Guidance

Monaco: Knowledge Base profile

Updated 1 September 2025

© Crown copyright 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/monaco-knowledge-base-profile/monaco-knowledge-base-profile

Version 3.0

About: Monaco

This document contains useful information about Monaco which will assist His Majesty’s Passport Office staff process passport applications.

Contacts

If you have any questions about the document and your line manager or senior caseworker cannot help you or you think that the document has factual errors then email the Guidance team.

If you notice any formatting errors in this document (broken links, spelling mistakes and so on) or have any comments about the layout or navigability of the document then you can email the Guidance team.

Publication

Below is information on when this version of the document was published:

  • version 3.0
  • published for Home Office staff on 27 August 2025

Changes from last version of this document

This document has been updated with formatting changes and new information has been added about:

  • names
  • documents in Monaco

Monaco: names

This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about names in Monaco.

Names in Monaco consist of:

  • 1 or more forenames
  • a surname

The surname will be:

  • the father’s surname if the child was born:
    • legitimate before 5 December 2016
    • on or after the 5 December 2016 and the parents chose to use the father’s surname
    • on or after the 5 December 2016 and the parents could not agree which surname to use
  • the mother’s surname if the child was born:
    • illegitimate before 5 December 2016
    • on or after the 5 December 2016 and the parents chose to use the mother’s surname

Change of name

After a birth is registered the surname can be changed once, under all of the following conditions:

  • the name is changed to the other parent’s surname
  • all the children of the partnership are under 13 years old
  • all the children’s surnames match

A Monaco national can apply to use their other parent’s or spouse’s surname as a ‘usage name’. The name is recorded on their certificate of nationality as a ‘noms d’usage’. Certificates of nationality are issued to all Monaco nationals.

Where a person is divorced they must obtain permission to use a previous married name from the courts or from their previous partner.

Name alignment

HM Passport Office will ask the customer to align their Monaco passport if the Monaco passport shows a usage name, but the customer does not use it.

Monaco: legitimacy

This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about legitimacy in Monaco.

Legitimacy

Monaco recognises a difference between legitimate and illegitimate births.

A child will be considered:

  • legitimate:
    • if their parents were married at the time of the birth
    • from the date of marriage if parents marry after the birth
  • illegitimate if their parents never marry

Monaco: documents

This section gives HM Passport Office operational staff information about documents in Monaco.

Birth certificates

Births in Monaco must be entered in the register of Births, Marriages and Deaths at the Mairie de Monaco (Monaco Town Hall), within 5 days of the birth.

The parents must decide whose surname will be given to the child. If they cannot agree, the father’s surname will be given.

The Mairie de Monaco will issue the birth certificate.

Identity documents

Monaco passports are valid for:

  • 10 years for an adult
  • 5 years for children aged between 3 and 18
  • 3 years for children aged less than 3

Where the customer has a ‘usage’ name recorded on their certificate of nationality, their Monaco passport will show their birth surname followed by the ‘usage’ name.

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