Police interview

Last week Lionel and I were convoquer par la police for an interview as the final step of my application for naturalization.  I was a little nervous as I had no idea what to expect from the interview, but the list of documents I was asked to bring was short so I had hopes that the interview would be short and simple as well.  And it was.

Actually, it was not just short and simple but to me it seemed absolutely pointless.  Lionel and I wasted 2.5 hours of our morning to take the tram into Bordeaux, have the "interview" and take the tram home.  All so that I could confirm my name, date and place of birth, address in France, date of entry into France, my employment, the fact that Lionel and I don't receive anything from the CAF and my highest degrees in the US and France.  The thing is, he had me do this all vocally and didn't look at any of the papers he asked me to bring.  The only things he glanced at were my titre de séjour and my passport and then only for a second.  He also asked to actually see our livret de famille which was great because that was NOT part of the list of papers he asked me to bring.  So he just trusted us instead for that information.  Once he had confirmed that his information was all correctly entered in the system we were free to go.  So, not really an "interview" at all but more a way to waste a bunch of peoples' time having them come in person to provide you with information that could all be obtained by mailing in a few documents, filling out a form or over the phone.  Great.

Other than my frustration with such a waste of time it went well and the man conducting the "interview" was very nice and we chatted with him for a bit once we were done with all the formalities.  As he walked us out he told me that he would be surprised if I wasn't granted citizenship and that he thinks I will probably hear back closer to July 2015 rather than September 2015.  So, here's hoping that he is right and that he didn't just get my hopes up for nothing!  And until next summer I can just sit back and relax and enjoy the longest period of time I've ever had free from any sort of immigration and residency related administration!