In the early 1980's, I applied for a "permanent" residence visa in France. I recall the visit to the police station, the cop asking me questions and hammering away with two fingers on a typewriter. Up until that time I had never voted in any election, so I wasn't exactly a "political activist".

I remember the periodic visits to renew my work permit in various locations and what the crowded halls of those places were like. The quiet desperation (of which I was fortunately not saddled with). The faces, the accents, and the civil servants doing what must be a horrible job, eventually giving in to their own frustration. I also recall radical changes to immigration law that would definitely affect me.

At one time, I wrote tot he US embassy to find out about dual nationality. I recevied back a letter - this was pre-Internet. That letter had a lot of admonishing statements in it, the main thrust being "While it may seem convenient when living permanently outside the United States to do so, you may lose your American citizenship for several reasons if you ask for citizenship in a foreign country". There was no definitive answer, just several cases, many of which seemed to be innocent people who suddenly were told they were no longer citizens of the US. This letter gave me pause for several years. I don't but what we were told as kids, "greatest GD country in the world!" because there is no greatest country. There may be a mightiest country, but it was brought to its knees more than once, and unless you see Viet Nam as a victory, its might wasn't enough to vanquish. SOmetimes, often in fact, we go kill tons of people for the wrong reasons.

I finally asked for, and one year later was given French citizenship after residing here for a couple of decades. It is a matter of convenience, of not having to renew documents or deal with changes to immigration laws.