11/08/2022   English German

  Edition # 145  
San Francisco, 11-08-2022


Figure [1]: Spoiled for choice with two passports.

Michael After living a whopping 25 years in the USA, we decided to become American citizens. Why? With our Green Card, we were allowed to stay in the U.S. indefinitely, but if we ever decided to live outside the country for more than six months, the Green Card would expire immediately and we didn't want that risk. Furthermore, Green Card holders are legally fragile hybrids, powerless against changing administrations who can seemingly willy nilly modify the rules that govern immigration. The rights of an American citizen, however, are protected by the constitution, and are therefore carved in stone.

Figure [2]: How Detlef Schrempf lost his German citizenship.

Before naturalization, we had one more thing to settle: we wanted to remain Germans. This does not happen automatically, as basketball player Detlef Schrempf once found out the hard way in the German embassy in San Francisco. He had handed his passport and his wife's through the glass window at the embassy to have them renewed. The consular official checked the embassy computer and found out that both Schrempf and his wife had already applied for and received US citizenship in the meantime, so she pulled out a pair of scissors and cut their German passports in half. What Schrempf did not know: if a German citizen does not take precautions and accepts the American citizenship, they automatically lose their German citizenship.

However, there is a way out: the so-called "Beibehaltungserklärung ("retention permit"), known under the acronym BBG, which I, knowing that there are Swabians working in the German Embassy in San Francisco, like to pronounce "Bäh-bäh-gäh". Germans interested in US naturalization must submit an application to the consulate in which they lay out compelling reasons for both having to attain US citizenship, and at the same time retaini their German citizenship.

In today's bureaucratic madness, it doesn't surprise that the time frames for the processing such applications are in the glacial range. Experience shows that it takes more than a year from submitting the form, along with all documents sealed by a notary, until a letter with the approval comes back, and only with the BBG document personally handed over by consular officers can Germans then proceed to apply for US citizenship. Subsequently, this time the US authorities need at least another year until the applicant is admitted to the all-decisive interview and, in case of success, sworn in as a US citizen.

These procedures are incredibly complicated and nerve-wracking, but let's describe in detail how the individual steps work. For those who don't have time to read it all, here's a short summary: We now each have two passports, an American and a German one. When we enter Germany, we show the German passport. When we enter the USA, we show the American one.

Figure [3]: With the right to vote come pamphlets in the mailbox.

Our newly acquired rights as freshly baked US citizens also come with obligations from now on: We must be ready for jury duty like other citizens, meaning that we may be summoned by the authorities at any time to sit as jurors in one of the millions of ongoing court proceedings and decide whether the accused is guilty or not guilty. Furthermore, we are allowed to vote in city, state, senate and presidential elections now, so get ready for exciting reports from your freshly baked voters in upcoming newsletters.

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