France is short-sighted rejecting citizenship requests

To the Editor,

Several recent articles have covered citizenship rejections because the applicant has not totally transferred the centre of their interests to France. 

My wife and I moved to France 13 years ago. If I now applied for citizenship, I would almost certainly be rejected. 

This is despite the fact I speak and write French better than many French people. I was a language teacher and taught English for two years in state schools in Burgundy. 

After retiring here, I ran English language classes for five years for the town’s social and cultural services without any remuneration. 

I even took my students to England, completely on my initiative and without any local assistance. It seems the interior minister attaches no value to applicants who have served in any voluntary capacity in France. 

Recent developments feel like a camouflaged form of racism. The French do not want ‘foreigners’ to be fully accepted. 

As a result, people with special talents to offer are being barred from the rights of citizenship, whereas there are thousands of French nationals who enjoy all their rights but do nothing for their country. 

I find it particularly galling that although we may never obtain citizenship, at the same time we are having a French law regarding wills forced on us. 

The European Commission has asked France to address concerns that its 2021 succession law breaches EU rules allowing foreign nationals to elect the law of their nationality. 

My wife, who is now 88, has a son from a previous marriage whom she wishes to exclude from her heirs, and that should be her right. 

She has made a will under English law, which is fully acceptable to the European Commission, but is still a prisoner of French law.

J.P., by email

Is getting French citizenship more hassle than it is worth? Are you going through the process? Let us know at letters@connexionfrance.com