I don't know all the details - I just browsed around a bit. The delay is the time necessary to be able to deposit your file at the prefecture. But that doesn't mean that you will automatically have a positive answer, far from it. The fact of having been a student in France will not automatically lead to you getting the french nationality - especially now that France has rendered its immigration politics somewhat more severe. What that delay only indicates is that you can legally ask for it (below the delay, the answer would be automatically "no"). I don't know exactly what are the criteria that are used to say "yes", but of course the more solid your file, the higher the chances, so probably it would be better to find a job first. If you have a job, if you "integrated" (you speak french for instance),... for a certain time, I would think that your chances are higher than if you were a student asking for citizenship. Although cristo may have formulated his answer in a somewhat unfortunate way, I would also guess that if you asked french citizenship as a student, the suspicion would also be that you are just "fishing for a EU passport", while if you would wait somewhat, show that you have a job and everything, I would guess that your chances of getting a yes are higher. I think that in the end, you will always be suspended at the decision of some or other administrative agent, because you don't fall into any "automatic" category (marriage, birth, adoption...). On the other hand, I've heard on the radio that France is still one of the most "easy" countries in the EU to distribute citizenship. So good luck !