2024-01-07 20:05:04
Martine and Vincent Lenoir still can’t believe it. “It’s so eccentric, Kafkaesque, crazy… But we decided to go all the way,” assures Vincent. This Belgian couple – whose mother tongue is French – is trying to obtain French citizenship… but without success. The reason ? They would not have demonstrated sufficient mastery of Voltaire’s language.
Vincent has lived in France since 1999, while Martine moved to Drôme nine years ago. Both obtained degrees from French-speaking Belgian establishments. In 2013, Vincent even took an oral language test to prove his level of French to the French administration. He then obtained 490 out of 500. As for Martine, she published a book last year… in French. Elements which, according to the couple, should have been enough to justify their level to the administration which requires a B1 level, “a basic level from basic”, insists Vincent. But one after the other, they were refused by the authorities. “They don’t say it clearly, but we understood that we have to take a written and oral exam which costs 140 euros per person,” annoys the man who has worked for 24 years at Saint-Jean, a major manufacturer of French pasta.
“At the beginning, it was mainly to obtain the right to vote, but now it is a question of principle: we will not give up! », warns the couple. After a first article published in Le Parisien, the prefecture offered them a meeting this Monday, reminding – furiously – in a press release that the documents they provided were not the correct ones. But the problem, explains the couple, is that French-speaking foreigners have no information on what is really valid in the constitution of their file. Moreover, after the media coverage of their affair, Martine and Vincent would have received numerous messages from other people involved in the same administrative imbroglio.
#VIDEO #Kafkaesque #Belgian #couple #obtain #French #naturalization #prove #level #French