FAQ: How can your mom not know she's Romanian?

Question
Naturegirl, How can anyone not know what nationality they are?

Seriously, I take your point about your mum not realising she still retained Romanian citizenship, but if you had any real desire to get Romanian citizenship, and knowing your mum HAD BEEN Romanian, wouldn't it have been perfectly logical to ENQUIRE? You know, TRY ALL ANGLES? Surely, it must have occured to you that having a parent born in a country MIGHT get you citizenship? At least, find out?

Answer
Ok, My mom came to the States when she was a little over a year old and became a citizen when she was nine. Under Romanian law at that time, my grandmother lost her American citizenship when she married a Romanian. My mom thought that when she became an American, she lost Romanian citizenship. However, she didn't know that although under USA law, she was only an American, under Romanian law she was Romanian (in 1991 when they gave citizenship back to her. Since she left under the communist regime she was considered to have committed treason and her Romanian citizenship was revoked.)  I'm currently in the process of getting citizenship, it just take forever as my mom has to register her marriage, register her name change, get a passport, then I have to register my birth, my marriage (hopefully this year), and then I can get a passport.

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Too many names

So my mom is trying to change her name. Because she has four different names. NOw she has to send her naturalisation papers to Romania, because they say that they need to verify that she is a Romanian citizen. I don't see what that has to do with a name change in Romania.

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Mom got her US passport

My mom got her US passport, only took 3 weeks. So now she can start applying for all the Romanian documents. Though it has her old name, hope that won't be an issue.

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Translation complete

Well, I got all the paperwork translated by my mom's aunt and got my birth certificate notarized. My mom is waiting for her US passport. Then she can apply for her name change which is the first of many steps.

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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.

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Disclaimer:

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