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[naturegirl321]

Nope, only was in Korea from Nov 07 to Jan 08, have been in Peru since. BUT, I'm hoping to go back to Asia. No news on the Romanian citizenship front. How are things with you?

[traveller]

No Romanian news, although, seeing how enthusiastic you are about that nation, I am now interested in making a visit (in the vaguely-defined future)

Another prompt for me to see Romania is because a friend of mine has family rooted in that nation. He's a genuine Good Man - an incredible rarity these days -- and I'd like to see the nation that can produce the families of such noble and upright men.

Anyways, I'm just working away, teaching online and gathering the cash needed for my additional education. Time goes on, but at least things are looking up!

[naturegirl321]

Ok, so good news. Kind of. The consel got back to Peru and I applied and got my Romanian birth cert! Oh yea, oh yea!

So now, I need to register my marriage. Of course, the embassy was closed for another couple of weeks due to updating their computer system. NOw they're open and I've left Peru. For good.

So just great.

I have however, gotten an official translation of my marriage cert by a translator in Peru.

Two things have to be done.
1. register my marriage. (in order to do that, I need a valid Ro passport)
2. Get a Ro passport (in order to do that, I need to have my marriage cert registered)

Am i the only one that sees the illogical situation?!

I've contact my lawyer, who says he will see what he can do. Right now, I'm busy with moving back to Korea and my new job and he's busy as well, so we're just going to wait until summer and take it from there.

[josephf]

Hi naturegirl321,

Thank you for posting the looong multi-year process you've gone through to document your Romanian citizenship. It is a MAJOR help to anyone considering going through the same steps. (And this thread is one of the top Google results when searching to get Romanian citizenship through parents/grandparents.) And congratulations on getting your Romanian birth certificate. It sure sounds like they finally recognized (admitted may be a better word!) you are a Romanian citizen by birth. Where are you holding in this process right now?

Do you think the major complication in your process was the differences in how your mother's name was recorded in Romania and in America? If you didn't have that problem (meaning if your mother's name had been registered exactly the same in both the United States and in Romania) how long do you think the process would have then taken you?

Also, how long did it take to get a certified copy (I assume it was certified?) of your mother's Romanian birth certificate, once she requested it? (I think you mentioned she requested it through the consulate in the U.S.)

If not for the name change complication, do you think this process could have been done without a Romanian lawyer? How long did it take to update your mother's name registration? (I got the impression the name correction was done on her U.S. documents, rather than on her Romanian papers?)

And how much did you have to spend for all the lawyers services? Can you mention who the lawyer is and if they are quick and efficient? Also, how much did the whole process cost you in dollars so far from beginning to end?

And on what basis did the Romanians finally accept that your parent/grandparents citizenship was valid? (Based on the obstacles you mentioned throughout the thread.)

I think the most important piece of information you can share with us, is a list of all the documents you needed to complete this whole process. i.e. Your mothers birth certificate, marriage certificate, any old Romanian or American passport or exit papers, your birth and marriage certificate, certified translations of all the above?, Hague Apostil on all of them?, police (criminal) reports of you or your mother in either Romania or the US?, or any other documents the Romanians demanded to complete this.

Good Luck! (You truly deserve it after putting in almost 6 years of work -- which I'm sure was very time consuming for you -- to get this working correctly!)

P.S. To the best I can ascertain, this is a summary of the timeline of your travails on this project: (any errors are mine; feel free to correct.)

1. Mother born in Romania.
2. Moved to U.S. at age 2 years old, with her American mother.
3. Naturalized as American at age 9, and changed her name from Mihaela to Michele, and changed order of her name. (P.P.S. BTW, if your mother's mother is an American, I don't understand why your mother had to naturalize as an American. Usually a child of an American is automatically an American -- and can never lose that status. It is Constitutionally protected.)
4. Oct. '04, you started process to get a Romanian passport.
5. Mar. '05 submitted mothers name change request.
6. Jul. '05 name change request finalized.
7. Jan. '06 giving up.
8. Oct. '06 trying again.
9. Jan. '07 applied to correct mothers (American) marriage certificate.
10. Sept. '07 got a Romanian lawyer.
11. Mar. '08 sent documents to lawyer.
12. Aug. '08 sent more documents to lawyer.
13. Mar. '09 put project on temporary hold.
14. Feb. '10 got your Romanina birth certificate.
15. Waiting to submit your marriage license to register in Romania. Then you can apply for your passport.

(WHEW!!!)

[naturegirl321]

Yep, I-m amazed that it's first on google.

Problem that I have now. I'm married and in order to get a Romanian marriage cert, I need a valid Romanian passport. In order to get a valid Romanian passport, I need a Romanian marriage cert. I don't have either.

The three complications that we had according to the Chicago Consulate.
1. My mom changed her name
2. My mom doesn't speak Romanian.
3. My mom has never been back to Romania.

They also say that the colour of her passport is not the correct colour. I don-t understand THAT, but that-s what we were told.

The name change alone took a couple of years, We had to change her birth cert, which took 9 months. She actually has a new Romanian birth cert to match her US naturalisation papers. Her US naturalisation papers have NOT changed. And my birth cert, took 6 months. And I think she changed her US marriage cert. She doesn-t have a Romanian marriage cert or valid Romanian passport. She and her sister shared one with her mom, and that was 50 years ago.

I don-t have a certified copy of my mom-s birth cert. Just her orginal and mine.

With the name complication, I don-t know. When I got my birth cert from Lima, I just had to fill out three papers in Romanian, she my mom's birth cert and my birth cert. That was it. Took about 2 weeks to process that.

THAT being said, we had been denied at the Chicago consulate. I think it depends where you go. Lovely that nothing is the same. The Lawyer was a gift from my mom. I don-t know what she's paying. AS for my lawyer being quick and efficient, HE is, but Romanian paperwork and bueracracy IS slow and painful, so it's not his fault.

Costs, that I know of. my mom's new birth cert 100 dollars
My new birth cert 60 dollars
Notarising my birth cert 25 dollars
Translation and application for my Romanian birth cert 200 dollars.

The basis that they validated it was that my mom was born in Romania. They didn't, like Chicago , say that I couldn't get it because my mom hadn't been to Romania in years, didn't speak Romanian, and didn't have the right colour passport. My mom wasn't even WITH me when I applied and I didn't show her old passport either.

Documents vary, but you'll need to get the BIRTH CERT
Romanian parent's birth cert
Your birth cert (with Hague apostille)
Application papers
birth cert must be translated, the embassy does that.

That-s it. My mom's marriage cert wasn't needed. Nor was mine. I will however, need my marriage cert to get the passport. My lawyer and I are taking a break now and going to start trying for the passport in the summer. I just moved to Korea and we both have had a lot on our plate.

BUt the most important thing to remember is that different embassies ask for different things. We spent a couple of YEARS getting stuff that the Chicago consulate wanted, only to be told the stuff I wrote above.

Showing Romanian passports, unless they-re valid, can STRONGLY work against you. I'll PM you why.

Most things are correct, just a couple of things.

2. Moved to U.S. at 16 months, with her American mother and half sister. My grandma was born int he US to German parents lived there for 10 years. She couldn't give my mom American citizenship because of the citizenship laws at the time. I'm not really sure what they were. Either my grandma wasn't in the US for the full 10 years, maybe she left when she was like 9 and 11 months. OR becuase my grandfather was Romanian. All I know is that my mom's half sister automatically became Romanian because she was born out of wedlock. GO figure. My mom also mentioned that they wouldn't have risked going to the US embassy at the time due to fear of what might happen to them. ie, Romanians would get mad and attack them.

3. (P.P.S. BTW, if your mother's mother is an American, I don't understand why your mother had to naturalize as an American. Usually a child of an American is automatically an American -- and can never lose that status. It is Constitutionally protected.) Oh, not so. http://travel.state.gov/law/info/info_609.html look here. And it's only 5 years for married couples, it' used to be 10.

15. Waiting to submit your marriage license to register in Romania. Then you can apply for your passport. NOt really. I think we have to do these both at the same time

[josephf]

Hi naturegirl321 (again),

I assume you are still too busy to have completed this? (BTW, the fact that you now have your Romanian birth certificate means they officially recognize you as a citizen. So the hard part is over, you just need to finalize the paperwork formalities.)

Anyways, I'm researching the same issue you had with your mother changing her name after she came to the U.S. You posted in March 2005 that your mother requested the official name change in Romania to match her U.S. naturalization name. Then in July 2005 you posted your mother got her new Romanian birth certificate with her new name (matching her U.S. naturalized name.) So it seems time-wise it only took about 4 months to process the name change.

What document(s) did your mother have to submit to the Romanian consulate to change her name in Romania? Was it just her U.S. naturalization certificate, or did they need anything else as well? If so, what else? And did they need her original U.S. naturalization certificate or just a photocopy?

Do they also require copies (or originals) of your and/or your mother's photo ID card (i.e. U.S. Driver License or U.S. Passport)?

And one thing I didn't get clearly from your post, was why your mother had to change her name on her U.S. Marriage certificate, if she was already going to just change her name in Romania to match her U.S. name?

Thanks again!

[naturegirl321]

Not too busy, just in Korea. I need to get my marriage cert legalised by the Romanian embassy in Lima. My husband has been calling for over a month and they haven't picked up the phone.

Also, here's the catch.
In order to get my RO marriage cert, I need a valid RO passport.
In order to get a RO passport, I need a RO marriage cert.

It's a catch 22. I have a lawyer working on it.

Doesn't mean anything, the birth cert. My mom has hers. And they told her the same thing at the CHicago embassy, no passport, no marriage cert. No marriage cert, no passport.

Plus, neither of us speaks Romanian. I can read and understand a bit though.

Timewise for my mother's name change, it took 9 months. For her name change on my birth cert it was 6 months. I didn't post right away.

She didn't submit antyning to the consulate. They refused to help her. She had to get her cousin in Romania to help. She had to give a power of attorney and her old birth cert as far as I know, as well as her US naturalisation cert. I believe she just sent copies, but I?m not sure.

My mother had to change her name because she had only used TWO of her THREE names. She had TWO names on my birth cert and my marriage cert. And THREE on her naturalisation cert.

[naturegirl321]

I was told this by a friend.

http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/publisher,RFERL,,ROM,46e7df2721,0.html

I was told yesterday that the government of Romania is actually actively trying to get citizens of Moldova to become citizens of Romania. The informant told me nearly the whole population of Moldova qualifies for Romanian citizenship since nearly all of them had ancestors who were Romanians before the war.

I was told this be a Moldovan who is now in the process of getting Romanian citizenship and he says the new law in Romania says it must take no longer than six months to process applications.

So did any of your family ever live in what is now Moldova while it was part of Romania? If they did, you could get Moldovan citizenship first, then get Romanian citizenship as a Moldovan.

Apparently it is rather easy to get a Moldovan passport because it is not good for much so nobody wants one.

But once you have it, you can then get Romanian citizenship with it very easily. 20:13

I am going to try to get more details about the exact process.

[josephf]

Sounds like you are the verge of completing the (lengthy) process you are already in the midst of to obtain a Romanian passport. Considering that you already have your Romanian birth certificate (something that can only be issued to a Romanian citizen [if the person was born outside Romania]), you should be able to complete your original process much quicker than this new idea. (I also highly doubt you can get Moldavian citizenship if you have no ancestoral relationship to Moldavia.)

[naturegirl321]

HA! YOu'd think, right? Nope, ther'es the Catch 22 of not getting a passport without a marriage cert and not getting a marriage cert without a passport.

I'm in the same situation that my mom was in years ago when we went to the Chicago consulate.

I've emailed my lawyer and am waiting to hear back from him.

[josephf]

What if you don't inform them of your being married, request the passport under your maiden name, and then once you have the passport you can let them know you are married and have a new name (if you even want to bother at that point)?

[naturegirl321]

[josephf]

Based on your early messages on this thread, it seems your mother was able to change her legal name in Romania without first obtaining a Romanian passport. Is there any reason you cannot do it the same way she did it?

[naturegirl321]

[josephf]

I don't see why that should make a difference. Your mother changed her name as a child when she naturalized, and you changed your name as an adult when getting married. Nevertheless you both changed it outside Romania, and needed to get your foreign (meaning non-Romanian) name change recognized in Romania. Your mother got her name change recognized in Romania about 5 years ago (shortly after you started this thread) and did so without ever obtaining a Romanian passport.

All the Romanian government cares is that the name was changed outside Romania. How or when it was legally changed outside Romania would make no difference insofar as registering the name change with Romania. So I don't see why you shouldn't be able to have Romania register your name change any differently than your mother did.