My father became a French citizen about 9-10 years ago. I am a 16-year old Syrian living in Turkey. Can I apply for citizenship or something at the French Consulate?

I have no idea about the laws concerning the subject so I apologize if the question seems silly.

My father and I are not on good terms, so I'd like to know if it takes coordination with him to do it.

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    Do you have a copy of your father's naturalisation certificate? Or can you easily acquire it? – Gayot Fow Jun 14 '15 at 18:04
  • Yes, I do have a copy of it – Mohamad Issa Jun 14 '15 at 18:15
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    That's fine then, you don't need the parent's cooperation if you are an adult and you qualify under French rules – Gayot Fow Jun 14 '15 at 18:23
  • Thank you! I'll keep looking into it to see if I do qualify – Mohamad Issa Jun 14 '15 at 18:29

You have left many important details out but the answer is almost certainly that's it's not possible for you to get French citizenship easily.

There is something called “effet collectif” of French citizenship that does allow children younger than 18 to get French citizenship when one of their parent becomes French but to benefit from this disposition, you must be named on the décret de naturalisation (or in the relevant decision if your father became French by déclaration). It can't be done after the fact and if your father did not mention you when he applied for citizenship, then you can't avail yourself of this provision.

There is one exception for children who lived in France with the relevant parent for five years prior to the application (having lived in France legally for five years is usually one of the requirement for naturalisation anyway). In that case, it is possible to apply for naturalisation later, even if you weren't mentioned in the décret or decision pertaining to your father's citizenship. This is presumably not your case and, even if it was, you would probably need your father's cooperation to establish that you did really live together at the time.

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