I wondered if someone could confirm if when applying for French citizenship you are over 60 you are not required to take a French verbal/ written test.Has anyone recently gone through the process and how long did it take?
Thanks
That was then, not so now.
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France is not like Scandinavia, exponential racism being not fully admitted yet obvious (election)âŠNo, you donât need to Legally learn french and prove your level in any ways then thanks to a verbal/written test. Itâs more of a personal decision & obviously latent : french people only speak french, the only ones in the whole world. As a french myself honest to the bones, french language is a beautiful one but Hard, not to discourage anyone at all. Full of random subtleties to tear your hair out, and I LOVE when british speak french with this exquisite accent full of âle voitureâ or âla soleilâ.
However, NO TEST required at any age to integrate : take it easy. People will make you understand enough quickly how much an outsider you are without having to make any grateful effort to deliver any french soundâŠsubsenquently, no terrific conversations with terrific french : whining, whining, whining around more or less good wine. Youâre not missing anything, on the far contrary. Trust me on that point. Which is a pity for the practice of this beautiful language. And just in case, as mentioned above, if anyone needs some advice : please do not hesitate to ask, life is worth if only willing to evolve. Pleasure will be all mine to help foreigners practice french. Enjoy the beauty here & there ! There is some, always
PS : Regarding french citizenship, if not through marriage : after 5 years of fully living in this country. To be proved, not difficult in itself. The only thing slightly twisted is that there is No Legal Test required but an individual meeting is done with âa sufficient levelâ in french needed. Basic level, really. If I may, make your best to show you like France & speak french a minimum & want to improve yourself later of course. Personal courses will be needed on your own,
British who have double citizenship will better answer, as a wise choice it is now to have double citizenship : I am not part of what will happen in 5 years, politically. French have amazing capacities of defying natural laws when itâs about to always digging deeper & deeper, fearful pessimism as a national sportâŠFingers crossed
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@Tim_lezard
You need A2 of the common EU framework of reference for languages, very basic indeed.
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For citizenship - nationality you need B1, not A2. (There are visas that require basic A1 French). I have just recently gained nationality so this is accurate info. You need a formal exam certificate, not just the results, so need to factor this extra time in oneâs planning as can be months after the exam before you get this,
There is also an approx 1 hour interview in French.
The exceptions are people over 65 who have been in France over 25 years and are applying by ascendancy; ie they have children who are French and those from countries whose mother tongue is French and have scholarity certificates,
How long it takes depends on how you are applying and where . By marriage in Paris is often a year. By décret in RhÎne Alpes can be 5 years.
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Oh sorry I looked at the CDs regs - read the OP too late too fast 
sorry to mislead!
Cas gĂ©nĂ©ral. Si vous faites une 1re demande de carte de rĂ©sident, vous devez prouver que votre maĂźtrise du français est supĂ©rieure ou Ă©gale au niveau A2 du cadre europĂ©en commun de rĂ©fĂ©rence pour les langues ( CECRL ) du Conseil de lâEurope .
You are of course right about getting citizenship
Pour obtenir la naturalisation française, vous devez justifier une connaissance de la langue française Ă lâoral et Ă lâĂ©crit au moins Ă©gale au niveau B1 du cadre europĂ©en commun de rĂ©fĂ©rence pour les langues (CERL) . Toutefois, certaines personnes en sont dispensĂ©es.
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B1 is what level of a seven or eight year old!
For people learning a language here B1 is the level aimed for at the end of 3eme in your first foreign language, they are certified at A2 though because that way everybody ticks the box.
Theoretically A2 is your level after 2 years of learning a language 3 hours a week in a class of 30, and it is B1 after 4. For the Bac we have a sliding scale up to C1 but the level aimed for by most candidates in their first Modern Foreign Language is B2. Everyone has 2 compulsory MFLs.
But you canât really compare with native speakers (who will make mistakes too but not the same ones).
Edited to deal with a typo
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It is not a fluent level of French to be sure, but adults do not learn as easily as children and some people struggle with language so getting to even a basic level can be a stretch. Because Iâve learnt all my french outside a classroom from speaking and listening to people, my oral skills are C2, but I had to work at written skills to get B2 (way back in 2003 - not sure my spelling has improved that much since!)
So your comment strikes me as a touch rude. Although for nationality I would expect a âgoodâ B2 level as people will have been here at least 5 years.
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Iâm sure weâve had this conversation before but I think thereâs a fairly substantial body of research into 2nd language acquisition that says adults actually learn more efficiently from classes and books, but the degree of success depends to a high extent on their prior experience of doing that: ie someone who has a good level of education will actually acquire a language quite effectively and in depth if they work at it because they have the skills for that type of learning. Immersion should help with oral fluency but can be superficial. Also there are 5 categories* of language skill and people arenât necessarily equally good at all of them.
Young children on the other hand benefit most from immersion because they are acquiring language skills all the time in their own language and are hard-wired to do that, and they donât depending on age, master the other types of knowledge acquisition that adults have. Also they socialise differently.
I suppose it boils down to not expecting to learn as a child does, because you arenât one, but applying your adult skills to learning effectively.
*Reading, writing, listening, speaking uninterruptedly, speaking in interaction: these are what we evaluate.
I donât think we have, and thatâs quite interesting. I did start French young (french summer schools etc) but some of the foundations never stuck properly, so had to work at it as an adult.
@JaneJones sorry that was a general SF âweâ rather than you and I having had the conversation 
it was probably aeons ago.
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I will never have French nationality. I could have had, years ago because my level of French was far better than it is now, because of age mainly. I even struggle in English because I spend minutes trying to remember the correct word, and the conversation moves on.
I passed the required level immediately after the referendum in 2016 but surely by sheer luck, I was convinced I wasnât good enough even then, but didnât continue because of all the ancient document hassle.
If there is disbelief at what I have just written, it took me 10 minutes to get it right. The last stumbling block was hassel/hassle. 
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I learnt German at school (it was the schools choice rather than French as taught in most of the other schools in my schooling era) and I still remember much of what I learned then. Iâve never formally learnt French and at 70+ I doubt I ever will but what I have learnt whilst living in France continues to improve only by my (albeit forced) associations such as those with Hospital RDVs and shopping. I have tried things like some of the online courses but often get bored with them very quickly and abandon them in short order. Something like an immersion language course though at Sorbonne would appeal but regrettably, that is now out of the question due health issues so, Iâm left with âlearning on the flyâ.
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On the same theme⊠I watched a video about the French Foreign Legion and the requirement for the etranger to learn French which they do in an immersion fashion⊠they are punished if they so much as utter a word in their own mother tongueâŠ
Every soldier leaves with French citizenship and good French language skills so immersion training can work.
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I think the legion has its own particular immersion methods I bet it is intensive, I doubt ânormalâ immersion is as strenuous.
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you mean⊠they drown the poor beggars if they get it wrong? 
La meilleure façon dâapprendre une langue Ă©trangĂšre câest sur lâoreiller
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Limited vocabulary perhaps?
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Seconded