[Porfirio Rubirosa]

I am a long-time lurker who started posting here very recently; I've decided it's about time to give back to this community which has helped me so much. This is a guide to join (quite frankly, to attempt to join) the French Foreign Legion; I was a legionnaire for about three weeks but in the end I was rejected.

The FFL would suit many people on this forum; it's a way to abandon your fucked-up life in your place-of-origin, learn French, travel a little (mostly limited to French colonies and places where French troops aid fellow Nato countries), obtain French citizenship (after three years or by becoming 'French by virtue of spilled blood'). You can even assume a different name but contrary to popular belief it is not obligatory. Don't think the FFL is composed of low-lives; they'll conduct a background check through the Interpol for every single applicant. If you're on the run from Interpol they'll hand you over too and if your record is particularly bad they'll certainly send you packing.

If you do get accepted but hate it for some reason don't desert with your weapon; getting caught (typically by the Gendarmes since the Legion won't try too hard to look for you as long as you haven't taken your weapon) without it will typically get you forty days in jail but those who get caught with their weapons get a more 'extra-official' type of punishment. That's without mentioning the fact that you have more chances of getting away successfully without your weapon because many men will be after you if you desert with your weapon.

Prerequisites

• Be a man ;
• Have a passport (ID card is fine if you're from an EU country);
• No murders or major drug offences on your criminal record (of course, a totally clean record is preferred);
• BMI of at least 20 and at most 30 (you must be fit in general; your teeth should be in a good state too);
• Be at least seventeen-and-a-half and thirty-nine-and-a-half at most.
  

All prerequisites are self-explanatory; be a fit, relatively-young male with a passport (or ID card if you're from the EU) and a relatively-good criminal record. These are the only things that matter (along with your intelligence to a certain extent). No-one cares about your nationality, race, religion, etc.

I wouldn't recommend applying if your teeth are in a bad state and you have a BMI of 29 for example; go to the gym (and the dentist), sort out all your documents since you'll be leaving your former life behind and then go to France and enlist.

Enlisting

Now that you have (presumably) sorted everything, gone to France you have to enlist. To do this you have several choices.

• Enlisting at the pre-selection centres in Aubagne (where the Legion's headquarters are located) or in Paris;
• Enlisting at an information centre attached to Aubagne. These are located in Lille, Nantes, and Strasbourg;
• Enlisting at an information centre attached to Paris. These are located in Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Perpignan, and Toulouse.

Be sure to arrive at the centre's front door Monday-Friday between 8.00 and 17.00. Officially they are open on every day of the year but no-one will let you in a three in the morning on a Saturday. Once they've let you in you'll stay there for two to five weeks during which you'll be the subject of psychological, medical and physical tests. After that you'll either be rejected or sent to basic training. You won't have to pay any accommodation and/or food bills for the time spent at the pre-selection or selection centres but you are expected to bring your own clothes, shoes (mostly trainers), soap, towel(s), tooth paste and tooth brush with you.

My Story

I applied two months after turning eighteen. At the time, I had just graduated from university (I was home-schooled which allowed me to enter university at fifteen) and was living with my parents in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates since they were stationed at the Dominican Republic's Embassy there. I wanted to move to Europe but I couldn't find anyone willing to hire an inexperienced foreigner without a worker's visa or something similar. For that reason, I travelled around Europe for about a month and then enlisted in Paris. I spent three weeks there as a legionnaire but for some reason unknown to me I was rejected with a letter that said my 'profile was inapt for the needs of the Foreign Legion'.

This is all the information I can provide my fellow posters on this forum. I cannot tell you guys how gruelling the training is or whether you will immediately want to desert and return home because I was rejected before I had a chance to experience all that; they decided (and were spot-on now that I think about it) that the tough military life the Legion offers was suitable for a person like me. At the time I was quite angry but in the end I married an EU citizen (out of convenience), moved to Spain (naturalisation is relatively-simple for Ibero-American citizens and I only had to live in the country for a year since I was born there while my parents were students), naturalised and later moved to the United Kingdom where I currently live. Had I joined the FFL, my first contract (five years) would've expired a year or so ago and I would have a French passport instead of a Spanish one. Furthermore, about two or three years after the Legion rejected me another European country from which one direct ancestor of mine came enacted legislation which allowed me to claim citizenship there. I hope this datasheet is helpful.