The prefecture is not compelled to withdraw someone’s French documents after he was refused a certificate of French nationality
In a judgment rendered on October 1O, 2023, the Conseil d’Etat (France’s highest administrative Court) ruled that, following a refusal of a certificate of French nationality, the individual in question would not necessarily lose his French documents (French passport, French « carte nationale d’identité » etc.).
On September 9, 2022, the claimant was ordered by the prefecture of the Bouches-du-Rhone to give back his passport and French national identity card after the Court of Justice of Paris (Tribunal judiciaire de Paris) refused to grant him a certificate of French nationality.
The individual in question went to Court but saw his claims rejected at first by the tribunal administratif de Marseille. The Conseil d’Etat was then seized of the case on appeal.
In its decision, France’s highest administrative Court ruled as follows:
- It stated that a certificate of French nationality is one way among others of proving French citizenship.
Under French law, applicants for a French passport or for a French national identity card can indeed prove their French nationality by providing a birth certificate (if it bears the mention of French nationality), a naturalization decree, other French documents valid for the last 10 years (the so-called possession d’état), or, if none of the latter can be submitted, a certificate of French nationality1.
- As a consequence, it finded that a prefecture is never systematically compelled to withdraw someone’s French documents after he was refused a certificate of French nationality.
Prior to such a decision, the prefecture has to review thoroughly the person’s situation in regards to French nationality, and notably to determine if his French citizenship can be proven by other means or not.
The prefecture also has to convene and hear the claimant beforehand.
In this case, the Conseil d’Etat rescinded the prefecture’s order for not having done so.
This decision underlines how limited the certificate of French nationality is, in the sense that, on the one hand, the issuance of one does not mean that the beneficiary’s French citizenship will never be questioned, and on the other hand, it means that, in case of refusal, the petitioner’s French nationality can be proven by other means.
By limiting the consequences of a refusal, this ruling is also reassuring considering how easily such a decision can be taken (for example for a single missing translation or apostille).
CE, 10 oct. 2023, n° 470174
- Article 4 of the decree of 22 October 1955 and article 5 of the decree of 30 December 2005 ↩︎