Madagascar’s Paris embassy requires a full marriage record for family visas

Use the checklist for the sponsor’s nationality

For spouses joining Malagasy citizens, the Paris embassy requires a marriage-act copy and expressly rejects an extract. It also requires the family record book, the Malagasy spouse’s passport or identity card and a residence certificate for that spouse issued within the previous three months.

The same checklist calls for the completed and signed long-stay-convertible visa form, a recent photograph, original passport and biometric-page copy, a recent original criminal-record extract and a change-of-residence certificate issued by the French municipality. A declaration made by the applicant, even if endorsed by the municipality, is not accepted as that certificate. Use this spouse checklist to prepare the civil-status file.

Show the foreign sponsor’s current permission and family connection

A separate official checklist covers a spouse or child joining a foreign resident. It requires evidence of the principal family member’s passport and current convertible visa, receipt or resident card, together with a Madagascar residence certificate in that person’s name issued by the Fokontany. Applicants should therefore check the sponsor’s actual current document rather than supply an old visa without establishing the present status.

The child category in that checklist is labelled for children under twenty-one and requires a birth-act copy rather than an extract, plus the family record book. The spouse category likewise requires the marriage-act copy. The document lists a EUR 39 visa charge, payable by cheque to the embassy or cash through its accounting service, and says visa fees are non-refundable. This is the published Paris entry charge, not a consolidated price for the later resident card or for a whole family’s relocation.

Confirm the passport and postal instructions before dispatch

The embassy’s general contacts-and-procedures page and its family checklists use different reference dates for passport validity: the general page measures more than six months from arrival, while the family PDFs refer to more than six months after the return date. Applicants making a long-term move should ask the visa service which date it will apply rather than calculate an assumed expiry threshold. Both require at least two blank passport pages.

There is also a postal difference: the general procedures page requires a Chronopost return envelope and rejects stamped or registered-mail envelopes, while the family PDFs describe several tracked or express options. Confirm the accepted return service before mailing a passport. The general page asks postal applicants to allow at least ten days before departure and estimates three working days from receipt of a complete file. That estimate should not be treated as a guaranteed postal delivery or decision date.

Complete the Madagascar residence stage after arrival

The embassy’s main visa guidance says that long-stay-convertible entry permission is issued for one month and cannot be obtained at the arrival airport or seaport. After entering, the applicant must address the residence stage through the Ministry of the Interior or the relevant one-stop service within the stated month. Its family checklists direct applicants to provide the original documents for the resident-card request. Keep those originals available rather than assume that the Paris submission eliminates later documentary requirements. The main embassy guidance also states that marrying someone resident in Madagascar does not automatically authorise settlement beyond the admitted stay; a new application identifying the marital situation is required.

The Foreign Ministry’s immigrant-visa resource separately explains that nationals in a country with a Malagasy diplomatic or consular representation should apply through that representation. It identifies birth evidence for children under twenty-one and a marriage act for spouses among the family-specific documents. The ministry resource helps applicants outside France locate the appropriate channel; it does not make the Paris fee, municipal certificate or mailing rules universal. Its common-document list also includes accommodation and support evidence with a legalised signature, or a lease, alongside the host’s identity and residence evidence.

No new family-visa change is asserted for November. The practical next step is to establish the sponsor category, obtain the correct full civil record and confirm any conflicting submission details directly before paying or posting the passport.