Naturalization: the appointment at the Préfecture

I have 5 minutes, so I want to blog about this morning's appointment at the Préfecture for my naturalization request.

B and I had an appointment at 9am, and after struggling to get through the funnel situation at the entrance, we made our way up to the second floor and the naturalization offices.

The woman we spent the following hour with was wonderful in comparison to all the other Préfecture employees I've known. She started out by saying that she was just amazed at how complete my application was and she even pointed out how she had written on my file "Do not ask for any more documents" in case a colleague had to receive me this morning. (There's really no secret to having a complete file; I just provided copies of everything requested and was thorough with providing proof of my time in France and 'communauté de vie').

After she handed back the originals of my parents' birth certificates and marriage certificate ("Wait, a copy could have done!" I thought to myself), she pivoted her screen so B and I could verify the information she had typed in for our names, birth dates, birth places, and those of our 4 parents. After checking that info, I think I signed my 'récipisée de dépôt de demande". If everything goes well, my naturalization will be retroactive back to today, so I'm glad I agreed for an appointment today and not a month from now.

I signed a document that I swore I did not have any other children from another union, and I think B had to sign a document as well that he swore that our 'communauté de vie' has been maintained since our wedding.

Then we had more of the interview I expected, and a bit of Les Z'amours. I was asked if I had ever gone to school in Germany (American preschool on base), if I had studied French before coming to France, my highest degree when I left the US, any other programs of study I had undertaken in France, and my current job. The woman asked me if I belonged to any clubs or associations (oh how the French love those as proof of "intégration") and then asked if I was a board member of any of them. She asked what B did, then asked him the last movie we saw, if he had ever been to US, and how we met. She also asked what language we spoke at home and who cooked, then asked how would we would describe our neighborhood and our group of friends, with possible answers being French/Foreigner/Mixed. On reflection, the question about qualifying your neighborhood is extremely racist/discriminatory. If I took up the University's subsided housing options, we would probably be in a less desirable (and cheaper) neighborhood with a lot more foreigners, but I don't see why that should reflect on my ability or not to integrate into French society. The woman was rather perplexed by my explanation that we shared the cooking responsibilities because B is the specialist in Japanese dishes in our home ("Ah, mais comment ça se fait que vous cuisinez des plats japonais?" she asked him). She didn't exactly ask us why we didn't have any kids, but suggested that perhaps we didn't have any yet because we were waiting to be financially/professionally stable.

Towards the end the woman asked B what he though about the US, and 15 minutes later (after he had described several of the National Parks he's visited and how snorkeling in Florida is great except that it's really hot and humid...) we wrapped up the appointment at just over an hour total.

Apparently I (we?) will still have another police interview in approximately a month. I know now that it's pointless to ask for my answers from two years ago for my 10 year card be used. It's probably something as basic as the different software used to manage the applications aren't compatible.

I received my letter inviting me to make an appointment addressed to M et Mme B's lat name. Since I don't use B's last name, this really irked me. I asked about it on the phone and B even nicely asked about it during the interview, and the woman's answer was that since I'm requesting nationality through marriage it's only "natural" that my application and certificate will include Epouse B's last name and that the paperwork is addressed to Mme B's last name. I wanted to say, but felt like she nice enough to not merit it, "Oh, well the men requesting nationality must be pretty surprised receiving their paperwork as Mr. Wife's maiden name." Because we all know that doesn't happen.

For the police interview I know I'm going to get asked again why we don't have any kids after almost 5 years of marriage, and I've thought up a few potential answers:

• The average first time mother in France is now over 30, and since I'm not yet 30 I wouldn't want to screw with the statistics
• The more education and higher socio-economic level of mothers, the longer they wait to have children. As you know, I have a Master's degree, CQFD.
• We're strong believers in gender equality, so we're waiting for fathers to have better paternal leave in France, more like in Scandinavia
• I'm waiting for the University to pay me a better salary to help with all the costs of raising a kid
• We're not sure how you make babies, so we're reviewing the basics

Today was definitely one of the easy steps in my whole immigration experience, but God almightly will I be glad when I no longer have to list my participation in clubs and affirm that I do in fact know what my husband does for a living!