Applying for your first identity card and passport

For a first identity card or passport application you must prove your French nationality. According to service-public.gouv.fr, the ampliation of the naturalization or reintegration decree is an accepted document; if you no longer have it, an attestation confirming the decree's existence is accepted.

The birth certificate is the other key document: the official page states it must be less than three months old. For a birth abroad it must have been issued on secure paper by the central civil registry service in Nantes, or on ordinary paper by a consular registrar. That is why requesting the birth certificate is usually the first step after the decree is published.

If none of these documents is available, service-public.gouv.fr mentions two other routes: proof by “possession d'état”, which requires at least two documents from a list and French status recognised for at least ten years, or obtaining a certificate of French nationality.

AlertJO handles none of these steps: we only tell you that your decree has been published, which is where they start.