The Minister of the Interior recalled this Monday, May 5, the rules in force on Monday, May 5 to grant naturalization to foreign persons. Bruno Retailleau has also announced the implementation on January 1 of a test to measure the “civic culture” of the applicants. If an oral is already planned in the prefecture, no minimum note is currently required.
After stay titles, naturalization. Bruno Retailleau presented a circular on Monday that clarifies the rules on the issuance of French nationality to foreign persons.
“I assume to harden the criteria, no one can justify his naturalization without assimilation,” said the Minister of the Interior, insisting on “the feeling of belonging” necessary to be able to become French.
A “civic exam” to measure the knowledge of “the history of France”
Since Créteil and the Val-de-Marne prefecture, the tenant of Place Beauvau therefore recalled the many already existing rules such as “respect for secularism” or “the exemplarity of the applicant” which should not have been on French soil in an irregular situation.
A 5 -page text that recalls the precise framework has already been broadcast to all prefects since Sunday evening. The maneuver has been hardened in the hardening of your government for weeks on immigration, embodied by Bruno Retailleau who made it his workhorse. last January, Bruno Retailleau had already launched a new circular on the question of the allocation of residence permits.
If the circular takes up many elements already provided by law, Bruno Retailleau has however announced a novelty: the creation of a “civic examination which would measure the knowledge of civic culture” and “the history of France” of the applicant to “from January 1, 2026”.
“We cannot have fewer criteria to obtain a residence permit than to have an identity card,” insisted the Minister of the Interior.
Only precise requirement on the level of language
As of January 1, 2026, people who request a residence permit must indeed submit to “the implementation of civic tests to verify membership of a certain number of republican principles and values”.
At present, this system does not exist to obtain French nationality. It is simply necessary to justify the knowledge of the French language orally and in writing at least equal to level B1.
This repository set at European level corresponds to “understanding a discussion with a clear and standard language” or “the ability to produce a simple discourse on familiar subjects”.
“Institutions”, “Large landmarks” of dates ….
An oral interview in the prefecture is however already conducted to verify “the civic culture of the applicants” but does not constitute a kind of general culture test, with an expected minimum note.
If the examination promised by Bruno Retailleau takes shape, it is likely to cover the knowledge expected by the applicant of French nationality, currently set in a decree of 1993.
We can read there that the applicant must have “elementary knowledge” of the “great benchmarks of the history of France”, “principles and symbols of the institutions” French or even “the place of France in the world”.
Among the other assessment elements to grant or not French nationality, Bruno Retailleau also insisted on the issue of employment. “We must have an economic situation of autonomy to become French” with “sufficient resources not to depend on national solidarity”.
Strong increase in naturalizations
Among the criteria mentioned, the Minister of the Interior raised “a CDI” and “a certain sum of fixed -term contracts over the last 24 months”. “You have to have a professional integration, it is essential,” insisted the member of the government.
Can the recall of the rules set for prefects really lower the number of naturalization in France which represents the objective of Bruno Retailleau?
The Minister wants to believe in it in a context of high increase in acquisitions of French nationality in 2024. They amounted last year at 66,745, an increase of 8.3% compared to 2023, an increase which is explained by a catch -up after a year 2023 marked by technical difficulties.
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