After the stay, titles, naturalization. Bruno Retailleau presented a circular on Monday that clarifies the rules on the issuance of French nationality to foreign persons.
“I suppose that to harden the criteria, no one can justify their naturalization without assimilation,” said Interior Minister, insisting on “the feeling of belonging” necessary to become French.
A “civic exam” to measure the knowledge of “The History of France”
Since Créteil and the Prefecture of Val-de-Marne, the tenant of Place Beauvau, recalled the many existing rules, such as “respect for secularism” or “the exemplarity of the applicant” that should not have been on French soil in an irregular situation.
A 5 -page text that remembers the precise frame has already been transmitted to all prefects since Sunday night. The maneuver has hardened in the tightening of its government for weeks of immigration, embodied by Bruno Retailleau, who turned him into his battle horse. Last January, Bruno Retailleau had already launched a new circular on the issue of residence permissions.
However, if the circular occupies many elements already provided by the law, Bruno Retailleau has announced a novelty: the creation of a “civic exam that would measure the knowledge of civic culture” and “the history of France” of the applicant “since January 1, 2026”.
“We cannot have less criteria to obtain a residence permit than to have an identity card,” insisted the Interior Minister.
Only a precise requirement in the language level
As of January 1, 2026, people requesting a residence permit must undergo “the implementation of civic tests to verify the 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 established at European level corresponds to “understanding a discussion with a clear and standard language” or “the ability to produce a simple discourse on family issues.”
“Institutions”, “large reference points” of dates …
However, an oral interview in the Prefecture is already done to verify “the civic culture of the applicants”, but does not constitute a type of general culture test, with a minimal expected note.
If the exam promised by Bruno Retailleau takes shape, it is likely that he covers the knowledge expected by the applicant of French nationality, currently established in a 1993 decree.
We can read there that the applicant must have “elementary knowledge” of the “great reference points of the history of France”, “principles and symbols of the” French institutions or even “the place of France in the world.”
Among the other evaluation elements to grant or not the French nationality, Bruno Retilleau 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 naturalization
Among the aforementioned criteria, the Interior Minister raised “a CDI” and “a certain sum of fixed term contracts in the last 24 months.” “It must have a professional integration, it is essential,” the government member insisted.
Can the memory of the rules established for prefects really reduce the number of naturalization in France that represents the goal of Bruno Retilleau?
The minister wants to believe in him in a context of a high increase in the acquisitions of French nationality in 2024. They amounted to 66,745 last year, an 8.3% increase compared to 2023, an increase explained by a collection after a 2023 marked by technical difficulties.
Source: BFM TV
