Suddenly German
Oct. 22nd, 2022 11:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aggienaut I thought I had already written about this but due to the number of "wait what??" comments to my last post about my offhand reference to getting a German passport, apparently I didn't.
So my older brother Tobin had gotten rather into looking up these things and had figured out that we are eligible for German citizenship. Basically, if your parent was eligible, you are eligible, for essentially unlimited generations as long as eligibility hasn't been lost. Eligibility is invalidated by voluntarily taking another citizenship or voluntarily serving in the armed forces of another country. So my great grandparents left Germany on July 17th, 1913, to emigrate to Brazil. They were German citizens and didn't take on Brazilian citizenship. My grandfather was born a Brazilian citizen and involuntarily served in the Brazilian army for his obligatory military service. My dad was born a Brazilian citizen, naturalized as an American citizen because the family moved to the US when he was less than a year old. Renounced his Brazilian citizenship after Tobin was born but before I was born, because he wanted to visit Brazil but would have been in trouble for not serving in the military there if he didn't renounce his citizenship -- as a result though Tobin is a Brazilian citizen and I am not.
I was of course born an American citizen, now a permanent resident in Australia. If I take Australian citizenship I lose my German citizenship. BUT so what I'm thinking, is if Cristina and I have children here in Australia before I take Australian citizenship, they will be born as American, German, Venezuelan, Australian citizens (!). ;)
This isn't just a novelty, who knows how the world will look in 30 years, but my children should have full rights to live and work anywhere in Europe, the USA, Australia, or Venezuela (and because a lot of latin American countries have mutual agreements, they'll have some rights to travel or work in many S.American countries I think). I will give my children the world ;)
Also much as I really love living where I am and my current job, being as German citizenship gives me _and my wife_* right to live and work anywhere in Europe, there's a possibilty Cristina and I might move to Spain -- medical accreditation from South America is easier there and obviously she wouldn't have a language barrier. (*not sure if the "and my wife" part applies to all of Europe but it does in Spain, the one country I looked into since it's the only one we're realistically considering)
So my brother Tobin was doing the paperwork, which was a bit formidable since it involved getting birth and other documents pertaining to three generations in three countries, but as long as he was doing it it was the same paperwork for him and me and our cousins so he did it simultaneously for several of us. A month or so ago I finally received my official document of German citizenship, made the appointment for a German passport as soon as I could (which also solves the very practical problem I've been having which is I often need to send my passport out for visa stamps, it'll be nice to have a second passport in reserve while my US passport is out cavorting the world), which was the appointment the other day. In about ten weeks I should have my German passport!
Incidentally, and you may be wondering, no I don't speak a word of German. I don't even know offhand how to say hi. But weirdly I've found I do suddenly _feel_ more German. If I wasn't already filling up my daily capacity of language learning with studying Spanish I'd probably take up studying German now.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 09:29 am (UTC)No problem! (:
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 02:56 am (UTC)I live in Canada. I had 5 German co-workers about 12 years ago. Only one of them decided to live in Canada. All the others moved back to Germany right before they had children. This was their main reason. Rising children there is way less expensive than in Canada.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 09:31 am (UTC)I would have thought if they were already somewhere else like Canada they'd have their children there before moving back to Germany to give them the citizenship, but I guess not everyone is plotting citizenships for their children
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 06:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 09:31 am (UTC)Yes I'm excited for my German passport (:
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 07:28 am (UTC)Ah ok, I did wonder a bit because I had thought you would be more likely to get Aussie citizenship, if anything! I get your reasoning. A German passport is better than a US one for travel anyway as there are more places you can go to without a visa. It’s actually one of the best in the world to have for that (I think tied with Sweden or something?) I know this because I got German citizenship too but because I live in Germany and my husband is German. Edit: I checked - Germany and South Korea are tied for second place (under Japan and Singapore) with 190 countries they can go to visa free. A US passport holder can go to 186 countries visa free.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 09:40 am (UTC)Woo! I wonder if my combined US-German passport might even put me over Japan/Singapore? As someone who travels a lot to a lot of obscure places I'm definitely excited about the potential advantages.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 07:36 am (UTC)Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ (https://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=303).
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 11:07 am (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 09:42 am (UTC)So you were presumably born a German citizen? Sounds like you might have a definite claim for the passport. Yeah obviously not super pertinent if you don't plan on traveling or moving countries but hey its good to know your options (:
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 05:22 pm (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 12:48 pm (UTC)My family left Germany too long ago (350 years) for that to be an option for me, but that's really cool that you can qualify for German citizenship several generations later!
. I don't even know offhand how to say hi.
Hallo.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 09:43 am (UTC)That is a long time ago!!
Some relatives on Cristina's dad's side came from Spain but we don't have the necessary official records to pursue Spanish citizenship for her that way.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 09:43 am (UTC)That is a long time ago!!
Some relatives on Cristina's dad's side came from Spain but we don't have the necessary official records to pursue Spanish citizenship for her that way.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 09:45 am (UTC)Yes I feel like I'm quite rather a "citizen of the world" 'as they say, and I really intend for my children to grow up as such as well — spending time in Venezuala and the US as well as whereever we are living at the time.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-31 11:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 01:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 09:45 am (UTC)I quite rather think so!
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 02:57 pm (UTC)I can do this by birthright in Italy and am seriously considering it for similar reasons. I'd be more likely to live in Ireland than Italy, but you never know.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 11:24 am (UTC)But hey, Italian citizenship will entitle you to live in Ireland because EU!
My brother is actually now looking into Irish citizenship. I forget the issues, maybe your grandparents need to actually be born in Ireland — because my dad even has Irish citizenship but I don't. Tobin (my brother. note the very Irish name too!) thinks at best we might have a 50/50 shot at Irish citizenship. It carries a real advantage over German citizenship though in that I don't think I'd lose it if I took Australian citizenship.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 04:55 pm (UTC)Most excellent, Chris! And we will welcome both of you here in Spain whenever that happens! The more options, the better!
When will you and Cristina be able to get together again?
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 11:26 am (UTC)Well we're thinking of meeting in Spain just for vacation together maybe next April! (:
no subject
Date: 2022-10-22 05:37 pm (UTC)Very cool!!! I did not know any of this, so good to know and thank you for explaining. I could probably get German citizenship, too! Since I don't plan to move anywhere outside the US, though, probably too much trouble.
Based on some of the comments, I'm guessing Cristina lives in a different country?
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 11:27 am (UTC)Yes she lives in Venezuela, and due to covid we haven't been able to see eachother for three years now!! ):
no subject
Date: 2022-11-01 02:40 pm (UTC)I'm so sorry! That's awful! :(
no subject
Date: 2022-10-24 12:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 11:28 am (UTC)Nope we still talk every day and try to make plans for when we can finnnnnnally see eachother! <3
no subject
Date: 2022-10-26 10:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 11:29 am (UTC)I'm looking forward to cruising through the "EU passports" line :D Though I think I'll always be anxious the passport control officer will try to say something to me in German after seeing my passport and I'll be like ummm
no subject
Date: 2022-10-30 07:48 pm (UTC)