According to the Conseil d’Etat, applicants for a certificate of French nationality do not need an e-mail address
On June 17, 2022, the French government issued a decree reforming the procedure through which are processed applications for a certificate of French nationality.
As a reminder, a certificate of French nationality (certificat de nationalité française) is a document proving to all French administrations that its holder is a French citizen, although its probative value is somewhat limited.
Following the decree, several humanitarian organizations filed a judicial request before the Conseil d’Etat (France’s highest administrative Court), raising the question of its legality from various standpoints.
One of them was the fact that since the reform came into force, applicants have to communicate to the Court their email address, that would mandatorily be used at all stages of the procedure to communicate with them, for example to request additional documents or information or to send them the refusal decision or the certificate itself.
The Conseil d’Etat rendered its judgment last January 17.
Essentially, it found that the decree complies with French and European law, but repealed the section that makes digital communication mandatory, without any alternative for applicants that do not have access to the internet or that have difficulty using computers.
The government has to comply with this judgment and will therefore certainly implement a new form that leaves an option for traditional mail communication.