Name Change

I had called the consulate general of Chicago and was told all my mom needed to do was get a passport and then I was automatically a citizen. They said that all my mom needed was a birth cert, marriage cert, and US ID. Well, of course, things didn't go as planned.

When my mom was naturalised, she changed her name from Mihaela to Michele. And never registered the change with Romania, So she needs to do that, That'll take at least three months and 90USD. At birth her name was A B C D when she was naturalised, she changed the order to A C B D, then later on in life, just went by C B D. She never dropped it legally, so on her marriage cert, driver's license, social security, everything is only C B D, so I'm sure that that'll cause problems later on.

She also needs to register her marriage after she registers her name change, which'll take at least three more months and 80USD. THEN she can apply for a passport, which takes three months and 80USD. AND THEN I can start applying. First I need to register my birht with Romania, which is three months and 90USD. Then I can get a passport. Three months and 80USD. So with any luck, I should get the passport within a year and a half. And it should cost around 500 USD.

Be sure to read about what has happened so far. You can find everything in the quick summary of dates.

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Military Service for Romanian Citizens

Art 17, Chapter 1 of the Romanian Constitution states that: "Romanian citizens living abroad benefits from the Protection of the Romanian State and must fulfil their duties except for those that are not compatible with their absence from the country." Obviously the military service for Romanian citizens living abroad is such a case of exception:-).

For practical reasons I doubt a Romanian citizen residing abroad can be called for military service in Romania:

1. It has to be registered with a recruitment office. As far as I know there is none abroad and all information procedures are related only to Romanian-based institutions (e.g. local authorities/commercial agents must present lists with residents/employees of military age to the military institutions)
2. It has to get by mail the incorporation order based on recruitment offices' records: no incorporation order, no military service
3. Travel expenses are too high

Romanian citizens can opt for alternative utilitary service (e.g. working in a hospital, for environmental organizations etc. ).

Be sure to read about what has happened so far. You can find everything in the quick summary of dates.

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Be sure to read about what has happened so far. You can find everything in the quick summary of dates.

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Mom's birth cert name change

My mom sent off the documents for her name change on her birth cert. Hopefully by this summer it will be finished and she can get her Romanian passport.

Be sure to read about what has happened so far. You can find everything in the quick summary of dates.

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Quick summary of dates

Last updated 20 March 2017

Here's a quick rundown of all the important events that happened while I was trying to get Romanian citizenship. I've now given up a few times and am currently trying once again. All the links take you my blog posts where you can read more about what happened. You also might want to take a look at the FAQs.

2017

• February 2017: Birth certificate cancelled

2016

• October 2016: News from Romania about correcting my birth certificate.
• December 2016: My second daughter was born.

2015

• July 2015: Took all my Romanian documents back to my parents' house.
• August 2015: Married a wonderful man.
• September 2015: Trying again with Dr. Ioan-Luca Vlad (attorney for the Royal Family).
• November 2015: Told to get the mandates (POA) signed at the Romanian Embassy in Seoul. 
• November 2015: Signed the mandates (POA) at the Romanian Embassy in Seoul. 
• December 2015: Sent my American birth certificate to my lawyer.

2014

• January 2014: Divorced was finalised.
• February 2014: They revoked my birth certificate and I'm giving up. 
• February 2014: My work plans for Romania. 
• July 2014: Tried the Chicago consulate again: officially giving up.

2013

• May 2013: My husband and I separated; he's in Peru. My daughter and I are in Korea. 
• July 2013: Quick update about citizenship. 
• July 2013: Organising all the docs my lawyer sent me. 
• July 2013: Having problems with Seoul's Romanian Embassy's email.
• August 2013: Visited the Romanian Embassy in Seoul. 
• September 2013: My mom's mom died. 
• September 2013: Got an email from the Romanian Embassy in Seoul.
• September 2013: The Romanian Embassy in Seoul called me. 
• September 2013: Trying to register my marriage at the Romanian Embassy in Peru. 
• October 2013: Why I'm still trying to get Romanian citizenship. 
• October 2013: I sent a Power of Attorney to register my marriage and get my CNP. 
• October 2013: My husband went to the Romanian Embassy in Peru. 
• November 2013: They can't issue me my CNP yet because of my name change. 
• November 2013: More docs needed for my CNP. 

2012

• January 2012: Hoping this will be the year I get my passport!
• January 2012: My husband, my mother and I all signed two documents.
• January 2012: My husband and I had to re-do 4 documents.
• February 2012: Got the documents apostillised.
• March 2012: All the docs are in Romania.
• March 2012: No news is bad news.

2011

• February 2011: My husband came back to Korea. We got pregnant right away :)
• February 2011: Got confirmation from Romania that my mother is still a citizen.
• February 2011: Lawyer put in my Romanian passport request. Fingers crossed!
• April 2011: Catch 22 with marriage and passport.
• May 2011: Flight booked to Romania. Will be travelling there alone and 7 months pregnant.
• July 2011: Won't have mom's birth cert in Romania though my lawyer can get another one.
• July 2011: In Romania. Start by reading Day 1, My First Impressions of Romania.
• August 2011: In Bucharest, Iasi, and Timisoara. Day trips to Sinaia and Brasov.
• October 2011: Need my husband's permission to register our marriage and change my name.
• October 2011: Husband signed docs.
• October 2011: Our daughter, TMI was born.
• October 2011: Problems getting docs apostillised.
• December 2011: The MFA in Lima won't apostillise our docs.
• December 2011: Got docs signed in Korea.

2010

• January 2010: Got my Romanian birth certificate.
• January 2010: Left Peru in order to move back to Korea.
• February 2010: Spent time in the USA.
• February 2010: Moved back to Korea.
• June 2010: Husband moved to Korea.
• July 2010: Asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to see if anyone in my family is still a citizen.
• September 2010: Husband moved back to Peru.
• November 2010: Went to Seoul embassy to see if I could use birth cert to get passport.

2009

• March 2009: Became a Peruvian citizen due to marriage.
• March 2009: Put Romanian citizenship project on temporary hold.
• December 2009: Applied for my Romanian birth cert.

2008

• February 2008: Moved back to Peru.
• March 2008: Sent documents to lawyer and trying to study Romanian. 
• May 2008: Changed tactics. If we prove my mom's a citizen then I'd get citizenship by default. 
• August 2008: Sent more documents to lawyer. Still waiting and studying Romanian.   
• October 2008: More docs sent off.
• November 2008: Still waiting.

2007

• January 2007: Applied to correct mom's US marriage certificate and my US birth cert.
• June 2007: UNHCR laws prohibit citizenship from being revoked if acquired by birth.
• August 2007: Started contacting lawyers.
• August 2007: Found a god lawyer.
• August 2007: Got correct docs: my birth certificate and mom's corrected marriage certificate. 
• September 2007: Signed a contract with an Irish lawyer who's living in Romania.
• September 2007: Having (more) issues with the Chicago consulate.
• October 2007: Having issues with the Romanian embassy in Lima.
• November 2007: Moved to Korea.
• November 2007: My mom got the docs I sent her from Peru.

2006

• January 2006: Gave up. The Chicago consulate denied my mom's a Romanian citizen.
• February 2006: I got married in Peru.
• October 2006: Started trying again.
• December 2006: Visited the Romanian embassy in Lima, Peru.

2005

• January 2005: All my mom's documents have been translated.
• January 2005: My mom got her US passport, but it has her old name.
• March 2005: My mom has problems with all her different names. See also Name Change.
• May 2005: My father's mom died.
• July 2005: Name change request for my mom's birth cert finalized (took about 9 months).
• July 2005: Told that we needed to change my mom's marriage cert as well.

2004

• October 2004: Started process to get a Romanian passport.
• November 2004: Submitted mother's name change request for her Romanian birth certificate.

1999

• Fall 1999: Called the Chicago consulate and was told that my mom wasn't Romanian because she hadn't lived there for years and didn't speak Romanian.

In the beginning

• 1950s: Mom was born in Romania. 
• 1950s: Mom moved to U.S. at when she was about 1 year old with my grandmother and my aunt. Her dad came 3 years later. 
• 1960s: Mom was naturalized as an American at age 9, and changed her name from Mihaela to Michele as well as the the order of her given names.
• 1980s: I was born
• 1990s: My mom's dad died.

Be sure to read about what has happened so far. You can find everything in the quick summary of dates.

Disclaimer:

• Please join my Patreon page
• University of Toronto's Online TEFL Course

My quest begins

Some of you may know that I'm trying to get Romanian citizenship. So I thought I'd keep a bit of an ongoing diary about how to obtain it.

There are various ways to obtain it. The easiest is if one of your parents is Romanian. I just found out that my mother still has Romanian citizenship. She became a naturalized American citizen in 1965 after escaping from Romanian when it was going through a bad time. She escaped with my aunt and my grandmother. My grandmother and my aunt were American. My grandfather came over a couple of years later.

Anyways, my mother thought that if she became American, she would give up previous citizenship. This whole time she was under the impression that she had given up Romanian citizenship. The truth was that American recognises, but does not encourage dual citizenship. Which meant that in America's eyes, she was only American. In Romania's eyes, she was Romanian.

Simply put, if one of your parents is Romanian, and have a valid passport, all their children related by blood are also citizens. My mother has to get a passport. She needs her Romanian birth cert and marriage cert. Which needs to be translated. She needs the originals. And it takes a long time. After this, I'll be Romanian and can apply for a passport. Right now, my mother is requesting her birth cert. I'll write more as soon as something happens.

Giving Up Romanian Citizenship
According to Romanian law, my mother can't give up Romanian citizenship, because it was acquired at birth.

This is from EICEE. The Romanian embassy in Israel also has lots of information.
(1) Romanian citizenship can be acquired, retained or lost as provided for by the organic law.
(2) Romanian citizenship cannot be withdrawn if acquired by birth.

Dual Citizenship Allowed in Romania
This is from the Romanian citizenship law 21/1991. Here's the updated version.

DUAL CITIZENSHIP: RECOGNIZED. Due to Romanian recognition of dual citizenship, a child born to parents of different nationality is permitted, by Romanian law, to be a dual citizen. The only possible restriction might be the laws of the non-Romanian parent's country.

Family Roots Option
I got this from the Romanian embassy in Denmark. Since 2004, they have taken this information off their webpage. I don't know what happened.

This is for people who's parents don't have passports. Under this option the applicant must have roots in Romania or ex Romanian territories; he must be born in Romania or to have one of his parents born in Romania, or one of his grandparents born in Romania. This will qualify the applicant, his/her spouse and children of any age for citizenship. If many members of same family will apply at same time for citizenship they will have separate sets of documents and citizenship will be obtained separately.

Necessary documents:
1. Birth certificate of the applicant and birth certificate of one parent (the one born in Romania). Original.
2. Marriage certificate of mother (in case she was born in Romania and changed name after marriage). Copy, legalized by a notary.
3. Passport (photocopy).
4. Declaration, made at the Notary office, attesting the applicant didn’t apply for citizenship in the past. In our office.
5. Police record. Translated into English and legalized by a notary.
6. Power of attorney to be represented in their best interest, in front of all Romanian authorities, in order to obtain the citizenship. In our office, legalized by Notary.

All documents will be given in copies, translated in English and legalized by a notary office with the “apostil” approval by the court . If you choose to be assisted by our law office, you will sign a contract between our office and yourself, the power of attorney that enables us to represent you abroad and the Declaration to the Romanian authorities, written in English or Romanian; in case it will be in English we shall have to translate it into Romanian language in Romania, by a authorized translator.

The process takes 4 to 6 months. Most of the time is taken up by the background checks on the client, translations and issue of documents. The applicant will be notified to his home address, by the Romanian Consulate that he/she obtained the Romanian Citizenship and he/she will be invited to the Romanian Consulate for the loyalty vow to the Romanian flag.

3. Romanian Passport
One can prove Romanian citizenship by owning a Romanian passport. Any Romanian citizen who lives or travels abroad is identified with his own passport. Requirements to obtain a Romanian passport (for Romanian citizens living in other country than Romania):

notarised copy of the ”Birth Certificate”;
copy of the Residence Permit (Opholdstilladelse in Denmark);
copy of the previous passport or other document with photo;
notarised copy of the ”Marriage Certificate” (when the marriage took place in other country than Romania it should be transcripted in Romania);
5 photos and fee

Be sure to read about what has happened so far. You can find everything in the quick summary of dates.

Disclaimer:

• Please join my Patreon page
• University of Toronto's Online TEFL Course