Legalising New Zealand birth certificate for France BANNS

Hello,

Has any one had any experience with a Notary when needing to legalise their New Zealand birth certificate to provide for the publication of Banns in France via the French consulate in London?

I am getting married to a French National in the U.K and we need to provide a copy of my birth certificate dated and signed not exceeding 3 months from the stamp. I am in possession of the original birth certificate. The New Zealand high commission is closed due to Covid, they cannot help me with this and I have been recommended to a Notary or apostille.

My questions are:
1. Does the French Consulate accept an E-apostille or only paper
2. 2 Notaries have said they don't think i need a notary or are unsure, the 3rd has said they can do it for a charge which I understand - it would be upsetting to pay for something that is then not accepted or valid to the French consulate
3. Can I visit the French consulate with my original to prove
4. The NZ high commission has said to contact the French consulate to find out what they will accept

The French consulate will not reply to an email if the question(s) are already stated online, but I cannot find information to help me, and they have not responded.

If anyone has been through a similar experience and has some advice or pointers it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

I don’t have French specific knowledge but I e been legalizing a lot of papers within/outside EU.

Only the country that issued the paper can legalize the paper for you. NZ is a part of The Hague Convention which established apostile rules, so you’ll need to find a way to get the apostile from NZ IF you need apostile.

Thanks for your reply!

Just an update for anyone who may read this.

After some digging we found a section within the French gouv.fr that states a New Zealand person must provide their birth certificate in Apostilled form - if applying to the UK French consulate.

We sent our dossier off to the French consulate only to have them return this a few days later - our folder was incomplete.

I was required to provide my Birth cert in apostille, a copy of my biometrics residence permit (although this was not mentioned on our document checklist), and that they want 5 weeks notice prior to the wedding ceremony to publish banns.

New Zealanders (living in the UK) - you can apply for an apostille birth cert by calling the BDM in Wellington and requesting this. No need to send your original certificate to them (they print a new one by confirming your details) and costs $90 NZD. In total the process takes about 2.5/3 weeks from submitting the request to receiving.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for the help. I think I am getting the picture now. It looks like from other research I did that it is not such a big problem. The Embassy understands the transliteration issue of G to H.