Has anyone applied for French citizenship recently?

General Discussion
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Update from last November, just in case of use to others going though the process.

I had my interview today, 16months after submitting my huge dossier. I was given only 12 days notice and was also required to bring another huge dossier as all the documents that were now out of date had to be resubmitted, and in some cases re-translated. Applying for naturalisation can be costly.

So have been buried in revision for last 12 days. This was a useful link:

It was a very friendly interview, in three parts. The first was going through my dossier - particularly the financial element as she wanted to be clear exactly what was my income. The funniest thing was I had been asked to bring in justificatifs of income over last 3 months, so brought bank statements as don’t have pay slips. She handed these back as being “personal information”! They know everything else about me!,

The second, longest, section was on how I have ended up in France and in this area and how I have integrated into my local community. It felt very relaxed as if she wasn’t looking to trip me up but just wanted me to explain my relationship with France over my life and why I wanted to be French. We talked about my family history, my time in France as a child, why my husband hasn’t applied, and what prompted me to apply (not just Brexit although she did ask). Also who my friends are, what I do with them, the role I play in my commune, the various associations I belong to, where I go on holiday, We talked about our güte, and the clients, and about the area we live in.

At one point I mis-pronounced a word, which she corrected. I apologised but she reassured me and said my french was fine, but I still had an accent :rofl::joy:. (1) As I said, a nice woman
 I also managed to say the devise of France was libertĂ©, Ă©galitĂ© and fidĂ©litĂ©. Her “really?” Allowed me to correct myself.

The third section was THE questions
devise and what each mean, the symbols of France (with her turning her head to stare at the bust of Marianne on a shelf (nice woman) 
and we had a discussion about the new Marianne engagĂ©), the revolution why and who, the Veme republic and the changes in powers, a bit about Algeria, etc etc. All very much as the in the video link. The one question I didn’t expect was to name the current political parties


And then the final killer question of whether I felt French! Which is impossible to answer as I’m not French so I have no idea what “feeling French” is like. So had to fluff around and said I didn’t feel english.

But generally I left feeling that I had been able to explain myself and demonstrate a certain amount of knowledge. Hopefully enough but will be 18months before I know.

(1) edit
my French is not fine, she was being polite! It is above B1, the level required, but not completely fluent by any means.

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82

Thanks Jane. In the nicest possible way it sounds like you got a thorough grilling. But passed with flying colours. Thank you for sharing this experience.

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Good grief, Jane


You had to get recent documents and get them translated, despite having provided all the same bumpf much earlier


How can one assess the costs of going through this process, if one has to pay over and over again
 ???

I’m getting just a trifle disheartened


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Doesn’t everyone? Even the French - Parisien/North/South/Breton, all different surely.

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I have difficulty understanding my Wife’s accent and we’ve been married 47 years and both British!!

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Thanks for sharing Jane and so pleased it all went well!

I would be pushing dh to go for his nationality (after having his CNF rejected). The guy at the tribunal told him to and said there would be no issue at all but due to his health he is in no way able to meet the financial conditions. So a kid with a French mum who started school not speaking very good English, got bullied for years as being ‘the Frenchy’, whos family on his mothers side have been French forever, grandfather won medals and died in the war etc is not able to get his citizenship. I think it is rotten they make the finaces such a make or break.

I agree this is just appalling, French bureaucracy at its worst.

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87

She was being polite I think
euphemistic way of saying my french isn’t perfect! (Which it isn’t).

Part of it I think was that I am applying and not my husband. So in the French pretending-it’s-not-sexist way she wanted to check I had enough to support myself if he ran off with the postmistress. Having studied the files she told me with slight surprise that my financial standing is better than his
strangely I knew that!! Had we both applied I’m not sure she would have unpicked our joint tax return to that extent. If you can get to the basic level then don’t worry.

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Is it taken as family resources or individuals work? I thought thye actually looked at your job etc and that was part of being ‘intergrated’.
I remember reading though that it is quite high, 1400-1500% pp/ per month, so until my job situation is sorted it is very unlikely that we’d make it!

He’ll just have to not be French :roll_eyes: all because of a bloody sexist law back in the 60s/70s. Women weren’t able to hold dual nationality so MIL was advised by the prefecture to take a UK passport - she now has it back but at the time of dh’s birth she wasn’t French (although didn’t speak English :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:). Ludicrous.

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being retired, there’s not a lot I can do to up the income
 but we’d scrape through.

It’s the initial costs of putting the dossiers together
 then more costs for redoing everything, just due to the normal delay in processing
 that’s what I can’t quite come to terms with.

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agree!

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Not everywhere is like that, and Covid has slowed things down hugely. Some areas whizz through applications, and other take years.

And if one’s personal situation is straightforward (no multiple marriages, or lots of children, complicated finances from many sources) then not too many certificates to buy and translate. And the cost of the language exam of course.

You are right, it is about integration and there is no official threshold. But if one can’t get to SMIC my guess is they would question the level of ‘integration’.

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yes exactly hence my hesitation with him applying. He was devastated when he got rejected for the CNF as he’d always thought of himself as half French (and spoke French as his first language), I think a rejection of citizenship would destroy him.

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But when you get a more stable income job that should become less of an issue? As it is household income, so maybe apply together? My interviewer was possibly just being picky (or nosey?).

Any reasonable person would say it was a crock of shit that he didn’t get his CNF, and push the papers through. I find it hard to believe he was rejected!

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[quote=“JaneJones, post:93, topic:32574”]
As it is household income, so maybe apply together? My interviewer was possibly just being picky (or nosey?). [/quote]

Yes hopefully we’ll get to a point where we can meet the thresholds! I have heard of a guy who has lived here nearly 30 years, works (but smic as so many jobs here are) and got rejected for not being rich enough.

I know and we had hoped that would be what happened and even spoken to people who were hopeful it would go through. It just seemed to be ‘she wasn’t French at birth thatt’s the end of it’!

So do we!!! And we even had to go to the tribunal to be rejected in person! The stupid law was repealed just 2 years later (although MIL didn’t find out she could have her Frenchness back until after that), and MIL got her UK papers just 5 weeks before dh was born (so if he’d been early!!) so spent all that time as being French :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: The guy basically said they have to work with what the law was at the time and she wasn’t Frenchat the moment of his birth so tough luck!

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I remember that story, and I think there was more to it than we heard. I seem to recall that later it transpired that his “work” was very patchy and he had a complex family situation (possible sub-text that there were children he wasn’t supporting - which doesn’t go down well here).

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I had a feeling if you own your own house then that can be taken into account on income?

Also I think I read that if you have a French study qualification university etc., or post-grad from a French institution you get an exemption from proving the language level.

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The rule was the same for men and women, you could either keep your original nationality OR take that of your spouse, the only people who could have dual nationality were the children (if the parents had different nationalities of countries which allowed it, some didn’t). If you chose to take your spouse’s nationality then you relinquished the original one, and if you did that then your child had the nationality of both parents and not the relinquished original nationality, and no right to it.
My mother (who is probably older than your MIL) kept her French nationality which is why I have had both forever.

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I’m not so sure about that, there as a law that changed in 1973 and allowed both but from what I read (and the man at the tirbunal and the lady at the pref confirmed) until then men could have dual but not women. Anyway all irrelevant as he doesn’t have the right!

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That is so off putting. If it takes them so long to get round to interviewing you, then surely that is down to them and they should accept your documents. Why not get you to sign one of their favourite Attestations that nothing had changed since you first made your submission>

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I have added a pdf of my “revision” documents for others who are preparing for the interview. Enjoy. I’ve mostly taken off the personal, but maybe a few obscure bits that amused me remain.

Questions pour bien prĂ©parer l’entretien de naturalisation - to share.docx.pdf (98.4 KB)

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