I am forever hearing people saying that the benefit system in the UK is the biggest draw for the bogus asylum seekers. It isn’t they can get accommodation and payments in several European countries. The magnet drawing them in is the passport, after living in the UK for 5 years they can apply for it and have a 99.9% chance of getting it. No way will France, Germany or the other European countries let them have one. After about a year in the UK they get a visa letting them stay, after this they can bring the family.
In France it is virtually impossible for a foreigner to get the passport, you can live and work there for 30 years but you will never get one. Even if you marry a local it doesn’t guarantee it. Germany is the same. Why is the UK still doing it?
I didn’t know that. Live n learn
Toad
Surely if you apply for nationality in any European country you are eligible for a passport? If anything is the main attraction it might simply be the language.
Can we see the firm evidence for this claim, which I find very hard to believe at first reading?
Where does the 99.9% passport application success rate come from, and what are the grounds for refusing the passport to the luckless one person in the thousand who apply?
You might be waiting a long time Peter.
“In France it is virtually impossible for a foreigner to get the passport, you can live and work there for 30 years but you will never get one. Even if you marry a local it doesn’t guarantee it. Germany is the same”
Nonsense.
Am I being obtuse… if you apply for (and get) French citizenship… can’t you then get a French Passport ???
It’s typical uninformed pub gossip stuff. It usually has a darker meaning but I can’t believe that anyone posting on a site used mainly by immigrants in France would be xenophobic.
For info on refugees getting citizenship in the UK consult the; 2009, borders, citizenship + immigration act.
An English guy I used to meet in France, had lived there for over 15 years, took part in a lot of community activities never claimed a benefit in his life and thought he would apply for French citizenship. They laughed at him.
And he spoke French like a local.
Yes and if you are stateless but need to travel, you can get the passport without the citizenship, it is easier to get a passport than a carte d’identité, or used to be.
The procedure for applying for a French (German, Italian, Dutch, Austrian…) citizenship does not have any point where laughter could be included. I suggest you stop listening to stories in pubs.
" An English guy I used to meet in France, had lived there for over 15 years, took part in a lot of community activities never claimed a benefit in his life and thought he would apply for French citizenship. They laughed at him."
Worked? Paid taxes? Had a clean casier judiciaire?
I have no idea who “they” might be… and why on earth would anyone laugh at him. Applying for citizenship is a serious business… so I suspect the “English guy” has not provided you with the full details.
Perhaps his Interview did not go as he had hoped… who knows… but, whatever, it is a serious undertaking… applying for French Nationality… and if he felt he was not dealt with fairly (ie laughed at)… he can pursue the matter… but, as I said… we do not have the facts… 
It is very unlikely that your French speaking British was a refugee. As a resident of France he would have been able to officially apply to become a French National but he would have been ineligible to apply through the routes available to refugees. France and Britain are no different.
An African guy was granted a French passport last year for saving a child’s life, he climbed up the outside of a building to rescue the child. The passport was given to him on the tv, it was a big thing. Travel documents can be given but never a passport or citizenship.
Passport = travel document. The clue is in the name 
The guy who applied for citizenship was not a refugee he was a retired pilot.
A travel document is not a passport.
You are talking absolute rubbish. I think you are talking worrying rubbish. Your example has completely trashed your theory anyway.
Was your English friend a refugee?