need help: Loss of German citizenship and US oath ceremony

[mimiye 0]

Hey guys

So I am writing today because I am in a dilemma regarding the status of my BBG process versus the US naturalization process.

Initially, I was not aware that it was better to do the German process first as I learnt that it takes so long. I submitted both applications end of January but have received my first oath ceremony invite a few weeks ago, asking me to show up May 7th!

I contacted a German lawyer and she told me that the BBG process USUALLY takes 4 months, and that my actions were not wise because I should have done the N 400 later.

So, I had my original ceremony May 7th which I postponed saying there was a family emergency. Literally, the next day USCIS sent out another note, which I received May 11th, asking me to show up to May 30th oath ceremony. Less than a month between the two!

So I called the German consulate in Atlanta. The guy today told me that it takes 6-9 months processing time.!!! He said that the German consulate forwarded my application to Bundesverwaltungsamt in Koeln March 1st.

I did some online research and found the phone number of the Koeln authorities. I am inclined to call but do not know if I should tell them to about my N-400.

Or should I tell USCIS the truth and try to get an oath ceremony postponement to much later? I am afraid they may reject my entire case, however.

Headaches!!!!

Thank you for your advice in advance!!

Best wishes

Mimiye

[sib 7]

You can email to Mrs. Charon at the BVA in Koeln (Charon, Doris (III B 2) [Doris.Charon@bva.bund.de]) and ask about the status of your application.

You can also ask her whether there would be a possibility to expedite your application because of the dilemma of your scheduled oath ceremony and that you miscalculated the time frames needed for both applications (N400 and BBG). You have to have the BBG in your hand and you need to pick it up at the consulate before you can take the oath.

I don't think you will be able to take the oath end of May.

When you have the information from Mrs. Charon when your application might be done (she is very quick in responding the emails!) then write a nice letter to USCIS that unfortunately you can not attend the scheduled oath ceremony due to a personal conflict in schedule and you would like to take the oath in July/August/September depending on the information you get from Mrs. Charon.

You will not be denied because of rescheduling the oath ceremony twice!

Wishing you luck.

Sib

Das kann alles geregelt werden, kein Grund zum verzweifeln!

[Justine+David 218]

I suppose you could ask to cancel the N-400 for now and redo it later? You'd be out the fees though...

[mimiye 0]

You can email to Mrs. Charon at the BVA in Koeln (Charon, Doris (III B 2) [Doris.Charon@bva.bund.de]) and ask about the status of your application.

You can also ask her whether there would be a possibility to expedite your application because of the dilemma of your scheduled oath ceremony and that you miscalculated the time frames needed for both applications (N400 and BBG). You have to have the BBG in your hand and you need to pick it up at the consulate before you can take the oath.

I don't think you will be able to take the oath end of May.

When you have the information from Mrs. Charon when your application might be done (she is very quick in responding the emails!) then write a nice letter to USCIS that unfortunately you can not attend the scheduled oath ceremony due to a personal conflict in schedule and you would like to take the oath in July/August/September depending on the information you get from Mrs. Charon.

You will not be denied because of rescheduling the oath ceremony twice!

Wishing you luck.

Sib

Das kann alles geregelt werden, kein Grund zum verzweifeln!

Hi Sib,

thank you for your detailed feedback! I really appreciate it. I will call Mrs Charon this Monday and see if she can expedite my application given the circumstances and then write a letter to USCIS. I just did not know whether USCIS would regard my 2nd postponement as lack of interest or even neglect so I appreciate your insights!

I found a similar discussion from, I guess, a few months ago, but they were lucky to get their BBG process approved immediately. They had not even submitted a BBG application and had received an oath ceremony invite, only to discover that hubby would lose German citizenship at that point. So they took action and submitted a BBG application. Mine is just taking forever and so I am frustrated. I do not want to lose my German citizenship nor reapply for N-400 so this is stressful to me.

But thanks again!

Ich versuche ruhig zu bleiben und hoffentlich klappt es irgendwie!

Mimiye

[nwctzn 55]

Please let us know how it goes with your BBG.

Heard from my relatives in Germany that a strong movement is building up to convince the German government to allow dual-citizenship automatically without this bureaucratic non-sense. Hope this BBG thing will belong to the past soon.

Best of luck!

--

Edited May 21, 2012 by nwctzn

[mimiye 0]

Please let us know how it goes with your BBG.

Heard from my relatives in Germany that a strong movement is building up to convince the German government to allow dual-citizenship automatically without this bureaucratic non-sense. Hope this BBG thing will belong to the past soon.

Best of luck!

--

Hi,

thanks so much for your concern! I finally talked to Mrs. Charon today. She looked at my file and she said that had I not called today, my application would have not been touched for another 3 months or so! She then told me that the German consulate forwarded my January application in March and that she will process it now within the next 6 weeks because I already received a 2nd oath ceremony invitation. She said I should get the BBG document in 6 weeks or so but need to tell USCIS to postpone the oath for another 6-8 weeks to be on the safe side. I hope she will really do as she said.

I hardly believe the German goverment will allow dual citizenship. I just talked to my cousin in Germany and she also has little hope things will change soon.

I will keep you guys posted! Hope this process ends soon!

Mimi

[sib 7]

I am glad you were able to contact her. If she said she will process it in that timeframe, she will. The problem seems to be your consulate. You have to pick up the BBG personally. Hopefully they inform you immediately when they get it, so you can go and pick it up. Maybe you can email the consulate, tell them you spoke to Mrs. Charon and that she told you it will be processed in the next 6 weeks. Also tell them about the rescheduled oath ceremony and that it would be really accomodating if you can pick it up as soon as they get the BBG.

There are a lot of countries were you don't need to apply for BBG if you get that citizenship (EU, Switzerland, e.g.) so Germany already allows dual citizenship without BBG in these cases. Maybe US will be one day part of that ...

Reschedule USCIS to August or even September.

Wishing you luck.

Sib

[mimiye 0]

I am glad you were able to contact her. If she said she will process it in that timeframe, she will. The problem seems to be your consulate. You have to pick up the BBG personally. Hopefully they inform you immediately when they get it, so you can go and pick it up. Maybe you can email the consulate, tell them you spoke to Mrs. Charon and that she told you it will be processed in the next 6 weeks. Also tell them about the rescheduled oath ceremony and that it would be really accomodating if you can pick it up as soon as they get the BBG.

There are a lot of countries were you don't need to apply for BBG if you get that citizenship (EU, Switzerland, e.g.) so Germany already allows dual citizenship without BBG in these cases. Maybe US will be one day part of that ...

Reschedule USCIS to August or even September.

Wishing you luck.

Sib

Hi Sib,

even better news! So I received an email today from Mrs. Charon that my application was accelerated and that she sent out the Beibehaltungsurkunde per curier and that the Atlanta consulate should receive it within 3 weeks. But she also stated I should not contact the consulate until then. Now, I know that the German consulate has been the bottleneck in my case and as you clearly stated I do not want my certificate to "hang around" there forever but be able to pick it up immediately. Time is really not on my side right now. She also attached a letter to the email for fee processing requesting to transfer Euro 255 to some German bank and show proof of that in the Atlanta consulate when I go pick up the document. Any idea, how to transfer 255 Euro to the indicated German bank account?? And do you think I still should call and/or email the consulate now to notify I want to be able to pick up immediately??

Thanks for all your help!!!

Best

Mimi

[N&S 32]

Congratulations on getting the BBG - I'm not very much looking forward to going through this process in a few years myself...

Regarding making a bank transfer you could try http://www.xe.com/xetrade/ - I've used them fairly regularly for the past 6 years when I needed to transfer money to Germany from England and once from US to Germany. HOWEVER if you want to do this I would recommend not doing the transfer option but the "bankeinzug" - direct debit kinda thing as the recipient account - in USD - is headquartered in Canada and at least Bank of America didn't let us do an easy wire transfer.

Good luck!

[mimiye 0]

Congratulations on getting the BBG - I'm not very much looking forward to going through this process in a few years myself...

Regarding making a bank transfer you could try http://www.xe.com/xetrade/ - I've used them fairly regularly for the past 6 years when I needed to transfer money to Germany from England and once from US to Germany. HOWEVER if you want to do this I would recommend not doing the transfer option but the "bankeinzug" - direct debit kinda thing as the recipient account - in USD - is headquartered in Canada and at least Bank of America didn't let us do an easy wire transfer.

Good luck!

N&S

Thanks for the ideas on how to transfer money!

Since you still have a few years ahead, I hope you will not make the same mistakes as I did. .....It was a true learning experience for me, though some of it was also bad luck ( local consulate being a headache and adding to huge delays). Perhaps German law will have changed by then and you will not have to go through the process.

I will keep you all updated on my process!

Thanks for all your help and suggestions! Everybody here rocks!

Best

MIMI

Edited May 25, 2012 by mimiye

[sib 7]

Hi Mimiye,

My husband and I still have a bank account in Germany that we use for transactions like that.

But if you go to groups.yahoo.com/group/zweipaesse/ they have a special forum (in German) where they discuss BBG and I remember a post about transferring money from US to Germany. Just search the posts for Geld von USA nach Deutschland or so. There were a lot of interesting posts.

I am glad Mrs. Charon expedited your case. I was hoping she would, she is helpful.

I would wait the timeframe she gave you and then I would contact the embassy. Try to get the money part done asap.

Did you already contact USCIS?

Sib

[mimiye 0]

Hi Mimiye,

My husband and I still have a bank account in Germany that we use for transactions like that.

But if you go to groups.yahoo.com/group/zweipaesse/ they have a special forum (in German) where they discuss BBG and I remember a post about transferring money from US to Germany. Just search the posts for Geld von USA nach Deutschland or so. There were a lot of interesting posts.

I am glad Mrs. Charon expedited your case. I was hoping she would, she is helpful.

I would wait the timeframe she gave you and then I would contact the embassy. Try to get the money part done asap.

Did you already contact USCIS?

Sib

Hi Sib

thanks for the info. I just used BoA and that worked. They transferred the money without an issue but with a fee of $35.

As far as the German consulate, I already contacted them to inform them about the BBG coming and that they need to call me ASAP. I will follow up in 2 weeks again. I just mistrust them after they created so much headache and stress for me.

I already sent off my request for postponement with USCIS. Let's see.

Thanks for all your support!

Will keep you updated.

Mimi

[panterchen 1]

Mimi,

when you wired the money did you make sure to tell BOA that all fees associated with this transaction should come out of your account? Typically, fees are assessed twice: once on your end and once on the recipient's end for international wires (typically another Euro 20-25). I knew that when I made my wire but in addition to having had all fees come out of my account I also wired more because the bank wasn't sure if it would work (I'm in the midwest. Not many international wires going on here)...So I ended up slightly overpaying and of course didn't get anything back...Oh well. Just make sure that they receive the amount they need and that you won't have to add another Euro 20 in exchange for another $35.

I just recently went through the BBG process myself and am currently undergoing the US naturalization process. I submitted my BBG request mid December and got approved in February. Then I had to wire the money, hear back from the consulate, get the BBG to the nearest consulate representative and pick it up...So I finally got it last week. It all takes some time and the consulate isn't too quick in forwarding things. Meanwhile...I started the US process in March when I knew that they allowed me the BBG. Because that isn't a sure thing either so you must have been pretty sure that you would get permission and it sounds like everything worked out on that end.

Anyways...best of luck through the rest of the process.

[mimiye 0]

Mimi,

when you wired the money did you make sure to tell BOA that all fees associated with this transaction should come out of your account? Typically, fees are assessed twice: once on your end and once on the recipient's end for international wires (typically another Euro 20-25). I knew that when I made my wire but in addition to having had all fees come out of my account I also wired more because the bank wasn't sure if it would work (I'm in the midwest. Not many international wires going on here)...So I ended up slightly overpaying and of course didn't get anything back...Oh well. Just make sure that they receive the amount they need and that you won't have to add another Euro 20 in exchange for another $35.

I just recently went through the BBG process myself and am currently undergoing the US naturalization process. I submitted my BBG request mid December and got approved in February. Then I had to wire the money, hear back from the consulate, get the BBG to the nearest consulate representative and pick it up...So I finally got it last week. It all takes some time and the consulate isn't too quick in forwarding things. Meanwhile...I started the US process in March when I knew that they allowed me the BBG. Because that isn't a sure thing either so you must have been pretty sure that you would get permission and it sounds like everything worked out on that end.

Anyways...best of luck through the rest of the process.

Hi Panterchen,

so I went to a major Bank of America branch in the city and the branch manager did the wire transfer and fees come out of my account. He has done those before many times he claims but he did not mention fees associated with the German bank. You think I should call Mrs. Charon in Germany directly to check if they received the entire amount or call the branch manager of Bank of America??

Congrats you got the BBG already!! Hope the US process is going well also!

Thanks for the wishes! I will keep you updated!

Best

Mimi

[sib 7]

Hi Mimi,

emails work great with Mrs. Charon, so I would try to email her to make sure they got the whole amount.

Let us know what USCIS is doing.

Sib