How I became French
A friend of mine, Emma, was granted French nationality last week. Like me, she has lived in France for a long time (for me it’s now 21 years and counting!), is married to a Frenchman and has bilingual, bicultural children. How can you obtain French nationality and why would you want to do it? In France, foreigners can apply for nationality either by ‘naturalisation’, generally because they have lived in France for over 5 years. Or they can apply because they have been married to a French national for at least four years (when I applied it was six years). As would be expected, there are very strict conditions for this to be able to happen. And, as this is France, there is a list of documents as long as your arm to provide the proof that you are who you say you are, and have done what you say you’ve done. Many of these documents have to be translated by a certified translator, and be provided to the French administration in multiple copies ‘certifiées conformes’ (by which you attest to the exactitude of the copies to the original document). So it’s not an easy process!
I wanted to become French as it is always important to me to vote. My grandfather had always drilled into me as a child that where we have freedoms we also have responsibilities, and voting is part of our responsibility to help our country function. As I was now well established in France, it was natural for me to want to vote here. Also, having lived in France for eleven years at the time I applied (with two years in Luxembourg near the beginning!), I wanted to have at least some say in the spending of my tax contributions.
I remember submitting my (thick) dossier to the Préfecture de Police in the 4th arrondissement, then being called in for an interview. (The process has changed in the last few years, and applicants are now required to pass a French language test, the results of which several of my anglophone friends become mock-jokingly competitive about!). Anyway, my husband and I went in for our interview with our 10 month old second son in a pram. I remember that the very chic young woman conducting the interview, in order to get me to speak French, asked me what I did in my spare time. I laughed and replied that I didn’t have much spare time as I work full time and have two young children! Apparently with this reply and answers to other questions, I was deemed sufficiently versed in French to be granted la nationalité Française.
Because of Covid, my friend Emma’s ceremony consisted of going to an administrative guichet, proving her identity, and being handed her Certificat de Nationalité. But when she told me about it, I was transported back to my own ceremony in October 2012 which I found very moving.
It was in an administrative building on the Ile de Cité, would you believe! So my husband and I walked from our apartment in the 12th arrondissement on a sunny day, and crossed the Seine to get there. There were about 60 people present for the ceremony, held in a red-curtained room with a podium, and a bust of Marianne (the ‘national personification’ of the French Republic) wearing a tricolour sash. It was a formal occasion, with a speech given by a representative of France and a short film based on the values of Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité and showcasing the best of French culture, industry and beautiful scenery. We all sang the Marseillaise before being presented individually with our Certificat de Nationalité Française.
(image: Bust of Marianne, symbol of the French Republic JAUBERT/SIPA)
There were people from all over the world, many in tears. You could tell this was almost a deliverance for a large number of them, that their path to this country, to this moment, had been far from easy. Being Irish, and thus European, becoming French wasn’t a necessity. But I was, and still am, proud to belong to this generous country.
… Although I would never give up my Irish passport, of which I am also very proud!