annabelle1

Thanks for the responses. It has been almost two months now and I am really getting impatient. I tried calling the National Service Center to inquire about it and they told me that they can't even ask the Jacksonville office what is going on unless it has been more than 90 days since the interview. Geez. I sure hope they didn't lose the file. I just thought that once the interview was complete, things would move more quickly.

My husband had his interview for citizenship on January 7th in Jacksonville, Florida and it went very well. It was very straightforward. They just asked him a few questions about his application and his test questions and that was about it. They didn't ask for any extra evidence of residency or anything. I went with him, but as expected, they didn't let me go in the room with him. The whole thing took less than 15 minutes. The officer gave him the paper that said his application has been recommended for approval and that he passed the exam. Yeah!!!

Now I am a little concerned because we haven't gotten a letter about the oath ceremony yet and it has been almost a month. On the other hand, he applied for naturalization back in August 2008 and I see that the processing times show that they are now processing applications that were filed in March 2008. So...I'm wondering...are we lucky because they processed ours so much faster or are we going to have to wait several more months for an oath ceremony? I'm not sure whether that processing date indicates that they are now interviewing people who applied in March or that they are now swearing people in who applied in March.

So....he got his sister to go to the office in Romania today and they said that he CAN use power-of-attorney to register the marriage. So we will try it and hopefully it will work!

Susanne--You said that for Germany you have to register the marriage only if you change your name. Unfortunately, they are telling us that he has to register our marriage even though I changed my name to his! I think that is really odd, especially because a passport doesn't even mention marital status. What are they afraid of? That he has another wife and kids back in Romania?! I forgot to mention that the lady was also really nosy. She wanted to know why he wanted to go back to Romania and how long his passport had been expired. Ummm, because he has FAMILY back there and would like to visit them. And what does it matter how long the passport has been expired if it is expired now? Whew. Thanks for listening to my rant.

Unfortunately....the website DOES say that you have to come in person but we didn't think that was accurate because when he called the first time they had said that we could use the power-of-attorney. We are going to get his sister to call and find out what they will actually accept in Romania. Hopefully we can bypass the embassy altogether. Thanks for the info that the Bulgarian embassy is not much different. That actually does make me feel a little better. I guess I always had this idea that embassies were supposed to be on the side of their fellow citizens and be really helpful. When I was in Italy, I heard of a few different stories about Americans who had really good experiences with the American embassy in Italy.

My husband and I are now joking that he might be able to get American citizenship and an American passport before he will be able to get his Romanian one renewed!

I just wanted to vent for a moment about how frustrated I am about how difficult it is to get my husband's Romanian passport renewed (it expired last January.) Originally we sent paperwork to his sister to renew it for us, but were not able to do it because the power-of-attorney allowing her to do it for him was notarized, but did not have an apostille on it (apparently this is a stamp that you can get from the Secretary of State so that a notarized document can be recognized in other countries. Paul thought that the notary stamp was the same thing as the apostille.) So then we sent the passport to the Romanian embassy to be renewed (and were told it would take about six months) but they sent all the forms and documents back WITH NO EXPLANATION. When he called them, it turns out we have to register ourselves as married in Romania before he can renew his passport. The lady told him that he could do a power-of-attorney for that as well and get his sister to do it. Then he called back yesterday to ask a different question and another woman told him a power-of-attorney cannot be done to register a marriage. Supposedly he has to go to D.C. to register our marriage!!! When he explained that we had been told otherwise, she said that maybe he wasn't talking to the consular section the first time.

Anyway, does anyone know what the real deal is with registering marriage in Romania? Do you really have to appear at the embassy in person?

Whew! Thanks!

Thanks! That does make me feel better.

We started this process about 5 months ago. We were told by the consulate here that we could send some papers to Romania with his passport, allowing his sister to go in his place to renew his passport. When she got the passport (it took over a month to get there), they told her she needed some other document. Now that we have sent the other document, they don't like that one either. They are just giving us a huge run-around.

I posted this originally under "Moving here and your new life in America" but I wondered if any Romanians have experience with this:

Has anyone ever heard of taking a vacation with some kind of consulate-issued travel document rather than with a passport? My husband and I are planning to visit his home country (Romania) in December. We have been married for almost two years now, so my husband has a green card. However, his passport has expired and we have been running into all kinds of problems trying to renew it from here. If we don't get his passport renewed in time for our trip, we've heard that you can travel with a document from the consulate here. Apparently it would only take one day to get his passport renewed if he was there to do it in person, but they keep wanting more paperwork in order to allow his sister to do it for him over there. Anyway, the thought of trying to travel internationally with something other than a passport makes me really nervous about complications. Has anyone ever heard of someone doing this successfully?

I guess my biggest worry really is not that he will have trouble getting over there, but that he will have trouble getting his passport during the trip and will have trouble getting back home with me and in time to start school in January. The travel document is only intended to get him to Romania, not for him to travel back here with.

The website said it would take from 120-160 days to re-issue an expired passport (not a visa). My husband chatted on the internet with some other Romanians about it and they said it had taken six months for them to get their passport renewed by mail. I just updated my American passport by mail and even that took six weeks. My husband was told that it takes so long because they send it to Romania to do it.

Apparently, if we send away to DC for it, it would take about 6 months. He could go there in person, but we live in Florida, and he is in school right now, so that would be quite costly and difficult.

Has anyone ever heard of taking a vacation with some kind of consulate-issued travel document rather than with a passport? My husband and I are planning to visit his home country (Romania) in December. We have been married for almost two years now, so my husband has a green card. However, his passport has expired and we have been running into all kinds of problems trying to renew it from here. If we don't get his passport renewed in time for our trip, we've heard that you can travel with a document from the consulate here. Apparently it would only take one day to get his passport renewed if he was there to do it in person, but they keep wanting more paperwork in order to allow his sister to do it for him over there. Anyway, the thought of trying to travel internationally with something other than a passport makes me really nervous about complications. Has anyone ever heard of someone doing this successfully?

Thanks!

I definitely suggest you keep calling them until you reach someone more helpful! I don't remember the specifics, (I have blocked out most of the visa application process now), but I do remember that calling them frequently was an effective strategy. I remember that they kept telling me they couldn't give him an interview date yet, but I kept calling every day and finally they asked what day at the beginning of the next month would be best for him! My hunch is that they only book one month at a time and don't make appointments for the following month until the last week of the current month...but it's just a hunch! Anyway, calling frequently definitely worked well for us.

Hang in there! According to my husband, once you actually get there for the interview they are very nice. Everything went very smoothly for him. Just make sure you bring all of the required documents with you.