{"id":3697,"date":"2026-01-30T14:28:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=3697"},"modified":"2026-01-30T14:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:28:13","slug":"dual-citizenship-an-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=3697","title":{"rendered":"Dual Citizenship \u2013 An Update"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In November\u2013December 2026, I wrote a series of blog posts about my experience obtaining records for dual citizenship. Since then, I\u2019ve received weekly messages from people interested in pursuing dual citizenship themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me be clear: I didn\u2019t write those posts to discourage anyone. I wrote them to be transparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I were hiring someone to help me with a complex, expensive, emotionally charged process, I would want honesty about the cost, the delays, the bureaucracy, and the unexpected hurdles. That\u2019s what I aim to provide my clients in every aspect of my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One important disclosure: I contract with citizenship.eu and do not take private clients for dual citizenship applications. My role here is to share my experience, not to sell services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By early December, I had finally received every record I requested, starting back in July. The last document to arrive was from NARA\u2013DC: my grandmother\u2019s ship manifest, which came on December 3. I didn\u2019t blog about that particular request because it was made online but it came with its own challenges. The NARA website doesn\u2019t always cooperate, the government shutdown delayed retrieval, and I couldn\u2019t find a genealogist available to physically retrieve the record in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So yes, even the \u201ceasy\u201d requests weren\u2019t always easy. I then had to send it off to be apostilled. The record was returned to me 3 days ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re considering dual citizenship, here\u2019s what I wish someone had told me before I started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Contact the consulate before you do anything else. Not after. Not halfway through. Before. This ensures you understand exactly what they require and it puts you on their radar. In my case, I was emailed detailed instructions which were clear and helpful.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Begin acquiring records and brace yourself. This phase is both expensive and time-consuming. I ordered two certified copies of every record and obtained several documents I didn\u2019t initially plan to submit, simply to have a complete, redundant set in case anything was lost or damaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    My total cost for records was $1317.80. That included my immigrant grandmother\u2019s birth, marriage, death, ship manifest, and naturalization records; my mother\u2019s birth and baptismal records (because no civil birth record existed), marriage, and death certificates; my own birth and marriage records (both church and civil, because my given name differed); my husband\u2019s birth certificate; and the birth certificates of my adult children and their partners. Some of us all also needed to update our passports which were due for renewal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I also obtained records I didn\u2019t expect to submit, death certificates for my great-grandparents, my grandfather, and my father, along with his birth certificate, just in case questions arose about lineage. I may not need them, but I sleep better knowing they exist. Those costs are not included in the above total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n