Shocking, those mistakes - the missing hyphen is one thing, but … ‘qui nous permettrons’ is really terrible, because it demonstrates a wrong agreement (wrong subject), it is the things (listed beforehand) which ‘will allow us to’… not ‘we will allow’, which is what he wrote. That’s why it should be …’ qui nous permettront’.
Mind you I have seen 18 year-old lycée pupils messing up possessives, putting verb endings on adjectives*… APPALLING, makes my eyes bleed.
“Les petites voitures son rougent” is the precise phrase I’m thinking of. How is it possible for someone to slip through the net like that?
Edited because I forgot a vital bit of punctuation, people in glass houses etc etc
Thankfully SMS can transparently cope with more than 80 chars and predictive text/swipe keyboards have eliminated most of the need for tortuous abbreviations these days.
Two people we know recently received their French Passports within 6 months of applying both has spouses who were French. Our daughter (Welsh) and her husband (Kiwi and American passports) both received their French passports within 2 years both work for ITER and were “fast tracked?” Neither had any problem with the application and the “French” interview was a mere formality they were more interested that they had a certificate showing a level B1 and could tick that box. We are now embarking on our application (under our daughters guidance) having being permanant residents for 5 years. If it is your intention to make France your permanant home as an immigrant surely you should be capable of communicating to an everyday functional level in the French language and also apply to be a citizen of your chosen country.
I found a recent article in Le Figaro encouraging that said effectively all applicants for French Citizenship ,once the paperwork was in order ,were granted it unless you had a criminal record or had committed some other dismeneamour.
Yes, naturalisation is far quicker if you’re married to a French citizen. I’m pacs’d to my French other half, our kids are French, as is my business and I’m well over the 10 years’ residency underwhich you should also be fast tracked… but it still took almost 3 years!
It also depends on where you apply from my Citizenship came through exactly 16months after putting in the application in Sept 2017 (divorced from a french National) Préfecture Nantes.
I found the written language test quite stressful as memory not so good at 59 1/2.
Good point, I’ve heard Paris is one of the quickest places. It took me 3 months to get an interview date which was 5 months later. Midi-Pyrénées has its own problem - they created an immigration centre in Toulouse for the whole region and they’re short staffed. Got there in the end, covid didn’t help either!
What I have read is that the main reason for refusing citizenship is lack of financial resources (would your dossier then be rejected before interview?), and then lack of integration demonstrated at the interview.
So once you have got through those hurdles then it seems pretty plain sailing. Just patience needed…
I’ve just received confirmation of my passing the French exam. I took the delf B1 exam in September (previous sittings I was booked for in March and May were both cancelled due to covid. I sat it in a local university.
It was perhaps more difficult than I expected but I got a higher mark than I thought I had achieved. It was in 4 parts - the first 3 sections were contained in a 2 hour written exam in the morning followed by an oral exam in the afternoon.
The written exam comprised a listening test (you listen to an extract of dialogue and then answer questions). There were 3 extracts of dialogue, each lasting about 2 minutes.
Then there was a reading test, where you had to read various statements and then answer questions on what you’d understood.
The final section of the morning exam was having to write an article for an imaginary magazine. It was pretending that the magazine was youth orientated and your article was offering advice about how to decide on a career.
The oral exam was also in 3 parts. Firstly spending a few minutes presenting yourself. Then a role play based around a topic you pick out of a selection of topics on cards face down. Mine was discussing with a friend the option of moving abroad for a year to study. Finally a debate on a specific subject. Once again there were various cards face down which had subjects on, from which you select 2. You can then choose which one to talk about - mine was about women in politics. The whole thing was recorded and in addition to the person taking the exam, someone else sat behind you taking notes.
It was very formal. The results took around a month to come out - I think they send the papers off for marking centrally.
I did the delf test because it doesn’t have an expiry date - once you have it it’s valid for life.
Last year. I think the final date for an over 60 to submit a dossier without a language test was then in August. There has been a general move towards tightening criteria for citizenship for those who don’t have a claim such as marriage to a French person.
