Need general advice on French nationality / passport refusal due to alleged issue with parents’ marriage
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for general advice or guidance from anyone familiar with French nationality law, French passport applications, or similar cases.
I was born outside France, Currently living in Singapore. One of my parents is French / of French nationality, and my French nationality claim is based on parentage. I applied for a French passport and French national identity card through a French embassy abroad.
My applications were refused. The reason given was that my parents’ marriage, which took place before I was born, was considered affected by an alleged bigamy issue. Because of that, the embassy stated that the marriage could not be relied on to establish filiation, and therefore they refused to recognise my French nationality for the purpose of issuing the passport and ID card.
From what I understand, my father had been separated from his previous family for a long period of time before my parents’ marriage. I was also told that he had been officially divorced, which is why my mother was later able to be added into the French family book / livret de famille.
I contested the refusal before the administrative court in France. In fact, my half brother helped to write in to appeal as well, but the case was rejected by ordonnance due to a procedural issue, not because the court reviewed the actual nationality issue. The court said I had not regularised a required address / election of domicile after a Télérecours request.
One important point is that my sister, who is in the same family situation and relied on the same family documents, previously received her French passport and French national identity card. My application was refused later, based on the alleged issue with my parents’ marriage.
I am currently trying to get a French nationality lawyer to handle the matter properly. In the meantime, I wanted to ask if anyone has seen a similar situation before, especially where one sibling was accepted and another was refused using similar family documents.