French Criminal Record Translation
French criminal record translation of the bulletin n°3 from the Casier judiciaire national in Nantes, the Belgian extrait de casier judiciaire, the Swiss extrait, and the extraits de casier judiciaire and certificats de bonne vie et mœurs from Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, the DRC and Haiti, for the National Visa Center, USCIS, an employer or a licensing board, and a US record into French. Each page carries a signed certification.
- Up to 250 words per page
- $25 per page
- Standard turnaround
- From 24 hours
- Certificate of accuracy
- Signed & stamped
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Written for French criminal record records
The bulletin n°3 and its cousins
France keeps one register with three bulletins, and only one can be handed to the person it concerns. Other francophone countries draw their certificates differently.
Bulletin n°1, n°2 and n°3
The Casier judiciaire national in Nantes issues the bulletin n°1 to courts, the n°2 to administrations, and the n°3 to the person, free, at casier-judiciaire.justice.gouv.fr; a néant bulletin arrives by email, within the hour for someone born in France. The n°3 shows only the heaviest sentences, broadly prison terms of more than two years without sursis and certain interdictions, so néant does not mean an empty past, and a US form asking about any arrest is still answered from the court file. The State Department reciprocity table names the n°3 as the French police certificate, and we translate the heading, the néant and the verification code as printed.
When something is recorded
A conviction line gives the juridiction, the date, the infraction with its article of the Code pénal or Code de la route, and the peine: emprisonnement with or without sursis, amende, jours-amende, travail d'intérêt général, suspension du permis. French law divides offences into contraventions, délits and crimes, and we keep those words beside the English rather than flattening a délit into a felony. Sursis is a suspended sentence, mise à l'épreuve, renamed sursis probatoire in 2020, a probation order, and a condamnation non avenue is a conviction removed from the bulletin, which USCIS still asks about. The court's jugement or arrêt is translated alongside so dates and case references match.
Belgium, Switzerland, Québec, Haiti and West Africa
Belgium issues the extrait de casier judiciaire at the commune in three models: 595 for ordinary use, 596-1 for regulated activities and 596-2 for work with minors. Switzerland's extrait du casier judiciaire comes from the Office fédéral de la justice, as an extrait pour particuliers or an extrait spécial. Québec police give a vérification d'antécédents judiciaires, usually bilingual. Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon and the DRC issue an extrait du casier judiciaire from the tribunal of the place of birth; Haiti's comes from the parquet, usually paired with a police certificat de bonne vie et mœurs.
Who is asking for your French criminal record translation?
The translation is the same. What changes is whether the recipient wants anything added to it.
USCIS and the National Visa Center
Consular processing asks for police certificates with a complete English translation and a signed certification. No notarization is needed.
IRCC
IRCC accepts a certified translation with the translator's affidavit. Order the certified translation and add notarization if your application guide asks for it.
Residency applications abroad
A US background check going to another country usually needs an apostille and a translation into that country's language, sometimes notarized.
Before you upload
Three things that save a day of back and forth on a French criminal record.
Get the certificate first, then the translation
Most police certificates are valid for a few months. Have the certificate issued, then upload it, so the translation and the original are current together.
Check which authority the checklist names
A state letter, a federal letter and a court record are different documents. Read the consulate or USCIS checklist and send the one it asks for, or all of them.
Keep the QR code and verification number in the scan
Online certificates carry a QR code or a verification code. They are translated with the rest and are how a consulate confirms the document is genuine.
Details and pricing
What is included in a French criminal record translation
One price per page covers the translation and its certification. A page is up to 250 words, and the quote tells you the page count before you pay.
Everything on the criminal record is translated, including stamps, seals and handwritten notes. Tell us the English spelling you use for each name when you order.
Certified Translation
Word-for-word translation with a certificate of accuracy for official use.
$25
USD / page
up to 250 words per page
Included
- Signed & stamped certification of translation accuracy
- Certified by a professional translator
- Digital delivery via PDF
- Review and approve final translation
- 100% Guaranteed Acceptance
- Standard turnaround starting at 24 hours
Optional services
- Expedited turnaround
- Priority handling when your deadline is shorter than the standard turnaround.
- By deadline
- Notarization
- A notary public signs and stamps the certification statement.
- $20 per order
- Physical copy
- A wet-ink original of your translation, mailed by express courier.
- $35 per order
- Apostille
- Authenticates the notary’s signature and seal for use in Hague Convention countries.
- $180 per document
What the certificate of accuracy states
Your translation arrives with a Certification of Translation Accuracy issued by ImmiTranslate. It is the page the receiving organization checks first.
- The translation is complete and accurate.
- The document title and the language pair.
- The translator is competent in both languages.
- A signature and the ImmiTranslate certification stamp.
- Our American Translators Association corporate membership.
Our translation process
Our goal is to make the translation process as simple as possible for you. Our service is streamlined specifically for documents of this nature.
French Criminal Record FAQ
Most questions about pricing and turnaround can be answered faster by requesting a quote.
- My bulletin n°3 came as a PDF with a verification code. Is that what I send?
- Yes. The PDF from the Casier judiciaire national is the document, and the code at the foot lets a recipient check it on the ministry's verification page. Send us that file; we translate it and attach the certification to it. Keep the code visible on your copy, and if a consulate or employer wants paper, the same site can post the bulletin to a French or foreign address.
- I was born outside France. Can I still get the bulletin online?
- Yes, from the same site, with an identity document uploaded instead of the birth details the register can match itself, and the answer takes longer because a clerk checks the file by hand. A written request to the Casier judiciaire national in Nantes works too. The NVC wants the bulletin for France if you lived there long enough after age 16, whatever your nationality.
- I need my FBI check translated into French for a titre de séjour, a naturalisation or a job in France. Can you do that?
- Yes. The préfecture asks a foreign national for an extrait de casier judiciaire from every country lived in, and for the US that is the FBI Identity History Summary, apostilled by the US Department of State. Préfectures and tribunaux want it translated by a traducteur assermenté listed by a cour d'appel, and we are not on that list. For an employer, a sports club's honorabilité check or a Belgian commune, our certified translation into French is what people use.
- How much does a certified translation cost?
- Certified translation is $25 per page, with a page counted as up to 250 words. Notarization, a mailed physical copy and an apostille are optional and priced separately.
- How long does a certified translation take?
- Standard turnaround starts at 24 hours and depends on the length and language of your documents. If you have a deadline, include it in your quote request.
Other French documents we translate
Criminal record translation in other languages
Each of these pages is written for that language's criminal record records.
Sending it with an application? Read the USCIS translation requirements, Apostille service before you order.