The immigration law
 

According to article L. 110-3 of the  Code of Entry and Residence of Aliens and the Right to Asylum (CESEDA), "persons who do not have French nationality, either because they have a foreign nationality or because they have no nationality, are considered foreigners within the meaning of this code.

The foreigner is thus defined in a negative way: he is the one who is not a national.

The law of foreigners is thus the set of rules applicable to those who do not have French nationality on French territory. These rules may concern entry (visa, waiting area), residence (residence permit, family reunification) or removal (obligation to leave French territory - OQTF, deportation, expulsion, prohibition of stay on French territory - IRTF) with coercive measures (administrative detention, house arrest).

The law on foreigners differs from the law on asylum: it is not a request for protection (for example, because of persecution) based on the Geneva Convention. However, a rejected asylum seeker may, under certain conditions, obtain a residence permit.

It should be specified that a person who has been granted refugee status by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA) or the National Court of Asylum (CNDA) is a foreigner who has been granted protection.

The notion of foreigner must be distinguished from other notions:
 

A migrant: a person who moves, moves around (therefore does not settle) which can be the case of a seasonal worker

An immigrant: a person who has immigrated from his or her country of origin and has stopped migrating by settling in another country. An immigrant is not necessarily a foreigner because he or she may have acquired French nationality, even if he or she was born abroad (by blood law if at least one of his or her parents is French). There are therefore foreign immigrants and national immigrants.

A person of foreign origin: a person born in France of parents or grandparents who immigrated to France

A foreigner who remains on French territory regularly can, under certain conditions, obtain French nationality.

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Nationality law

 

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) defines nationality as "a legal bond having as its basis  a social fact of attachment, a genuine connection of existence,  interests and sentiments, together with the existence of reciprocal  rights and duties." (ICJ, April 6, 1955, Nottebohm -Liechtenstein v. Guatemala).

The law of nationality thus covers all the rules relating to the attribution, acquisition and loss (voluntary or not) of French nationality.

There are two ways to become French:

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By attribution :
 

• Attribution of French nationality by filiation: "Is French, the child of whom at least one of the parents is French." (Article 18 of the Civil Code)

 

• Attribution of French nationality by birth in France, this is the double right of the soil insofar as the child born in France is French if

 

• His/her parents are unknown (article 19 of the Civil Code)

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• His/her parents are stateless (article 19-1 1° of the Civil Code)
   

• His/her foreign parents cannot transmit his/her nationality (article 19-1 2° of the Civil Code)
   

• At least one of the parents was born in France (article 19-1 of the civil code)

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• At least one of his parents was born in the territory which had, at the time of the birth of this parent, the status of colony or overseas territory of the French Republic and if the child was born before January 1, 1994 (article 23 of the law of January 9, 1973)

 

• (Algerians) if at least one of his or her parents was born before the independence of Algeria, i.e. before July 3, 1962, and if the child was born in France after January 1, 1963 (including after January 1, 1994)

 

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By acquisition:
 

• Automatic acquisition: young foreigners born in France having their residence in France at the age of majority and their habitual residence "during a continuous or discontinuous period of at least five years, since the age of eleven" obtain French nationality (article 21-7 of the civil code) ;

   

Acquisition by declaration:

 

• A minor born in France to foreign parents may acquire French nationality by declaration, from the age of sixteen (article 21-11 of the Civil Code)

 

• Foreign parents may, by declaration, claim nationality for their minor child as soon as the child is thirteen years old with the consent of the child who must have resided in France since the age of eight

 

• A person married to a French national may, 4 years after the marriage (this period may be extended to 5 years when the foreigner, at the time of the declaration, either does not justify having resided uninterruptedly and regularly for at least three years in France from the time of the marriage, or is unable to prove that his or her French spouse has been registered in the register of French nationals living abroad for the duration of their community of life abroad), acquire French nationality, subject to a community of emotional and material life and sufficient knowledge of the French language (article 21-2 of the Civil Code).

 

• A person who is at least sixty-five years of age, who has resided regularly and habitually in France for at least twenty-five years and who is the direct ascendant of a French national (article 21-13-1 of the Civil Code)

 

• A person in good faith who has considered himself or herself to be French and who has been treated and regarded as French by the French authorities may apply, by declaration, to obtain French status by possession of status, provided that he or she has enjoyed this status for the ten years preceding their declaration (article 21-13 of the Civil Code)

 

• An adopted child (simple adoption), entrusted to the child welfare service or taken in by a public or private organization in France, may, by declaration and under certain conditions, obtain French nationality (article 21-12 of the Civil Code)

 

• A child born abroad to foreign parents, of whom at least one brother or sister is French by virtue of his or her birth in France, who has been ordinarily resident in France for at least six years and who has received compulsory schooling in France in educational establishments subject to State control, may claim French nationality at the time of his or her majority (article 21-13-2 of the Civil Code)

 

• A person who has lost his or her French nationality may, by declaration and under certain conditions, obtain it again without retroactive effect: this is called reinstatement in French nationality (articles 24-2 and 34-2 of the Civil Code in particular)

By decision of the public authority:
 

• A person wounded "in the course of a mission or during an operational engagement" can obtain nationality because of "bloodshed" (article 21-14-1 of the Civil Code)

 

• A person who has lost his or her French nationality may, under certain conditions, obtain reinstatement in French nationality by decree (article 24-1 of the Civil Code)

 

• A person of full age (an exception exists) who has resided habitually and regularly in France for five years (this period can be reduced to two years or even waived) prior to filing the application, who has placed the center of his or her interests in France and who meets the conditions of "good life and morals" of assimilation into the French community and has sufficient knowledge, according to his or her condition, of the French language, can obtain French nationality (articles 21-15 to 21-27 of the Civil Code)

Finally, there is the possibility of withdrawing French nationality and losing it (by declaration, by observation or by decision of the public authority)