The Pacte Civil de Solidarité (PACS), established in 1999, offers a legally recognized partnership alternative to traditional marriage in France. Popular for its flexibility and simplicity, PACS is available to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
This article explores the process of PACS and the personal experience shared by Mohona about her PACS with a French partner. If you would like to contribute with articles about your personal experiences, feel free to write to me via Contact Me.
What is PACS?
Le PActe Civil de Solidarité (PACS) is a civil partnership contract between two adults in France. PACSed people can live together as a couple including submitting a joint income tax declaration in France as a family.
Both the partners must meet all of the following requirements:
- Be of legal age. If one of you is a foreigner, he/she must be of the age of majority set by his/her country.
- Not married or a member of a partnership.
- Not having a direct or close family connection with the other partner.
- By getting PACSed, the partners commit to a common life. So, they must choose a common residence. They must declare a common address by a certificate on honor.
- It is not mandatory to already live together at the time of the declaration of PACS.
- The declared address becomes their common address upon registration of the PACS.
Cost of PACS Process?
The cost of the process depends on whether the PACS is done alone with your future partner or via a Notaire public.
- No Fees: If you do it on your own by visiting the Mairie.
- Fees applicable: If you do it via a notary, you must pay the notary charges. It may cost around 300-400 euros. For more details, you can refer to Quel est le coût d’un Pacs?
Official list of Documents
The first step is to contact the local Mairie and inform them that you want to get PACSed. They will send a list of documents required for the process.
- Déclaration conjointe d’un pacte civil de solidarité (Pacs) et attestations sur l’honneur de non-parenté, non-alliance et résidence commune Formulaire CERFA 15725*03.
- Convention-type de pacte civil de solidarité (Pacs) Formulaire CERFA 15726*02. This is very important because the couple declare their choice of Régime des biens. One of the following two options must be chosen: séparation or indivision. If nothing is chosen, the separation régime is applied by default.
- Séparation des biens: Each partner retains the full rights of the assets acquired before the PACS, but also the assets he/she bought alone during the PACS. This includes investments, property, etc.
- Indivision des biens: Assets acquired by each partner before PACS remain the property of each. But, all assets acquired during the PACS are deemed to be common assets, regardless of whether they were purchased by a single partner or by both.
- Birth certificate: Apostilled and translated by a certified translator in France.
- An identity document: with photograph, signature, identification of the authority that issued the document, date and place of issue. Ex: National ID card, Passport and Resident Permit, etc.
- Certificat de coutume issued by the respective Embassy or Consulate in France. For more details, Certificat de coutume for PACS in France.
- Certificat de célibat (Bachelorhood certificate) issued by the respective Embassy or Consulate in France. For more details, Affidavit of Celibacy (Affidavit on Bachelorhood) from Embassy of India, Paris.
- Certificat de non inscription de PACS (registre Service Central d’Etat Civil à Nantes). Translation: Certificate of non-registration of PACS.
- Attestation de non inscription au Répertoire Civil pour étranger en France (Service Central d’Etat Civil Nantes). Translation: Certificate of non-registration in the Civil Directory for foreigners in France.
Note:
- Documents issued in France must be less than 3 months old.
- Foreign documents must be apostilled and translated to French. The apostilled document can be older but the official translation must be less than 6 months old.
List of Documents submitted
The following documents were submitted by Mohona for her PACS with a French partner.
- Acte de naissance/ Birth certificate: This document is very important and do not take it lightly. My personal experience was a bit difficult. You need to have an original from your state. As I was from Delhi, I got my Birth certificate again and got it apostilled in India as my Mairie required that the apostille needs to be less than 6 months and my family sent it through DHL from India for this one-page document which cost around 3000 rupees and I received it within 3 days of them sending it. Then you have to translate the document to French and the translation needs to be less than 6 months. They will not accept printouts/photocopies, it needs to be original. Check with your Mairie because sometimes they can accept the birth certificate provided by VFS. My mairie first informed us that they would accept it as my BC was stolen but then they did not accept the BC given by the VFS and I had to get the Original one from India.
- Identity proof: Passport.
- Certificat de coutume: VFS Paris provides this service I applied and within a week I received it. For more details about te process, please refer to Certificat de coutume for PACS in France.
- Certificat de célibat: My Mairie’s requirement was either Certificat de celibate or coutume. So, I did not have to submit this document.
- Certificat de non inscription de PACS & Attestation de non inscription au Répertoire Civil. I demanded this attestation online, it can be demanded by post also but online was faster. It is easy, you have to create an account and ask for the attestation. I received it within 1 month. I applied on 27th November 2023 and received it on 24th December 2023.
- Attestation sur l’honneur. It is a document the international person needs to sign saying they have not married before. You can find a template ere Modèle de lettre – Attestation sur l’honneur.
- Déclaration conjointe d’un pacte civil de solidarité (Pacs) et attestations sur l’honneur de non-parenté, non-alliance et résidence commune Formulaire CERFA 15725*03.
- Convention-type de pacte civil de solidarité (Pacs) Formulaire CERFA 15726*02.
Personal Experience
Here is the personal experience shared by Mohona for her PACS with a French partner.
- All the documents for international people must be less than 6 months old.
- All the documents for the French national must be less than 3 months old.
- For the French national, there is no other document required other than a Passport/ carte d’identité and Birth certificate. For BC, the Mairie usually contacts the Mairie of the department the person was born in and they get the document so technically only passport or carte d’identité is required.
- When all the documents are ready, you must submit them online for your local Mairie to check. Once the documents are approved, the Mairie will ask you to physically come and submit the documents.
- Our experience was that, we submitted the documents, and a week later we got our RDV. But, one of my close friends got the RDV and PACS done on the same day they went to submit the documents. So, It depends from Mairie to Mairie.
- On the day of RDV, there is nothing to sign or anything. It is a 5-minute process. They will give the Certificat de PACS for each individual and Convention de PACS (the document you filled out earlier) the original for us to keep.
- They will keep the original birth certificate. It will not be givn back as Mairie mentioned if they give back the birth certificate the PACS will be considered annulled.
- This entire process can be done by a Notaire too within a week but it will cost around 300-400 euros. We chose not to and did everything by ourselves.
- We submitted the documents on the 19th of January 2024 and we got PACSed on the 12th of April 2024. It took a bit of time because we had to go back and forth with the Mairie because of my birth certificate. However if all your documents are perfect and if Mairie accepts it, it can be done within a month.
- It costs nothing to apply for PACS via Mairie. Only expenses for gathering various documents.
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Sources & References
- Pacte civil de solidarité (PACS) service-public.fr
- To enter into a PACS service-public.fr
- Effects of a PACS service-public.fr
- Modify a PACS service-public.fr
- Dissolve a PACS service-public.fr
Hello,
Do i need to have apostilled original birth certificate less then 6 months old or apostille of the translation should be minimum 6 months old.
In my case I have my original birth certificate already apostille in 2017 and if it should be less then six months old in case of marriage, i need to ask for another birth certificate and apostille it in India and translation ? or I should translate the birth certificate which was apostilled in 2017 and apostille of latest translation?
Thanks in advance,
Abhishek
Hello Abhishek,
Apostilled Indian documents do not have any expiry date. More details below,
1. Apostille: https://prasanthragupathy.com/2024/09/apostille-process-of-indian-birth-and-marriage-certificates/
2. Translation: https://prasanthragupathy.com/2024/09/traducteur-assermente-list-of-official-translators-in-france/
Cheers,
Prasanth
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Firstly, I’d like to thank you for all the information you regularly provide on your website. It’s a huge help for many of us who are trying to navigate the bureaucracy in France.
I am planning to get married next year and had some questions about my birth certificate. I come from the state of West Bengal where they will not reissue a new birth certificate to me. Mine is dated 2024, which is too late for marriage. I have not yet gotten an apostille for this certificate. If I get the apostille now, will it work even if the apostille is new but the certificate is dated 2024?
I live in the 13th arrondissement and also wanted to ask you if you know whether they will accept the Embassy issued passport-based birth certificate. I have emailed them, but for now no response.
It would be very helpful if you had any information about this.
Hello Namita,
Only French documents have the 3-months recent rule. So, not a problem.
Unfortunately, sometimes local Mairies insist on a completely new birth certificate, even when official French rules say otherwise. If this is the case in your Mairie, you might have to get a new BC (based on passport) from the Indian Embassy in Paris via RDV.
Cheers,
Prasanth
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Hi,
You also mentioned that they keep the original birth certificate. Is this the case for marriage as well, as my state does not reissue and I need it for naturalisation.
Hello Namita,
It depends on the local Mairie. Please check with yours. If its applicable, you can try to obtain a new Birth certificate from Indian Embassy or Consulate, based on your Indian passport.
Cheers,
Prasanth
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Hello, Thank you so much for all the information provided in the article; it was definitely resourceful. We had all the documents ready for our appointment. But during our appointment, they said they need coutume certificate for PACS and not for marriage, I booked another appointment with the Indian embassy asking for PACS and they said they wont give this specially for PACS and they wont give it in writing also. I’m from 13eme Paris. Can someone please help us how to proceed in this issue?
Hello Neelesh,
It’s a generic certificate given for PACS or Marriage. In India, the concept of PACS doesn’t exist.
Also, the same has been used my so many Indians to get PACSed in France. An example https://prasanthragupathy.com/2024/02/vfs-certificat-de-coutume-for-pacs-paris/
Note: The VFS part is not relevant since July 2025.
Cheers,
Prasanth
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