Access to French nationality, publication of 20 January 2022

In 2021, with 94,092 new French, the annual flow of acquisitions of French nationality by decree and declaration (weddings, ascendants and siblings) increased by 53.3 %. This recovery follows a 2020 health crisis, as lockdowns have affected the chain of investigation of acquisition files. Acquisitions by decree increased sharply in 2021 (+ 79.5 %) in connection with the facilitation of procedures for foreigners “on the front line”, actively involved in the fight against Covid-19, as well as the reduction in the processing time of procedures for acquiring nationalities. Acquisitions due to marriage are, on the other hand, down 5.2 %. The two modalities of acquisition by declaration, created as of 1 July 2016, for the benefit of the ascendants of French, on the other hand, the brothers or sisters of French, go up again (+ 28 %) after their decrease in 2020. It should be noted that these four methods of acquiring French nationality are in addition to other routes followed by the Ministry of Justice, for which data for 2021 are not yet available. Therefore, all annual statistics on acquisitions of nationality for 2021 will be published in June 2022.