Photo: Fran Boloni | The Paris Photographer. Audio: Listen Here.
Hundreds of immigrants in France who have been working on the frontlines of the pandemic this year are being honored with fast-track citizenship. France's Interior Ministry invited residents who have been engaged in health care, cleaning, childcare, grocery checkout work this year to apply for accelerated naturalization. First announced in September 2020, a total of 2,890 have applied, with 74 people having already been granted a French passport and 693 in the final stages. Typically, an immigrant must have been a resident in France for five years with stable income and demonstrated integration into French society in order to be granted citizenship. In this case, the government has shortened that five-year requirement to two years for those on the front lines of the pandemic, in recognition for their "great services rendered."
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