Editing Huguenots (section)

=== Right of return to France in the 19th and 20th centuries ===
The government encouraged descendants of exiles to return, offering them French citizenship in a 15 December 1790 law:

<blockquote>All persons born in a foreign country and descending in any degree of a French man or woman expatriated for religious reason are declared French nationals ({{lang|fr|naturels français}}) and will benefit from rights attached to that quality if they come back to France, establish their domicile there and take the civic oath.<ref>{{cite book |author=Sir Thomas Barclay |title=Nationality, domicile and residence in France: Decree of October 2, 1888 concerning foreigners, with notes and instructions and the laws of France relating to nationality, admission to domicile, naturalization and the sojourn in France of foreigners generally |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=99QNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA23 |year=1888 |pages=23– }}</ref></blockquote>

Article 4 of 26 June 1889 Nationality Law stated: "Descendants of families proscribed by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes will continue to benefit from the benefit of 15 December 1790 Law, but on the condition that a nominal decree should be issued for every petitioner. That decree will only produce its effects for the future."<ref>{{cite book |author=Great Britain. Foreign Office |title=Nationality and Naturalization: Reports by Her Majesty's Representatives Abroad Upon the Laws of Foreign Countries |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHozAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA47 |year=1893 |publisher=[[Her Majesty's Stationery Office]] |page=47}}</ref>

Foreign descendants of Huguenots lost the automatic right to French citizenship in 1945 (by force of the {{lang|fr|Ordonnance n° 45-2441 du 19 octobre 1945}}, which revoked the 1889 Nationality Law).<ref>{{cite book |author=Nicolas Boring |title=The Revocation of Huguenot Rights to French Citizenship |url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/huguenot-citizenship/france.php?loclr=eallr |year=2019 |publisher=[[Law Library of Congress]] }}</ref> It states in article 3: "This application does not, however, affect the validity of past acts by the person or rights acquired by third parties on the basis of previous laws."<ref>{{cite book |title=Ordonnance n° 45-2441 du 19 octobre 1945 portant code de la nationalité française |trans-title=Decree number 45-2441 of 19 October 1945 on the subject of French nationality |url=https://www.legislation.cnav.fr/Pages/texte.aspx?Nom=ORD_452447_19101945 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191003195125/https://www.legislation.cnav.fr/Pages/texte.aspx?Nom=ORD_452447_19101945 |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 October 2019 |year=1945 |publisher=[[Provisional Government of the French Republic]] }}</ref>