January 10, 2009

The Boys in Blue

We were told that the Gendarmes would be stopping by the house at some point to interview me as part of the French Citizenship process.

Sure enough, Wednesday afternoon a blue Gendarmes-mobile pulled up in front of the house, with two boys in blue asking if this was the home of yours truly. We are amazed at how quickly this is all happening. My application was just accepted at the end of November so we thought we would have at least 5-6 months before they would show up.
Is it my imagination, or is France becoming more efficient?

I calmly said to my husband, "the Gendarmes are here," as I looked around the house, thanking my lucky stars that I had dusted, vacuumed and organized all the crap lying around the living room only a couple of days before. And trying to remain calm. We had know idea what kind of information they would ask for.

There was no need to worry.

The questions were very basic. They wanted to see my carte de séjour and asked the following:

When did you arrive in France?
How long have you lived in the house?
Why do you want to become a French citizen?
Have you integrated into the community?
What kind of work do you do?
How do you afford to live in France?
Have you ever been involved in politics?
Have you ever been convicted of a crime?

That was it!
He told us he was happy with our answers and that his report would be sent to the next level.

I was literally skipping with joy when they left. This year just might see me becoming a French citizen! Pin It

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi LouLou

You may even have it before November. Like i mentioned before, my file was submitted to the consulate in Montreal in September 2007 (police report and all the papers required) to be sent to France and was told that I will know in a yr. Last March I got a letter asking me if I would be available on a certain date in May 2008 to attend the ceremony for my French citizenship.

They even served us a nice glass of bubbly :-)

Congratulations

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

That is soooo exciting Loulou, and you must of been amazed at the efficiency of French :-)

Anonymous said...

Felicitations! A new president, a new nationality... Very cool!

Jennifer said...

Beaver
I'm always happy to partake in a nice glass of bubbly!

Anne
I am amazed! There is a new woman working at the sous-préfecture and I think she's whipping everyone into shape.

Nadege
Merci! Yes, 2009 looks like it will be a good year.

Linda said...

The only time the boys in blue showed up at my door was to make sure I paid for a speeding ticket. They sure had me scared. I had it much easier getting my citizenship with a French husband, thank God.

georgiegirl said...

I am happy to hear the news. Since I did not followup the blog from the beginning, is your husband not applying for the citizenship, too? Or he is already one?

Therese said...

Question
Do you have one or two passports now?

Rachel said...

You should have offered the boys some fabulous cheese to "grease" the wheels! ;]

Jennifer said...

Linda
They came to your house to make sure you would pay a speeding ticket? I've never heard of that before! Yikes.
This would all be much easier if I had a French husband. I've considered trading mine in...

georgiegirl
My husband doesn't want to become a citizen, just me. They required him to write a letter stating why he did not want to be a French citizen that was added to my dossier. Pretty interesting.

Therese
I still only have one, the American one. Once I become a French citizen I can also get a French one.

Rachel
:)
We offered them coffee, tea or Cognac and even though they smiled at the suggestion of Cognac, they said no to everything. I didn't think of offering them cheese!

Anonymous said...

hmm, makes me wonder what I did to merit the hour-long interview with the DST ... all's well that ends well though!

Jennifer said...

Veronica
Hmmm...don't know! Thank heavens it didn't last an hour. I don't know what more they could have asked.
You must be so glad that the whole thing is over!