Hmmm I’d strongly suggest you be very sure about not pursuing the Ireland angle before you consider France.
France will drive you abaolutely nuts with any type of necessary admin (and there’s a lot of it) and particularly with how long things take with you hearing nothing and being told you have to wait without any way to find out status or progress.
Quite a few of the French seem to feel the same way but incoming as a foreigner is so much worse as it’s fair enough that you start from zero.
And unlike India, as one example, there’s no chance of just paying a bribe to get something you really need done even if it’s long overdue.
But interestingly, once you are here, the CPAM health system website ameli.fr is one place where had you moved pre-Brexit you’d tick the box as an EU citizen to make things work properly as that’s how they’ve got it set up. Or possibly if you have an S1. Not sure if this applies for non-S1 post-Brexit movers though.
I’m not sure what your options are with Ireland, but is it possible to move to France via some VLS-TS visa and, at the same time in, parallel, pursue getting your Irish citizenship, even if it takes several years? I can tell you from experience that being an EU citizen is priceless in France (I’m Italian and I could have done it that way, but didn’t have to ). I’ve never had to deal with a prefecture or any of that nonsense.
You give reasons why you want to leave Ireland but I’m wondering if you are viewing France as perhaps it was when you last lived here (prior to 2014).
For example… Medical Deserts exist in France nowadays with many folk experiencing real difficulties.
and, whilst you’ll have money in your pocket after selling your property in Ireland, buying in France is a whole different ballgame.. money vanishes like snow in a heatwave.
I am not being negative, this might be the right move for you to make.
However, I think you need to be a little more aware of what real-life is like and what it costs… here in France in 2026 and beyond.
Please think very seriously about the advantages of acquiring Irish citizenship, if genuinely available to you!
For example, I wonder what your appetite for dealing with bureaucracy is? On the one hand, if you enjoy or are unfazed sailing into administrative battles, collecting large numbers of forms, making repeat visits to visa centres, (and later on) obtaining language certificates, satisfying income level requirements, renewing visas/cartes de séjour, plus paying for the privilege, signing codes of behaviour etc etc, then being an EU citizen - purely from a hassle free existence - may not be such an attraction. However if you don’t particularly care for the necessity of regularly assembling sizeable quantities of information, form filling, and being largely dependent on the (sometimes) whimsical thumbs up or down of a Prefecture for permission to live/continuing to live in France, then the attraction of being an EU citizen - again purely from a hassle free life point of view - begins to become more apparent.
Everyone’s appetite for bureaucracy no doubt differs. Personally I hate it. I would have given anything to have been an EU citizen both when entering France, and now when renewing my own carte de séjour. I am one of the lucky ones, married to an EU citizen. In relative terms - I get away more lightly in terms of bureaucratic requirements (with a mere 34 documents required for renewal!).
If I had had the opportunity to become an EU citizen but rejected that option, for me it would be like a card player discarding their strongest card and being left with a much weakened hand.
Back to the OPs original post…if you move to France now the fact you have been resident in France and the Republic of Ireland is irrelevant.
You will have to jump through all the visa hoops, income requirements etc.
With an EU nationality you will still have a lot of bureaucracy on things like healthcare but the pain / stress / cost of visas you can just ignore. Dont underestimate the pain and potential risks of this.
The process of getting Irish nationality is really not that onerous compared with other countries. From the initial application until the letter containing the decision to grant citizenship was exactly 2 years. It took another few months to get the invitation to a citizenship ceremony (after which you are officially Irish albeit with no documentary proof). Then 2 months to get the naturalisation certificate. And finally a couple of months to get the first passport.
The process is greatly facilitated if you are living in ROI or NI because you can just pop into a police station and they know the drill and will verify your identify for you.
Since we did it, the whole process has been digitalised, making it much easier than before.
Agreed, but the painful process in terms of gathering documents, covers precisely the period up to that 5 year point. Once you’ve satisfied the authorities requirements, looking back over the past 5 years, (at least in my case) it’s hopefully plain sailing after that…
Wot I said, George1. Only you say it much more eloquently. Although your comprehensive list didn’t come near to the real experience as there are so many ways F admin wears you down.
I’d go so far as to call it foolhardy not to act on the basis of paid-up residence in Ireland. After all, who knows what’s in the future?
And goal posts are beginning to move for the worse on visas for third country nationals, which is the category you unavoidably come into now if you are a UK citizen.
Lastly you never know the future and the EU is composed of many countries and you never know what the future holds.
Italy does it differently. When you submit the proper docs and they approve, they just send you a letter. No ceremony or formality. Their rationale is that you were born an Italian citizen, but undocumented. You then make an appointment to get a passport. It took me just under 2 years, but in most cases it takes far longer. Some people wait 2 years just to get an appointment to submit their docs.
In Ireland there’s no ceremony if you get citizenship by descent. The ceremony is only for people who are naturalized. My husband’s was in Killarney and I had to drag him by the scruff of the neck because he loathes travel. But actually it was great fun.
I think using Irish citizenship just as means of reducing paperwork is despicable and total contempt for the Nation. I hope you are not guilty of such veniality? Especially as a resident of a country that is politically driven by and by obsessed with keeping out the “unworthy”.
In my opinion an Irish passport is of great value and people carrying one should have significant and concrete connections to the State. I think treating citizenship of any nation just as a means of reducing paperwork is despicable. People fought and died for Irish nationhood (plus a civil war afterwards). Now citizens of a nation torn apart over immigration feel comfortable using an Irish passport just for convenience. Can’t you see just how hypocritical that is?
I’m sorry I missed your other posts before you deleted them Tim, but I’ll respond to this one
First of all I am not a pedant, you should look up the definition of the word.
Secondly, I am not jealous, I have held British and Irish passports for over fifty years. I’m a Londoner by birth but I have spent pretty well half my life in Ireland. I’ve lived in France a long time too but would never apply for French citizenship. I love France but I will never be “French”. I am a Londoner and I am Irish. I deserve to hold the two passports.
I don’t understand “try to do better, this was not your finest moment.”. I think standing up for decency, honour and honesty as opposed to pure expediency is probably a good thing to do. You may disagree.
I actually don’t care too much about people that abuse the generosity of the Irish by misusing their passports. Why not, if a loophole exists some would consider it silly not to exploit it? But using a country’s passport just as queue jumping tool is pretty offensive, isn’t it?
What I am interested in is calling that out and hoping that those that do, look in the mirror and realise they are hypocrites and frauds.
