be valid for at least three months after the requested end date of your visa to France.

• Passports must have at least two blank pages for the visa and initial entry stamp into France/Schengen area. 

 Birth and Marriage Certificates

• To access the contact information for US vital records offices by state/territory, click here 

• It is usually not necessary to obtain an apostille authentication for your birth and marriage certificates. If you do, note that US birth and marriage certificates must be authenticated by the same state that issued them. For more information on apostilles, click here.
  We also invite you to consult this brochure to read about the Apostille and the Hague Convention