Australia's Immigration and Citizenship Law

• About dual citizenship: Australians no longer lose their Aussie citizenship if they take on another citizenship.
• Children born overseas to an Aussie citizen can apply for Aussie citizenship, apparently without too much trouble if you have no criminal record. If the child is born in Australia, it will be Australian if one of the parents is.
• Spouses of Aussie nationals are eligible for residency (temporary after 2 years of relationship, permanent after 5 years of relationship or if there is a child) but need to apply for citizenship. There are steps to follow.

France's Immigration and Citizenship Law

It's all on the Foreign Affairs Web site.

• Children get French citizenship if one of their parent is French and they get declared before their 18^th birthday.
• Spouses of French citizens can apply for citizenship after 4 years of marriage, or 5 years if they don't live in France. They'll need to show command of French.

Maitre Eolas wrote a long piece on French citizenship, which suggests things are more complicated than they look (but only in weird cases such as people born in France and living abroad for more than fifty years).

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