Saturday, June 15, 2013

Tünde's Dual Passports

Claudia and Norbert managed to get both of Tünde's passports sorted out at the embassies in Prague.  I still find it funny how the EU is supposed to standardize things between all of the member countries but in reality it just kind of helps a whole bunch of different countries interact with each other.

Tünde has four first names.  Well, her first name is Tünde and she has three middle names.  Most of Europe doesn't really do middle names so she has four first names.  Due to the Czech name rules, the baby could not be named Tünde until it was first proved that the name already exists in Hungary.  In Hungarian, it means "little fairy."
Hungarian Baby Passport

For her Hungarian passport, the embassy did not want to allow four first names.  However, they complied because Germany allows for it.

For her German passport, the embassy did not want to allow for a hyphenated double last name.  However, the German embassy complied because it is valid in Hungary.

I'm not sure which passport they had first in order to prove it to the second embassy.  Holy bureaucracy!!

German Baby Passport
The German baby passport is valid for six years.  I'm not sure how long the Hungarian passport is good for.

As far as I know this is the end of the passport adventure.  Tünde has dual citizenship from two different EU countries.

I know a German couple here in Brno, and their daughter was born in the USA when they lived in North Carolina.  Since she was born in the USA, she is an American citizen.  She also has a German passport.  However, they told me that when she is 18 years old, Germany will require her to decide which passport to surrender.  The USA doesn't require her to choose and she can keep both.  I wonder if it's because the second passport isn't from a fellow EU country?

1 comment:

  1. It is not true that the child born in the U.S., who received U.S. citizenship by virtue of birth in the U.S., will have to decide for one single citizenship under German law. The legal requirement to decide for a citizenship between ages 18 and 21 only applies to children who do not have any German parent, and had acquired German citizenship only because of their birth in Germany. In addition to that, the law will soon be amended in a way that any person who had acquired German citizenship by birth and actually grew up in Germany (residence for some years) can keep any dual nationality in any case. Furthermore, German law does not restrict any dual or multiple EU nationalities, as you correctly assumed. BTW - very nice blog!!!

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