Naturalisation

[oddshoes]

I put in my dossier in Feb 2018 and received the acceptance July 2018 at which point they said the delay was 12-18 months. In December 2019 I emailed them and in January (end of) got the reply "Votre dossiere et en cours d'instruction". What are other peoples experience? Should I start to get active with letter writing? Having been resident and taxpayer for 17 years I will be rather disgruntled to have to apply for a carte de sejour!

[NormanH]

My Dossier was sent to Montpellier in October 2017.

I had the interview in January 2019.

I finally was naturalised in January 2020, and got my passport and  French ID card in June 2020

There is a Facebook group that might be more helpful then this Forum on this matter.

[chessfou2]

Depends a lot on your Préfecture. There are several different procedures. You do not say when you had your interview (why do you want to be French? etc. for 30-40 minutes). Normally 'dossier en cours d'instruction' will mean that it is still with the Préfecture. Helpful to know when your dossier is transferred to SDANF (sous direction de l'acquisition de la nationalité française). After receipt by SDANF the current average (and most common) is about 10-12 months (varies from extreme couple of months to several years!), up from 8-10 months or so last year thanks to Covid.

It might be a good idea to email your Préfecture and ask whether your dossier is still under instruction or whether (and if so when) it has been sent to SDANF.

If you find out that it is with SDANF and then ask them for your Ministerial number (e.g. 2020X... as opposed to the number 2018P or 2019P... you got from the Préfecture), you can guess the most likely date range, so at the moment the peak of the bell curve is about 2019X037 (dossiers received by SDANF circa end Sept or early Oct 2019).

Patience is required!

[oddshoes]

Thanks for your reply. I have not as yet been called for interview. I will email again to ask if my dossier has been passed to the SDANF. Looks like I will need a carte de séjour, given the average delay at SDANF. Doh! should have got myself together and applied years ago.

[chessfou2]

It is only after your interview (assuming successful) that your dossier will be passed to SDANF. Depending on Préfecture, your dossier is likely to remain at the Préfecture for something between a few months and a year or more before going to SDANF.

You are, therefore an absolute minimum of a year (more likely 2+) away from naturalisation (unless you scale 4 floors of an apartment block to save a young child from falling to its death, or have a realistic chance of securing a gold medal for France at the Olympics, or something similar).

Yes, you will definitely need to apply for a CDS. I believe that the online system should open in October. https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F35032