Future Proof

Spurred on by the Brexit vote, Charles Timoney is now on his way to becoming a fully fledged French citizen after more than three decades in France. Here he shares his experiences of applying for la nationalité française

Even after spending the past 30 years in France, and despite my wife’s regular encouragement for me to do so, I have never felt the need to apply for French nationality. I have always replied that doing so would be long and complicated and would very probably change little: I live, work, pay taxes, have medical cover and the prospect of a pension just like a French bloke.

What more, apart from the possibility of voting in national elections, could I want?

All this changed with the EU referendum. With it came the likelihood that my life in France, post-Brexit, would be easier if I became French. It was time to act. The first step was to visit the sous-préfecture – the second-tier county hall of the department of Yvelines where we live.

In the hope of not having to queue for too long (if anything sums up my indelible British naivety it is an expectation that there was going to be a queue), we arrived outside the gate 15 minutes early to be faced by a scattered group of some 30 people. There was a large friendly notice suggesting that people wait in line along the fence to the left. Everyone was standing anywhere but near the fence having either not read the notice, not understood it because it was in French, or being from a culture in which queues form no part. Or, most likely, all three.

The gate was opened by a smiling girl who greeted the group collectively with a warm “Bonjour à tous”. We were among the few who replied. In the brief but intense pushing-and-shoving contest which followed the gate opening, we somehow managed to lose five places in the queue. Once inside we quickly spotted the small ‘Demande de naturalisation française’ – applications for French nationality – sign that pointed away from the main hall.