Do you have more than one nationality?

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I'm can't decide whether to request French nationality. It would be granted because DH is French.
The only reason I want French nationality is to be able to vote in general and presidential elections.
But I don't feel French. (Far more 'mustn't grumble' than natural born whinger!)

Do you think it matters?

I don't at the moment but received a letter recently telling me how to get it (in Ireland) I decided not to just cause I don't feel Irish at all but then I can vote in general elections so for that reason it wouldn't have made much difference.

I have british citizenship due to descent - it meant I was able to live and work in the UK and chose whether to travel on my UK or my Aus passport. My dd1 has dual nationality and we are hoping to get it for dd2 and dd3. That way no hassle with visas - if they want to go and live and work overseas they have that capacity. Sometimes the British high commission is more accessible than the Aussie one in times of strife.

I don't necessarily feel british although I am from a very british descent - so it was very helpful.

Yes, it's very frustrating that as a European citizen, living and working in France, I can't vote in the really important elections. I can only vote in local elections and European elections.

Nothing else is affected. My working rights are the same as a French national. Well, I think there are certain jobs reserved for French nationals like police force but I'm not interested in that type of work.

I was born in South Africa but I have a British passport (through descent - my father is British, born in England, my mother is British through marrying my father)
I don't have SA citizenship though - I suppose I could claim it (my brother did) but I don't see the point, I won't ever live there.
I also have New Zealand citizenship - got it after living in NZ for 2 years.
As it stands the rest of the ghosty family have dual GB/NZ citizenship but it's complicated, but it cracks me up :
DH was born in the UK so has GB passport but his mother is a Kiwi so he has NZ citizenship through descent.
DS was born in the UK (so has British passport) but couldn't claim NZ citizenship through descent as DH wasn't born in NZ. So he got his NZ citizenship with me for living there for 5 years.
DD was born in NZ so has NZ citizenship by birth but claimed her British citizenship by descent (throught DH but couldn't get it from me, I wasn't born in UK)

And after all that we all bloody well live in Australia!!! Is it any wonder I walk around in a daze most of the time???

Seriously though, I love having both - we have the best of both worlds ...
Later on the children can decide if they want Aussie passports - they may have to give up their NZ ones though.

Sorry, got my NZ citizenship after living there for 5 years.

You can't have too many passports.

I have British through my mother (born there) and Australian by birth. DH was born in the UK so DD will also have both through descent. We also have Hong Kong permanent residency because we were both there for more than seven years (will never be citizens because we're not ethnically Chinese. Nor does DD have any right of abode in China, despite having been born here. I have rounded on more than one Chinese colleague who has told me that Britain or Australia is racist because they once got called an abusive name - yep, that shouldn't have happened, but at least neither of those countries reserves citizenship for a single ethnic group).

French citizenship is an excellent thing for your children to have, at least. Every French child is entitled to a French education. This means that if you end up living outside France, the government will pay the fees for the local French International School if you can't afford it. I know a family in Hong Kong whose DD has had a truly top-drawer education because of this - far beyond what they could have afforded.

I didn't know that about the French children abroad. The DCs are French because they were born here in France and their father is French.

So it is just about me.

Our whole family have South African and British passports - namely thanks to the fact that DH's grandparents were British.

Because we live out of SA I don't mind the fact that we are excluded from voting in any SA election, but I would hate the thought of losing my nationality of birth.

DH and I have South African and British too (he was born UK, me SA), was in UK for 12 years and just moved back to SA so pleased I have the option for both whatever we decide

I don't have French nationality either, OSOTC, though I've been in French territory for 13 years now (gulp).

I was going to ask for it, but then they increased the time you have to have been married to a French national for (excuse my dangling preposition). I'd have had to wait a year or two, but I got p'd off with the anti-immigrant stance of the current government and decided to take a perverse pleasure in contaminating the French civil service with my undesirably foreign presence.

I may well ask for it one day, once I've got over my huff, if only because I also find it very unsettling not to be able to vote in major elections.

I have the right to Italian citizenship, both through my mother and also to the fact I've lived so long here, but I never bothered taking it up. Like you I can do everything an Italian citizen can, except join the army or police (no ambitions in that direction) and vote in national elections but with the muppets that present themselves every year I've no inclination in that direction either.

Also, I rather like the fact I could theoretically flee the coutry if Berlusconi ever turns becomes the dictator he wants to be.

I think if you're in the EU you don't really need dual nationality. Had I been Australian or American or anything else "extracommunitary" I might have gone for it, but I really don't see the point of the extra bureacracy it would entail.

My DD is a dual national though (or will be once I get around to sorting out her passport) as I believe that to be important for schooliing and suchlike should she ever want to live in the UK.

I Like Brangelina I could have dual but I do not see the need right now. DD1 will have dual ( Italian and English) - Just incase things change in Europe in her lifetime then she will have the choice.
It is very expensive however getting the Uk part sorted via the Overseas Embassy I found !

I'm the same, I've been here long enough, DH is French, the children all have dual nationality... and yet I don't want it. A friend of mine has done it, but she is more French than British now, and I can't see that happening to me

I agree it'd be more bureaucracy than I'm prepared to subject myself to.

Ninedragons, is that really true about French education? I've never heard that before.

Certainly it is in Hong Kong, though I don't know if it applies everywhere else - the family concerned told me it was universal but they're the only French people I know! This family couldn't afford the fees, the DD had been living in France and came out about halfway through her secondary education. They put her at the FIS and the French government picked up the tab.

i have british and american. i like this because my children also have british and american nationalities.

my mother has French and American nationalities because of her mother.

my father has Mexican and American nationalities because of his parents.

his sister's children have American and Indian nationalities.

on the whole, i can't see any minuses to it all.

i worked with a chap who was born in America to a Canadian mother and Argentine mother. so he had three passports.

then he came to work in the UK on a work permit as an academic.

well, he's now a UK national.

for him it's a real bonus because he's able to be very flexible with regards to where he works.

DH claimed that in France you only have to go to your local TGI and make some kind of declaration to set the wheels in motion, rather than facing the grim queues in a depressing Prefecture.
Sounds very un-bureaucratic and un-French to me. I haven't looked into the question closely, though, due to my one-woman stand against gvmt policy!!

It's not the paperwork that puts me off. According to the local mairie it is reasonably simple. I id ask about it a couple of years ago when I had two DCs under 3 and I remember thinking that the list of documents required
was only overwhelming because I was an exhausted parents rather than because it was truly overwhelming.

I think my reluctance is that because I resent being forced to become a French national in order to vote. If you're in the EU you shouldn't need dual nationality.

How long to do you have to be married to a French national before you can claim French citizenship?

D(not quite yet)H is French and plans to get British citizenship through me if we live in the UK for 3 years after we're married. I'd be interested in knowing how long I'd have to wait.

frannikin wants another passport once the ring is safely on her finger.....

I looked into this when DD was born but Germany is very backward about this. Our DCs were born and registered in Germany and I have neglected to tell the German authorities that I also registered them at the British Embassy. If the Germans knew that they had dual nationality then they would have to chose which one to keep when they turn 18yo.

I think it is scandalous. I pay taxes but have absolutely no way of influencing how the money raised is spent. I can vote for the Bürgermeister (big WOW!) and the European parliament but not the German.

Hmm, now we are in Switzerland I cannot vote at all.

Does anyone happen to know about voting in Britain? I enquired just before the last General Election and was told that I could not vote. They told me that since I had not registered to vote before I left the country then I could not register now. I left the county when I was 19yo to work as an aupair. I did not know that I would not be coming back.

My daughter has both British and French nationality.

I don't want French nationality. I don't feel French.

My DCs have dual British/Japanese nationality, but are, for all intents and purposes, Japanese - with a British mother, and relatives in the UK. They are supposed to choose which nationality they want by the time they are 22, but I know many children like mine just keep both their passports, and come and go between the two countries. The Japanese seem to operate a "don't ask, don't tell" policy if the passports were originally issued to children.
I actually would take Japanese nationality if they allowed dual nationality - I am obviously not ethnically Japanese, but would like to be able to vote etc. (I have permanent residency, so I can vote in local referendums) and also to show that you don't have to be ethnically Japanese to have Japanese nationality. Kind of to promote international thinking! And I am probably going to be here all my life...and feel very much part of the community, so it would be nice to have more of a say in what goes on.

My dc are registered with the British Embassy and have had British passports but at the moment they have German ones because that's where we live and it was easier at the time to pop into the town hall and get them a German one for 15 Euro rather than spending into the hundreds of Euros and all the hassle of posting applications off for a Britsih one.

DS has American and British (he was born in the US but both of us parents are English) - I think it's great that he'll be able to live/work/study there with no visa issues when he's older.

My only reservation is if they were ever to bring back conscription, but hopefully he'd be able to stay out of the country and avoid military service!

Frannikin, it's explained here.

You basically need to have been married for 4 years, rather than 3 as it previously was. However, it may be increased to 5 years in certain circumstances (in particular, you must have been living in France regularly and without interruption for the last 3 years).

The foreign spouse also has to demonstrate "une connaissance suffisante, selon sa condition, de la langue française". That's a nice vague clause ("selon sa condition" presumably varies according to your desirability...).

I'm not sure about "feeling French", as I'd be hard put to define what being French is. I have many dear French friends to whom I can really relate, and there are many people who seem utterly foreign to me. But that's the same in Scotland...

Am thinking of getting British citizenship. Am American, but have lived here in the UK legally for awhile.

Apparently the test is hard...