FLASHBACK: Getting Dual Citizenship

One of the first things I did after returning from that trip to Morocco was have a chat with my mom. My mother was born in Budapest and emigrated to the US after WW II with her mother, father and older sister. Her other older sister stayed in Hungary until the 1956 revolution and her older brother stayed there for the remainder of his life.

I asked my mom about her Hungarian citizenship and whether I was entitled to take dual. Hungary was now part of the EU and having a Hungarian passport would make living in Europe for an extended period a hell of a lot easier. She had no idea, she called my aunt.

Both her sisters had reclaimed their citizenship some while back as they were frequent travelers back to their homeland. My mother had only returned a few times and therefore waited to reactivate hers. Mainly because it was a document nightmare! But a year prior to my inquiry she had started the process, a process she warned that would be long one.

It took me about nine months before I finally dragged myself to the Hungarian consulate in NYC only to find out I needed an appointment and NO ONE spoke English. I remembered my cousin ( the son of my mom's brother) saying he knew someone down there and so  I gave him a call. He had defected to the states in the early 80's while Hungary was still behind " the iron curtain". He made the call and I had an appointment a month later. It was now February 08, I was moving to Barcelona ( or so I thought) in 5 months and chances were it would take at least a year.

So armed with a folder of paperwork, birth certificates, parents marriage license etc. I headed down to the consulate. After checking in a short stout Hungarian woman showed me into her office, more like a small conference room. I called my mom, turned on the speakerphone and laid the phone on the table as she would act as my interpreter.

This meeting lasted at least an hour, a painful dragged out hour! And so the question and answer section began. Back and forth between the consolate woman and my mother wth the occasional question directed to me from my mom for things like address, ss # and so on.

Then there was the part that went like this:

Consulate Woman: Blah Blah Blah in Hungarian

Mom: (In English ) No, she's not married, she's single

Me: Mom! in Hungarian!

Mom: Oh right. I'm sorry, she repeats it in Hungarian

CW: Blah Blah in Hungarian

Mom: (In English)  No, she has no children, she has a cat

Me: MOM!!!! HUNGARIAN!!!!

Mom: Right. Sorry Ang..Repeats in Hungarian

The woman looks at me and half chuckles, I smile back while gritting me teeth. And every so often my mother would ask through that speakerphone, " Ang, are you still there? Yes, I'm here! Where would I have gone? See how this went?

It was annoying but necessary. Finally they wrap it up, my mom sums up to me it'll be 9 months to a year, maybe longer for the actual passport. I pay my 250.00, I take the receipts and I am outta there! None too soon.

Fast Forward 6 months, I had been in Italy exactly 3 weeks when I get an email from my mom, my citizenship went through and she was holding my Hungarian passport!! YAY! Funny thing was she still hadn't received hers.