My Path to Dual Citizenship

As Nik and I get ready for a trip to Vienna this weekend, our first trip outside of Barcelona, I wanted to write about how I acquired Austrian Citizenship in the spring of 2021. There are many perks to having dual citizenship, and spending a year abroad relatively easily, is one of them.

• My grandmother’s birth certificate
• United States Certificate of Naturalization (click the left image below to view full size)
• A typed and signed letter noting departure and arrival Immigration Declaration (click the right image below to view full size)
• US Immigration Form
• Letters to the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism and related “award” letters
• University of Vienna “Meldungsbuch” – a form of a student/education ID
• My mother’s birth certificate
• Death certificates for my grandmother and mother

• Valid passport
• Current passport photograph
• My birth certificate with apostille¹We quickly learned what an apostille was: Apostilles authenticate the seals and signatures of officials on public documents such as birth certificates, court orders, or any other document issued by a federal agency or certified by an American or foreign consul. An apostille certifies the document(s), so the document can be recognized in foreign countries that are members of the 1961 Hague Convention Treaty.
• Documents regarding my marital status, aka my marriage license (with apostille)
• Current criminal record certificate (aka FBI background check and fingerprints from the United States (not older than 8 months)

The Waiting Game

Once I had everything ready for sending, the number of items being sent to the Austrian Consulate in New York City came to 24. About a third of the items that were originals would be returned to me within 2-3 days, copies of certain items that I enclosed, they kept. Other than an email confirming receipt of the UPS package, it was silence for about four months.

On April 8, 2021, I received an email from the Austrian Consulate in New York City notifying me of my positive decision. Attached to the email were scans of the final decision (what they call Bescheid), a letter from the Consul General, the “declaration on personal circumstances” and the “confirmation of receipt and waiver of appeal.”

The latter two had to be signed and returned to the Consulate. I opted to turn in the signed papers and pickup the original Bescheid during my passport appointment in New York City later that spring. (My passport appointment was on June 21 and I received the passport roughly around August 4.) It’s wild to think this process from application to positive decision took roughly four months. Find me someone else who got a citizenship that quickly.

Family History

This is all also very bittersweet. My grandma lost her father, Eisig Klarman, and other relatives, in the Holocaust. One could say that Grandma got lucky meeting my grandfather (an American) in medical school at the University of Vienna. My Grandpa Aaron was only in school in Vienna because as a Jew, he was discriminated against and couldn’t get into med school in America. They married and were able to come to America.

In addition to my grandparents, my Great-grandmother Charlotte and her other three children, Sandy, Otto and Hedy all left Vienna via different means. Notably, my Great-Aunt Hedy was a Kindertransport refugee. I believe she made it to Great-Uncle Sandy’s in England and then to America.

What would Grandma think?

I’m not sure how Grandma would feel about this whole citizenship process since leaving Austria was a traumatic experience for her and my family. Grandma didn’t talk much about her life in Vienna. I was lucky to have her in my life for 31 years, though the last few years of her life saw her memory and mannerisms fade. One of my regrets is being too…naive isn’t the right word but I wish I would’ve broached this history with her while she was still alive. In 2016 I made my first trip to Vienna and found a building she once lived in.

As a footnote, Grandma went on to practice medicine for 60+ years in Queens, NY. She and Grandpa Aaron had an office in the basement of their house. They did a lot of traveling on their own, some trips with my mom, and my mom’s sister – my Aunt Diane. Now that Nik, Koval the dog and I are in Spain, we’re hoping to do some travel and re-trace some of the pictures they took while on trips, like this one from Venice: