Paris
CNN
—
A couple from the French-speaking region of Belgium requested naturalization. French citizens found themselves faced with the most French problem: a bureaucratic struggle to prove that they spoke their native language.
The documents they submitted to their local prefecture were deemed insufficient to prove they spoke French.
“I’m a commercial director for a French company, and my wife wrote a book in French,” Vincent Renoir told CNN affiliate BFMTV in a French interview on Friday.
He has lived in the Drôme department in southern France for 24 years and his wife Martine for 9 years. Having lived in this country for a long time, they felt that it was time to become French.
However, their path to naturalization encountered the most unlikely of obstacles. That means they can’t prove they speak French.
They submitted degrees from French-speaking universities but were told that these could not prove they could speak French at B1 level, an intermediate level under the current European Union system.
“I can see that I’m talking to you. [in French] That is the right way to go, but unfortunately a priori is not enough for our administration,” Lenoir said.
However, local prefectures also have strong claims. They were simply following the law.
“It is completely inaccurate to say that the Lenoirs’ naturalization application was rejected on the grounds of ‘lack of knowledge of French,'” the Drôme government agency said in a statement Thursday.
Rather, the Lenoirs were unable to obtain French citizenship because they submitted documents that were “non-compliant” with what was required by French law.
Unlike, While the United States and Canada recognize university degrees earned in other Anglo-Saxon countries, France does not recognize university degrees earned in other French-speaking countries as a way to prove language proficiency.
According to current French citizenship law, there are basically two ways to prove your French language proficiency. Either get a secondary school or higher degree in France, pass a language exam conducted by other European countries, or take the official TCF/TEF exam.
In the latter case, the test results must be no more than two years old.
“Applicants are therefore required to submit valid documentation to properly complete their application,” the local government statement said.
But for Vincent Renoir, the reality is more complicated than simply taking another exam.
“This exam can only be taken in January and the results will be known in March, but our appeal to the government will only be valid for two months. So by the time we get the results, it will be useless. “Sho,” he told BFMTV. That would mean starting the entire process all over again.
Ironically, if a French person wants to become Belgian, a university degree obtained in France is sufficient to prove language proficiency in French, one of Belgium’s three national languages.
But anyone who has lived in France will probably tell you at some point that they have gone to the local government office for some administrative work only to be told that they did not bring the right type of documents. You’ll agree that it’s the most French interaction you’ve ever had.
Additional reporting from Maya Szaniecki.