Hi I’m thinking about to apply french citizenship. I have a bac+3 eight years ago and now I come back to France using long stay visitor visa. I’m thinking to use this visa for 2 years and 3 years micro-entrepreneur. My question is, do I only need to provide 3 years stable income that is more than smic, is it ok the first two years’ income is zero? Besides how many months can I go back home per year? I have asked 2 lawyers and they said 6 months but I have also heard people said 2 months. Thanks!
Hello @Superbb123 and welcome to Survive France.
The naturalisation process is very complex, as I’m sure you realise, and there are no guarantees. 3 years of tax returns are cerainly required, as is 5 years of being a resident (lus language qualifications but perhaps your educational qualifications already support that. The actual income is assessed by the Prefecture when they get round to reading your dossier and people with inadequate previous years’ incomes have been accepted if their current income is ok but it entirely depends on the particulat prefecture concerned.
There is a Facebook group dedicated to questions/information about acquiring French citizenship, so you may wish to look at that too.
It’s French Citizenship
A bac+3 is only the equivalent if M1, you need BAC+5 (ieM2) to get a reduced residency requirement. It will be ok for the language requirement if they were French registered school and provide a diploma showing you attained at least ‘ niveau 3 de la nomenclature nationale des niveaux de formation (CAP/BEP)’
The requirements for nationality are stricter than those for your visa/carte de séjour. There is nothing written down as a lot is on a case by case basis. But the rule of thumb is no more than 10 months out of France in the 5 years leading up to the application (max 2 months a year).
You are immediately asked for 3 years of tax returns, but they can and often do ask for 5. As a resident you are required to submit a tax return even with zero income. It may be fine with 3 years above SMIC but again it depends on the overall strength of your dossier. No one can tell you for sure.
Be prepared for a long wait for your application to be approved- after waiting for five years,earlier this year for my son who got his, who has been in France since a small child and is 37 now with two french born children and a fonctionnaire in education. He had to submit a great deal of paperwork, also for the children and his partner, attend an official interview at the prefecture in the next dept and discuss certain items all in good french and the gendarmes paid a surprise visit a good two years ago now. You may also be asked for a casier judiciaire (proof you have not committed any criminal act) as well, like he was.
Where is the reference of 2 months? Cause I have asked two lawyers and they told me max is 6 months. I have delf b2 and I will apply on my 5th year.
Where did he apply if? I heard Paris is the fastest.
As I said the nearest proxy is a 10 year card. Which says this:
Les absences d’un maximum de 6 mois consécutifs et n’excédant pas 10 mois au total seront prises en compte dans le calcul des 5 années de séjour. Au delà, le séjour en France ne sera plus considéré comme ininterrompu.
As I also said there is no set requirement for naturalisation apart from showing that France is the centre of your life. So spending too much time out of France is a reason that crops up regularly as a reason for rejection.
I think you are confusing requirements for a visa with those for naturalisation.
Montpellier which deals with a few depts down here, we live in another Occitanie dept (66). It is not dealt with at a local level. I don’t think you can pick and choose where you apply, its where you live that is relevent and your current residency/tax status so anyone who keeps coming and going will stand very little chance of obtaining it.
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You apply where you live and are registered for tax.
It is only a short while since new online system was launched, so previous experiences of processing time not really that relevant now.
This. And what you said in your first post, does not give the impression that it is.
What will you be doing in France while you are here on a visitor visa and not working? Will you be engaged in a project of some kind? Will you have income from abroad? France normally expects people of working age to work or contribute to society in some other way. I am not sure that simply being present in France for some of the time during those years, will make a good case for being granted nationality. It is not a tick box exercise, it is up to you to present the strongest case you can. So the longer you spend away from France, and the more ties you maintain with your home country, the weaker your application will be. If your only ace cards will be that you have worked as an auto entrepreneur earning SMIC for three years and you were a student in France a decade ago, after which you apparently had no great wish to return for 8 years, I would not like to bet on the outcome.
I’m learning French on my visitor visa, it’s a lanuage school not university so I won’t get visa from it. Also I’m working on distance but not a French company. I plan to do some volunteers and pass DELF C1 at the same time. Unfortunately I still have to go home every year, my family is getting older, it’s inhuman to abandonne them in my opinion. My question is if 3 years income enough, I know it’s case to case but there must be some standards
I asked a lawyer, he said move to there one year before my application.
Have you asked your lawyer about the legalities of working from France without paying cotisations on a visitor visa that does not alllow economic activity?
Of course nobody would expect you to abandon your family, but then, France is not obliged to grant nationality to a person whose commitments are outside France.
The application is considered as a whole. It is not about ticking boxes. A person might have 15 years of income but still be refused nationality for other reasons.
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I’m not making any money from France so I am not engaging any encomny activities. You can check the visa fb group, there were people also asked the prefecture. Anyway it’s not the main point. I’m mainly being a student and visitor at this moment.
OK. You said
and i thought that meant you are working remotely from France.
The point there would be that all worldwide income must be reported on your French tax declaration.
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But isn’t that what you are doing? Visiting for 1 month every six months is not really looking after them.
When my mother was older I visited every couple of weeks (taking turns with my sisters) and these years did not count toward my 5 years residency for naturalisation as I had spent too much time each year outside France.
There is another big flaw in your plans. You have obviously heard that it is ok to work remotely for a foreign employer on a visitor visa, This is not clear-cut, and whilst it may be tolerated by some parts of French administration I think it extremely unlikely that this will be acceptable to immigration.
You have to declare your worldwide income each year so it will be obvious what you are doing, or you break the law by making a false tax return. And if neither you nor the employer make social contributions this also breaks the law. The conditions of your visa also requite you to have health cover. How will you achieve that?
Three years’ income above SMIC should be enough if everything else in your dossier is sound. From what you say, yours will not be so I would expect your application would be rejected.
I really suggest you rethink.
With the uproar in the government here currently and the changes needed to be implemented to bring down the national debt, I think immigration issues are going to be studied and make stricter to apply. The OP does not say where they are from or nationality, that can make a big difference too.
Although it should not. Discriminating on the grounds of race/nationality would be contrary to human rights.
On the information given here it seems to me that the OP is more interested in acquiring French nationality for whatever reason, rather than actually making their home in France and living the rest of their life as a French citizen. It is not clear what their their ties to France are or what their motivation is for being in France, apart from wanting naturalisation - it does not seem to be for professional reasons, nor for personal/family reasons. If the prefecture gains the same impression, I cannot see the decision being favourable.
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You really sound very prejudge, my concern is to visit my family once per year, that’s why I asked here. I have health insurance from private insurance and I also enrolled in Ameli. I don’t have problem to declare my income from my hometown, I don’t need to pay tax anyway with visitor visa.
I’m gonna sign up my company in France, I will pay tax for 3+years, I have B2 level Delf, I have french bac +3. Why do you care my motivation? I am here just to ask about the rules.