We arrived here well before the orange toddler rode down his tacky escalator and started spewing filth. We didn't want to live in an urban area, so ended up in a small town. People would often ask us, 'Why did you move here?' I'd usually say something positive about Ireland and add that since things were going to become pretty ugly in the US, we decided that it was time. A few people sort of beamed proudly and said that it was nice to see things moving in the other direction for once. They meant that instead of Irish people leaving, people were leaving other places to come here. Others smiled and asked if we liked it here. fast forward a few years to 2016 and it didn't take me long to realize that the question was no longer being asked. It hasn't been asked since. No one has wondered why. We have been asked where we're from and I always wanted to lie and say Canada, but I didn't. I told the truth. And then I watched the sympathetic expression that always comes over their faces and heard the reply, 'I'm sorry. But you're European now, so it's OK.' I still find this fascinating. No one has ever said, 'You're Irish now.' To them, I can be European, but not Irish. To be clear, I am not either one. I don't feel Irish and I never will. I am someone who lives in Ireland. I don't feel European and I never will. I am someone who lives in Europe. I don't feel like an 'American,' (and never have) although technically and bureaucratically I am.
It's a weird thing they've got going on here. While nice people were excluding us from 'Irishness,'--and again, I take no offense at this, I just find it interesting--the reason we're here is because Bill was able to become an Irish citizen by descent before we'd ever stepped foot in the country. I offer this information just in case it's useful to anyone.
Years ago, an acquaintance told Bill that if someone has a parent or grandparent who was born in Ireland, they could apply for citizenship by descent. Bill's grandparents were born here, so he looked into it and discovered that this was something we could do. We began the process. He got the necessary information and paperwork from the nearest Irish embassy. There was a bit of confusion at the beginning because of the way something was worded, so we were a little unsure about his late father's situation. The parent had to be a citizen as well as the grandparent, but his father was born in the US. Bill contacted the embassy for clarification and was told that his dad was automatically a citizen because his dad's parents were citizens. From there it was quite straightforward. He gathered all of the necessary certificates--birth, death, marriage--from the proper authorities in the US. Then it was time to get one of the birth certs for a grandparent. We got the request form from Ireland and discovered that we had to pick a year. They would search that year, the one previous, and the year after. Then we had to guess, because it was unclear exactly what year they were born and his grandmother had apparently fibbed on her marriage certificate because she was older than her groom. In any case, we filled out a form for each grandparent, sent it off, and hoped. They couldn't find anything for his grandfather, but we got grandma's birth certificate and that was all we needed--other than a check, of course. We sent everything off and began our wait. We were told to expect a wait of 18-24 months. One day, about 8 or 9 months later, there was a knock at the door. I found the FedEx guy standing on the porch needing a signature. I was puzzled--I wasn't expecting anything and Bill wasn't home, so I couldn't ask him. I glanced down at the envelope and saw it was from the Irish Consulate. I went inside, opened the envelope and pulled out a letter that began, 'Congratulations, you are an Irish citizen' and going on to explain that Bill's details would be entered into the book of foreign births. It all seemed a bit strange. I was standing there, alone in the quiet house, thinking, 'Shouldn't there be confetti and noisemakers or something?' 😏😆 I called Bill to give him the good news.
Getting the Irish passport was a different process, much like getting a US passport, but with specific Irish requirements as to photo size, etc. We did that later. We didn't come here immediately after that, but when we knew the time was right, all of that was already taken care of, so we were able to move pretty quickly. We'd never been to Ireland before, but we'd gotten rid of almost all of our possessions and arrived with a few suitcases and backpacks.
For those without Irish citizenship, US passport holders can come to Ireland and get a 90-day tourist visa at the airport upon arrival.
11 comments:
I am very glad that you told this story, Shari, and I admire your clear-headedness when deciding it was time to leave the United States. I suspect that after the results of the election this week many more will be an anxious to follow in your footsteps. For those with Irish connections the information on the practical steps involved will doubtless be helpful. Here in Canada, it is remarkable the number of American academics who have moved here over the past twenty years or so. There are several in my own circle of acquaintances.
For many of us, the flashing neon signs were impossible to ignore. I admit that I did feel frustration and sadness when people dismissed my attempts to warn about the upcoming dangers. One reason I knew it was time to go was that things were going to have to get really bad before people accepted the reality of what terrible things are possible there, so they wouldn't do what was necessary to stop it. I actually met someone in a small village who ended up here for the same reason. I understand that many people are already angry because they're only now finding out what they voted for. A general election has just been called here for 29 November. I am grateful that I can rest assured that no fascist government will result, even as I fear for people I love in my country of origin.
No facist government will result in the USA either! God Bless the USA
You clearly don't understand what it is you apparently just voted for, but you will. Good luck to you.
I've been doing the same looking. My only option is to go through Finland as my grandfather was both a Finnish and US citizen. He gave up his Finnish citizenship when he moved back to US. What I'm not sure is if I need to know the language, which I don't, but with the election results, I am also looking just in case.
I don't know what the rules are in Finland. Some other thoughts are: depending on income, many countries have easily obtainable residency permits. Also, since you like to travel, there's the nomad option, which could be the quickest, should you decide to go in a hurry. It seems like your passport is up to date, so there are many countries that have longer tourist visas--90 or 180 days. For the last few years, we've thought about being nomads of a sort for a while (a year or two), but we wouldn't want to spend a week or two in a place and then move on, so we looked around and discovered these extended tourist visas that you can usually get upon arrival in the country. The idea of spending 3 months in one place then going on to spend a few months in another place is kind of appealing. There are loads of youtube videos about moving abroad (some very recent--within the past few days) and being nomadic that can give you a starting point. I'd definitely only use them as a starting point to narrow down options, then look to official sources for the countries you're interested in. I watched a video the other day only because it popped up on my page and I thought I'd spend 10 minutes on it. Her top 6 countries were Portugal, Spain, Albania (although I think she was not up to date on her info about Albania), Georgia, Costa Rica, and Panama. Here's the link to the vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjmxTZCLfG4
I think it's always good to have plans, even if they're lightly held. I mean, if you have your options in place and information gathered, if the time comes to act on them, you'll have already narrowed things down to something manageable and you can then firm things up from there.
Thanks Shari. I'm off to check out that video.
Hi Shari,
For your friend Erika, I can definitely say that Finland is amazing, transparent and refreshing in many ways that I still love to this day. (I went to school there and wanted to move back ever since.) They do like people to learn the language for citizenship but that is a process of some yrs which would give you enough by immersion to learn enough to probably do alright. They do have people who seek asylum there which I'm sort of hoping the new 'administration' opens up their doors for. (Asylum of course is a different thing all together and various requirements change.) I would give just about anything to have a grandparent from there. The closest thing I have is from Norway but no records to show anything. If Erika has specific skills the Finns are always looking for professionals to join them even from afar at first so it might be time to start checking into things like that if she's concerned that moving might be her best option.
This post made me cry I can only imagine the joy of having choice that must have filled your soul. As you are probably aware, this election result, if it isn't contested at any point, will maybe force me to take actions not otherwise possible, but I have to see that as a good thing even if it means leaving literally everything behind without having the time or ability to do anything about it. If he turns off all the various programs I'll be homeless along with millions of others in mere days and that will be the state of things, everyone's stuff in the street and people just hoping for somewhere to get a shower etc. It's a lot to consider the extent of his threats and promises. We know he's not terribly well organized but that doesn't mean all his 'day one threats' (even if they're day 100 threats), wont find some level of reality soon.
I've missed reading your blog, my computer died and I got BC so that's been fairly all consuming. I'm still so glad for you both that you got away from the insanity when you did and have the years of building life there behind you now.
There's a thread of friends who are all talking about 'how we're going to survive' all the things he's talked about and I seem to be one of the few who realizes that what is happening in the US isn't 'the whole world'. In my new Blue Sky profile I wrote: "PSA: There ARE other nations and MANY do it better!"
I'm curious to see how far he's allowed to go before Repubs stand up to him. He's going to be even more wildly unpopular than he already is.
We can only hope! I'm wondering if other nations might have to intervene at some point.
Oh and PS: Finns speak English even better than Swedish, which is the second Official language. They start taking British English in about 3rd grade, but start Swedish in 7th. (I took both along with all the other languages they offered in that school.) Since the internet and gaming, English is pretty second nature to most. (Older folks took German instead of English, back in the day.)
I think other nations will look out for their own interests and will almost certainly be holding back some intelligence information, etc, knowing that the upcoming administration can't be trusted. And they'll retaliate as they can.
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