French Citizenship - how about it?

[Viv]

I am just curious.

Those of you who already live in France, do you have any plans to go the whole hog and eventually obtain dual or full French citizenship?

I am keen to know peoples' reasons why they decided for or against.

[SaligoBay]

The only people I know that have bothered to do this are those with a French husband or wife.

What are the benefits of French citizenship?   Getting to vote in the battle between Chirac and LePen?  No, you'll have to sell it better than that! 

[Viv]

Each to his or her own , This isn't a criticism merely an observation but I just thought that as many people had left the UK to make France their (permanent?) home, presumably not just as economic migrants but because they love France, that this would be more popular than it clearly is.

Though I haven't been here the required amount of time yet, (and a lot can change) it will be something that I consider. So any more pros and cons?

[Tony F Dordogne]

It's something that I've thought about and when I've been here long enough may well do.

My view is that if this is where I permenantly live, where I pay my taxes, I'm part of the social security system and this is where my life now is, then I should have a say in who is running the place.  It's ok for me having a vote in the local election but France (like it or not, popular or not) is still a major player in the EU and had I been able to, I'd have wanted a vote in the recent referendum.

And as for the fight between Chirac and Le Pen, why not have a say in which of them - or hopefully neither of them - would get there mitts on my tax Euros.

For me it's also a political thing, bit esoteric, right to vote etc etc.

I still get some UK newpapers (now only once a week) and watch UK news on TV but increasingly get French newpapers which I struggle with but at least I know what's going on in France, not Huddersfield or wherever, and watch French news because to me that is more relevant to my life now.  I also get the International Herald Tribune because it gives a more international - naturally - view of the world usually with good European and French cover.

Something to think about more but as I'm here to stay, why not.

[Mistral]

I have french citizenship. I could have applied back in 1993 but it took me until last year to feel that it was the right time to do it. It may only be an extra piece of paper and not actually change much in your life since you don't lose British citizenship in doing it, but I wanted to wait until I really wanted to do it.

I am married to a frenchman so I fall into SB's catagory but he never asked me to do it. With a CdS I could do everything except vote in national elections.

I just got to a point when it felt right: I wanted to be able to vote, I'm a civil servant and I couldn't have a say on the governement I work for. And I knew that france was my home and if that was the case then I may as well become a full citizen. (I'm not talking about a physical home, it's a more intellectual thing)

Of course after 14 years with a CdS that I have never mislaid, I've just realised that I've already lost my french ID

[SaligoBay]

Mistral is absolutely right, and I shouldn't have been so flippant. 

At the moment it just doesn't interest me as a thing to do.   It would involve photos, forms, and no doubt endless hours sitting in a moulded plastic chair in the soulless Prefecture (everything else does!), and on a day-to-day basis I can usually find better things to do.

Also, when I think that if in 1999 (6 years ago) someone had told me that by 2005 I would have been living in France full-time for 5 years, I'd just have laughed, it would have just have seemed so ludicrous!    But as son sets sail on 5ème collège next week, it's unlikely that we'll suddenly find ourselves in Shanghai or Sydney, and I can imagine that one day I might just feel that a long sit in the Prefecture is the right thing to do.

[Mistral]

It would involve photos, forms, and no doubt endless hours sitting in a moulded plastic chair in the soulless Prefecture

Do you know what? No photos, no forms as such (but loads of photocopies) Just 3 trips to the Tribunal d'Instance (once to drop of the paperwork- no wait. Once to see the judge -a couple of hours, but we did have a RV. Once to pick up the certificates- no wait) as a veteran of 5 cartes de sejours in 4 different depts, I was expecting much worse but it was a relative doddle.

And even more, the fonctionnaires smiled and were friendly

[Coco]

 I'm a civil servant and I couldn't have a say on the governement I work for.

I didn't think you could be a civil servant in France unless you WERE a French citizen.  Were you able to do so because you were married to a Frenchman?

At the moment I've had enough French bureaucracy to last me quite a while, but MAY think about it at some point, especially as you don't have to give up your British citizenship to do it.  I'm with Tony on this one, I don't like losing my right to vote.  I ALWAYS voted in the UK and miss the opportunity to do so here.  I shall definitely make sure I vote in the local elections here, as in a village of 170, every vote really DOES count!

[Teamedup]

Well you can vote in the UK general elections for a certain number of years. We did this for twenty years until we lost the right.

There again we never emigrated to France and always knew that at some time in the future we would be moving back.

 

We vote here too in the elections we can vote in, ie local and european.

 

[SaligoBay]

I ALWAYS voted in the UK

So did I, and I strongly believed that it was a duty, because so many people in the world don't have a vote.

But in those days I also felt strongly about animal welfare, the environment, world poverty, live music, I bought FairTrade products.......  funny what living in France does to you! 

 

[Tourangelle]

You don't have to be French to become a civil service, and being married to a French national doesn't come into it, you just have to come from a country that is a member of the European Economic Area (sic)! Just as well, really as the term "civil service" covers so many jobs here.

[Mistral]

I didn't think you could be a civil servant in France unless you WERE a French citizen.  Were you able to do so because you were married to a Frenchman?

The law changed (through a lot of forcing from the EU)  the year I registered for the concours. This meant that I had to take a copy of the law to the orals with me to prove that I was allowed to take them because the administrative staff hadn't caught up on it yet. Non French people still can't work in either defence or tresorie.

Being married to a french person doesn't give you any advantages (excêpt doing a citizenship application as "declaration" and not "demande")