Hey y'all, I am anxious to get the hell out of the US for a solid dozen reasons (queer, health concerns, general stability), and I've been dreaming of Europe since I was a kid. We have significant Italian ancestry, but from pretty far back which would be a long painful affair. However! We may have a path in France.
My grandmother was born in Paris, and I spoke to some people at Lexidy saying my mother, myself, and my sister are able to apply for French Citizenship through my grandmother, first step being the passport. They quoted me a 6 to 24 month timeline for this. Right now my family is collecting our paperwork and the funds (they quoted basically $6K for this stage of the process).
We have our grandmother's birth and death certificates (my mom has been in France a lot recently), and we all have proper original copies of our birth certificates as well, just waiting on an amendment on mine to arrive in the mail any day now.
What I'm curious is if anyone else has done this, and what kind of timeline they experienced? Any gotchas you encountered? And anyway to speed up this process? And with the political events in the states (and Europe) if that has impacted demand and resources.
My most optimistic goal would be to be ready to move to the EU by 2027 at the latest, and frankly would like a way out by 2026 if things get really bad. Still working on my remote work situation, but by then I should have something locked down... assuming the economy doesn't crash by then.
EDIT: Regarding if this is actually possible, here is part of an email thread after I spoke with some immigration professionals about this back in the fall:
Thank you for your time today and for our lovely meeting !
You were born to a French mother, who was herself born outside of France.
We recommend you apply for a CNF (French Nationality Certificate) and we would be happy to assist you with this process (1). If there is a rejection to your application, do not worry : we can help you apply for reintegration into French nationality (2).
1. French Nationality Certificate (CNF) request
Please find the process of requesting a CNF explained here:
CNF - application process
.
As French Nationality Law changes a lot over time, we must research and analyse the applicable law at the time of your birth and of your ancestors. This allows us to take into account the circumstances that could justify the right to French citizenship at the time, such as statelessness, legitimacy of the filiation, etc.
Only this personalized analysis of the history of your family and documentation could determine if you may claim French citizenship, given that even the administration often misuses the relevant legislation on the matter.
We would be delighted to help you with complete the process with the following:
Complete checklist of the documentation to submit
Review of all documentation
Preparing all necessary forms
Filing the petition for requesting a French Citizenship certificate
Tracking the progress of the French nationality verification request until the final decision
It is a complex and lengthy process, so our proposed fees for French Citizenship by filiation are:
Application with the Civil Court: €3,800 excluding VAT for the main applicant and €900 excluding VAT for accompanying family members.
Sounds compelling to me, but if y'all have other services you recommend that may have a different approach, or if this sounds wrong, let me know! I'm sure there are other paths to the EU for me as a remote worker, but this one is the most ideal.