A senator says she is taking up the fight for foreign retirees who have been refused French citizenship solely because their income comes from abroad.
Her intervention follows dozens of reports to The Connexion and on social media of refusals on these grounds, after then interior minister Bruno Retailleau issued a circular to prefects in May 2025 urging a tougher approach to applicants’ “assimilation”.
The refusals have been worded as due to income coming ‘mostly’ from abroad, or in some cases due to a person’s ‘French’ income not being enough for them to support themselves.
Retirees are especially affected and reports have come in from many departments including Lot-et-Garonne, Dordogne, Alpes-Maritimes, Gironde, Côte d’Or, Lot, Charente and Vienne.
There are now also reports of the same interpretation being applied after appeals to the ministry.
Mr Retailleau told prefects, among other points, to “set aside – apart from exceptions – requests from people whose income comes mostly from abroad, as this situation shows that they have not fully transferred to France the centre of their interests”.
The tougher rules have prompted accusations of “double standards”, after Hollywood star George Clooney was granted citizenship despite speaking limited French and having owned a French home only since 2021 (see page 9). Naturalisation normally requires a good level of French and five years of established residency at the time of application.
Income source
Charente senator Nicole Bonnefoy told The Connexion: “When a foreigner’s main, or sole, source of income is, for example, a British pension, that immediately excludes them from being able to obtain French nationality, which is completely abnormal.
“I have colleagues in other departments who are raising the same issue, because it affects all British nationals – and not only British nationals – across the whole of France.” She has stated that Americans, notably, are also among those being rejected on these grounds.
She added: “These are people who are settled, who own their homes, who pay taxes, who spend locally and support their communities – and in some cases were even, before Brexit, local councillors.
"Yet George Clooney recently obtained French nationality without any difficulty, even though I do not believe he has income in France. I therefore questioned the interior minister, but received an unsatisfactory stock reply.”
She has now sent fresh letters to the interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, and to the finance minister saying that “the issue affects the economy of our territories”.
She added: “It’s nonsense, and I will continue to denounce it in the hope that something changes.”
Parliamentary question
Ms Bonnefoy first took up the issue by tabling a parliamentary question, which was answered during a Senate debate in December by Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, the interior ministry’s second-in-command.
In her question, Ms Bonnefoy said the tougher rules “particularly penalise the many British retirees who have been established for years in Charente, who are perfectly integrated, speak good French, pay their taxes in France and are committed to local life”.
She asked whether the government intended to take measures to amend what she called income criteria causing “indirect discrimination” towards foreign retirees.
She said there was “nothing abnormal” in the fact that their income comes from abroad, and “such inflexibility is incomprehensible when applied to a population established for decades in our villages”.
Ms Vedrenne replied that the ministry now pays “particular attention to the origin of retirees’ income”, and that “access to French nationality will be refused if their financial resources come mostly from abroad”.
This was because nationality must “rest on a real and lasting foothold in French society, including financially”, she said.
While such retirees “undeniably participate in local life and pay their taxes”, she added, they do not demonstrate “economic integration in line with the approach sought by the government”.
In a follow-up letter to Mr Nuñez, Ms Bonnefoy said the new rules were having a “disproportionate” impact on British retirees, who are financially self-sufficient, not dependent on the state and wish to “spend the second part of their lives in France and spend their money here”.
They “actively participate in maintaining services and businesses that are indispensable in our fragile territories,” she wrote, in a letter also signed by Nièvre senators Nadia Sollogoub and Patrice Joly, and Dordogne senator Serge Mérillou.
The senators said they could not be satisfied with Ms Vedrenne’s response, as the refusals “reflect neither the reality of the applicants’ integration, nor their profound attachment to our country”.
Ms Bonnefoy told the economy minister that without its Britons some Charente villages would be underpopulated and economically fragile.
“Other communities, notably Americans, are now experiencing similar difficulties, even though they are investing for the long term in France and spending most of their income here,” she said.
Readers report difficulties
Among affected British and American readers who contacted The Connexion last year and who attempted appeals to the ministry, none has so far reported success.
Several are now believed to have been tacitly refused while two others have received explicit rejections.
One reader from the south-east refused on grounds of insufficient ‘French’ income to live off, said he has sent an appeal to the ministry and is willing to go further - to the Nantes administrative court - if necessary.
This is despite his lawyer saying his chances are slim as the government has “very broad discretionary powers” as citizenship is deemed a “privilege” if no obvious “error” has been made appeals to Nantes are difficult.
The reader said: “My wife and I feel heartbroken to receive this treatment from the country that we, and our daughter, have adopted as our forever home”, adding: “We have received overwhelming support from our French friends and neighbours and our mayor has written a beautiful letter.”
He said he feels he is a “victim of retrospective changes” despite having applied several years before the 2025 circular.
Some other readers told of their reluctance to undertake court proceedings, which typically take more than a year and can cost several thousand euros in avocat’s fees, with uncertain results.
One said: “We’ve enjoyed the journey, learning about France, its incredible culture, history and values, and my French has improved as a result of studying for the language test.
“We enjoy living here enormously and will endeavour to continue contributing to the community through committee and voluntary activities.”
