Things not to do in France, no. 1

Ask for naturalisation.

A friend who is a student from a francophone country has decided to naturalise and become French in order to be able to sit the exams to become a French teacher in France. 

OK - this is the procedure so far....

Day 1. Go to the prefecture for 8h30. Wait in the queue till 14h45 because that is the time that the naturalisation office opens. They open and call forward the first 30 people to arrive that day. They chck that you are not an illegal immigrant (a clandestin or a sans papiers) and give you a date and time for an appointment for the following week.

Day 2. Go to the prefecture in plenty of time for the appointment on the day they specified. However you still have a very long wait because the time of your apointment means nothing and they just see you in the order you were seen the week before.

Get your dossier checked. "This is illegible! I must have the original!" (of the mother's birth certificate). "This must be translated.", "Do you want to be French or not ?", etc. etc.

Apparently the process can take YEARS.

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