Citoyenneté de la Nouvelle-Calédonie (Accord de Nouméa)New Caledonian citizenship is the only distinct sub-national citizenship in French law. Established by Article 4 of Organic Law n° 99-209 of 19 March 1999 ("Il est institué une citoyenneté de la Nouvelle-Calédonie…") and constitutionalized by Title XIII of the Constitution (arts. 76-77), it is RESERVED to persons of French nationality who meet the conditions of Article 188 (principally ten years of domicile and the 1998 reference roll, "frozen" by the 2007 revision of Article 77). It confers NO nationality — rights without conferring nationality — and preserves the holder's French nationality of origin; not all French residents of New Caledonia hold it. It opens three rights: the restricted electorate for the Congress and provincial assemblies (art. 188), the electorate for self-determination consultations (art. 218, narrower: customary civil status, birth in New Caledonia with the person's center of material and moral interests there, or 20 years of domicile as of 31 December 2014), and local-employment priority (art. 24, upheld by CC 99-410 DC). Organic Law n° 2026-410 of 28 May 2026 PARTIALLY opened only the Article 188 electorate (adding natives, "category d"), upheld by CC 2026-905 DC; Article 4 (citizenship) is unchanged. Sharply distinct from the Mayotte NATIONALITY derogation under Article 73 of the Constitution and from Kanak customary civil status (Article 75, a personal-status regime neutral as to nationality).
