A couple from Brussels residing in France recently found out they had become French nationals for over a year, but were not notified by the local authorities.
Vincent and Martine have been living in the French region of Drôme for over a decade, having settled there after moving from Brussels.
When they decided to apply for French nationality in 2022, they were left shocked after their applications were refused on the grounds of insufficient language proficiency, reports Sud Info and Le Parisien on Tuesday.
Yet both are French-speaking Belgians. Both graduated from French-language institutions, and Vincent has been working for years at a huge ravioli pasta manufacturer for years.
Disappointed but not defeated, they re-applied for nationality by taking an official French language test in February 2024, followed by an interview in Grenoble.
The couple were promised a letter. But then, everything went quiet. In November 2025, Vincent logged onto the French naturalisation website to find out he had been French since a decree dated 26 July 2024.
They both realised that the same had occurred with Martine too. However, her identification number had been changed without her knowledge, which prevented her from checking the result online.
"I saw my name among the naturalised persons. I had been French without knowing it for almost a year and a half! No letter had been sent to me: neither the birth certificate nor the invitation to the French citizenship welcome ceremony," Vincent told Le Parisien.
The mistake occurred during the final interview, when the administration said they would be sent a letter for confirmation, but should have said that everything was now done online.
"We received tons of testimonies from Europeans in the same situation as us, who were desperate in the face of the Kafkaesque nature of this process," he added.
Following the reports, a statement by the Drôme prefecture denied the claims that the couple's application for naturalisation was rejected on linguistic grounds as "completely inaccurate".
The rejection was due to the submission of non-compliant documents, they stressed.
According to the prefecture, the language test provided dates from 2013. However, you must have completed a language test within two years under French law.
