NormanH Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Just got a letter to say that I am French since the 24th January...so I made it just before Brexit :))[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Ah, the flight of the dromedary! One is reminder of silk purses and les oreilles de cochon.A hog in a silk waistcoat Is still a hog.You can put lipstick on a hog and call it Monique but it is still a hog.I can think of one advantage to this changing sex or nationality nonsense which is that France does not extradite its citizens. So, since Brexit, Norman, you are safe.The only question is why would you want to do that? However, if it makes you happy.....? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 When I was living in Paris a few years back, a woman from some African country (I can't remember where) who had lived in France most/ if not all of her life, applied for French nationality. She was the mother of one of my daughters best friends at school.Anyway, when she was granted French nationality (after passing all the tests) she cried her eyes out.It was that point in time I realised that I did not deserve French nationality.So British claiming French citizenship are just clogging up the system.STOP IT !You are British...and should be proud just to have at least a citizenship. A lot of people don't.. So no congratulations from me Mr Norman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Each to their own ALBF. I know that I could never have applied because I am simply 'not' french. By some sort of osmosis or some such thing, I have some frenchified views of the world and things in general, but still not french. If that is what you wanted NH, so be it, and will you have to do your 'days' national service[Www] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Mes félicitations, Norman![B] Er......make that champagne!Must say though, that I did enjoy WB's and ALBF's posts[:D]As with practically everything else, we never do agree on anything. Just as well as otherwise it would be dead boring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Congratulations Norman may it serve you well, I'm sure it will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betise Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 mes félicitations, I'm still waiting to hear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 I had expected an email or sms as some others have had, but in fact it was a letter by snailmail which has only just arrived. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 Those who wish to question my choice might have quoted "You said, "I will go to another land, I will go to another sea.Another city will be found, a better one than this.Every effort of mine is a condemnation of fate;and my heart is -- like a corpse -- buried.How long will my mind remain in this wasteland.Wherever I turn my eyes, wherever I may lookI see black ruins of my life here,where I spent so many years destroying and wasting."You will find no new lands, you will find no other seas.The city will follow you. You will roam the samestreets. And you will age in the same neighborhoods;and you will grow gray in these same houses.Always you will arrive in this city. Do not hope for any other --There is no ship for you, there is no road.As you have destroyed your life herein this little corner, you have ruined it in the entire world. Constantine P. Cavafy" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Oh NH I knew you were doing this, but I shall never understand why people do this, so there you go. I am pm'ing you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cathar Tours Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Well done Norman and good for you. You have to look out for yourself these days because the UK government won't just look at Brexit. Now the UK seems set on being a satellite state of the US as well.You do however have one benefit it would seem. I believe you can have dual nationality in France, I can't. I have till the end of the year to revoke my UK citizenship but then it's meaningless to me. I am a European born in the UK now living in Europe currently residing in Germany. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chessfou2 Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 'Triple' nationality (for which I am waiting - likely in May-June) is possible, or even more, depending which other nationalities you have - in some cases you have to give them op. France is among the many that do not require you to give up another nationality. That's lucky for me because one of my current two is UK and in 2018 the Home Office was charging £372+ to give it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chessfou2 Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Félicitations! So, a bit over 3 years start to finish? It seems that the average is 2-3. There was one poor guy (décret 4 of 2019) who was série 24 of 2013!! So his dossier had been at SDANF for 5.5 years! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 So, Norman, a Burnt Out Case hiding out in France.Returning is always a nightmare; myself cannot except to avoiding places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Right, everyone, the old boy is feeling undervalued assnail mail is not up to his standards, so lets all email the old goat!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 Some préfectures deal with things more quickly. Montpellier is known to be one of the slower ones possibly because of the large number of 'étrangers' i the area. As others have pointed out there are many other nationalities involved and this area possibly has more of them than say central France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lehaut Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 Welcome to the club. Got ours in 2012, before Brexit was a even a twinkle in Boris' eye! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 For all those in the 'club' what does it give you ?You can vote, and now travel freely within the EU.Is that it ?You are still not French. And Norman mentioned central France earlier as being 'quiet'.I remember passing the prefecture in Nanterre a few years back.It was 8AM in the morning and the queue outside must have been at least a mile long already. Some had been camping outside all night I suspect. People with kids, and all sorts with not much money to their name. I guess it is like that every day. Imagine doing that in 40 degrees heat. I do think these people should be given priority over a few Brits given it is not going to change their lives to any extent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 Fact1) Nanterre is a north-western suburb of Paris, not central France http://www.cartesfrance.fr/carte-france-region/carte-region-Centre.htmlI would have thought you would know that since you claim to know Tours well.Fact2) Long queues outside préfectures are unlikely likely to be for Naturalisation since the applications are sent off by post and the appointments for interviews are given at specific times at wide intervals with a warning that being late will not be tolerated. You can't just arrive and queue up for them. These queues were much more likely to be for people needing a 'titre de séjour' for which it used to be possible to join the queue before the introduction of an appointment system.Unlike ALBF I have been in such a queue several times. The first time I got there at 7 a.am but it was too late and I never made it inside.The second time I got there at 5 am and did get in, and that was just to get the forms to fill in. I had to do the same twice more, once to hand them in and a second time to collect the card. This system seems to have been changed and recent applications have been much easierFact3) I live in one of the poorest towns in France where both the inner city and the 'cité' are "difficult", and I see the social problems at first-hand on a daily basis We have a 'centre d'acceuil' for people arriving in France https://www.lacimade.org/nos-actions/hebergement-langue-francaise/le-centre-dhebergement-de-beziers/and I have both helped with paperwork and given shelter to those in need. Interpreting these facts:Don't confuse the urgency of people needing a Titre de Séjour so that they may become legally resident in France with the approach of those who have been here a while and have made the decision to ask to acquire French Nationality, in my case as a second one.I know that the only purpose of albf is to irritate, do I don't usually bother to reply.In this case the usual ignorance about France (not knowing where Nanterre is, and confusing the Titre de Séjour with Naturalisation) is accompanied by an equally complete ignorance of my reasons for taking this step.It is an important moment for me which I wished to share with the few contributors to the this Forum who are still here.Thank you albf for trying to spoil it by your petty-mindednessYou didn't succeed [:P] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 Oooh..OK.....let's deal with some Norman points.1) In your previous post you said 'central' France not 'region' France. Which is quite different.I would put Paris/ile de France as pretty much central in France given it is the capital. 2) I know Nanterre very well given I lived 10 mins away by car. 3) Everyone knows that bureaucratic system in France is overwhelmed at the moment. I don't see the point of burdening it more just to have some kind of 'citizenship' trophy. 4) Beziers is ranked 133 in the poorest 'villes' in France.according to this ...http://www.linternaute.com/ville/c-villes-les-plus-pauvres?q=beziersIf you look on that list there are some very well known towns before you. I think you are doing OK.Chancer wins that contest. LOL.For someone who has just been granted nationality, you don't know an awful lot about France. To be fair, one could argue that you live in quite an affluent area. Anything else ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betise Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 Oh Alf how you love to irritate people!I congratulate Norman on his persistance, gaining nationality in France is not easy. Stop nit-picking, go and change a nappy or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 LOL ALBF, you have made me realise why the parisiennes call it the Ile de France, to differenciate between themselves and central France. There is, after all, quite a difference on so many levels.NH, queueing like that, I did say WOW when I read it. As ever, I live and learn, as I had never heard of it happening in France. My son had to queue, getting there in the very early hours in Madrid to join the health system, he had a few efforts before managing to get into the offices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loiseau Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 A bit late to the party, but permit me to add my congratulations, Norman. It is France's gain, I am sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chessfou2 Posted February 9, 2020 Share Posted February 9, 2020 Queues at préfectures can be impressively long. Going by my own experience (Aveyron & Toulouse) they are beginning to be reduced by the requirement to take RDV on line for more and more things. So, Aveyron used to have queues of maybe 30 or so trying to get a Titre de sésour (mostly East Europeans and Maghrébins). Now the online RDV system seems (my wife was there last year) to have 'dematerialised' the long lines.When I was last at the préfecture in Toulouse (Jan 2019), they still had a huge queue every day taking the place "d'assaut" first thing in the morning (which I avoided by obtaining an RDV mid morning). The assault is by people with no RDV (all naturalisations are by RDV) who have to 'clock in' to the system, once inside the building, taking a numbered ticket for titre de séjour, asylum or whatever else (there are something like 6-8 categories). They then find a place in one of the waiting rooms and hope that their number is called before closing time.From TV reports, the queues at Toulouse are nothing compared with those in Bobigny, Lyon, Marseille, ...!By the way, the naturalisation process mostly takes 2-3 years (4 in Lyon, 5 in Grenoble) and is very much a 'parcours du combattant'. Currently about 1/3 of applicants are turned down, mostly within a year-18 months.Amusingly(?) there is a big anglophone (primarily English) Facebook group about applying for French nationality where many of the posters are complaining about the slight tightening up of regulations later this year such that all applicants will actually have to be able to speak, read and write French to a rather minimal level (previously only oral, the interview, usually 90 minutes - obviously in French -sifting out those whose French language or values are not up to scratch). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted February 9, 2020 Author Share Posted February 9, 2020 https://www.midilibre.fr/2018/10/19/beziers-nimes-perpignan-ales-ces-villes-doccitanie-dans-le-top-10-des-plus-pauvres,4738413.phphttp://www.observationsociete.fr/revenus/pauvrete/pour-la-premiere-fois-linsee-publie-des-donnees-sur-la-pauvrete-des-communes.htmlThe queueing has been improved, but DID exist ...I experienced it and this is the article that I suspect is at the source of albf's 'information'It confirms that they were queueing for a 'titre de séjour' http://www.leparisien.fr/hauts-de-seine-92/nanterre-92000/pour-la-prefecture-de-nanterre-il-n-est-plus-necessaire-de-dormir-dans-la-rue-07-09-2017-7242852.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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