Brexit: Number of Britons applying for French citizenship surges 264%
Applications by UK nationals in France hit a record high in 2016, according to statistics
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Your support makes all the difference.The number of British people applying for French citizenship has surged by 264 per cent in a year, marking a record high, figures have revealed.
In 2016, 1,363 British nationals applied for French citizenship, compared to 385 the previous year, according to figures obtained by Le Monde.
The dramatic rise is believed to be a result of Brexit, as UK nationals living in France seek to gain formal citizenship in order to ensure their residency in the country after the UK's departure from the EU.
Although the French Interior Ministry couldn't release figures for 2017, estimates obtained by France24 from several prefectures across France indicate a further increase since January.
The Ille-et-Vilaine prefecture, which handles naturalisation requests for Brittany’s four administrative departments, noted a “very strong increase in applications to start this year”.
The prefecture said that in the past five months, 110 dossiers were received, compared to just 50 between July and December 2016, and an average of 10 to 20 each year prior to 2016.
The prefecture of the Deux-Sèvres signalled a similar trend, stating: “Since early 2017, we have received 62 completed dossiers, compared to 16 during the first half of 2016”, while in an even more dramatic surge, in the the former Picardy region, 27 dossiers were submitted in 2017, compared to none in 2016.
It comes after separate figures revealed that the number of EU nationals seeking British citizenship has surged in the period since the Brexit vote, with 9,400 EU applicants seeking UK citizenship in the first quarter of 2017 – three times as many as in the same period as last year.
The number of applications from French nationals quadrupled from 208 to 848 between the first quarter of 2016 and the same period this year, while those from German nationals rose from 163 to 832 and applicants from Italy increased from 180 to 1,062.
Before the start of Brexit negotiations this week, the UK had promised to unveil a “generous offer” to end the row over the future rights of three million EU citizens in the UK and 1.2 million British ex-pats in the EU, this did not happen, with Brexit Secretary David Davis saying the offer would be delayed until the following week.
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