{"id":3870,"date":"2026-06-06T13:36:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T13:36:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=3870"},"modified":"2026-06-06T13:36:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T13:36:48","slug":"the-scenic-route-to-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/?p=3870","title":{"rendered":"The Scenic Route to Citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If genealogy is a study in patience, dual citizenship is a graduate-level course in patience, frustration, and occasional disbelief. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in April, I reached out to a court-approved translator recommended by the consulate to translate and certify the records I had painstakingly collected. I waited. Nothing. I wrote again. Still nothing. Hoping for another recommendation, I contacted the consulate only to learn they no longer provide them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, a former client came to the rescue and recommended a translator named Paula. We connected quickly, and I emailed the documents needing translation and certification. Somehow, and I checked twice, my own birth record performed a disappearing act and failed to attach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course it did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paula mailed the completed records via DHL on 18 May, with an anticipated arrival date of 21 May. Someday, likely in October, I will share the strange saga involving an email with the wrong address and entirely wrong city. Suffice it to say, the moment I spotted the problem, I contacted both Paula and DHL. The error was not on Paula\u2019s end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My adventure with DHL, however, was just beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Thursday came and went with no delivery, I remained optimistic. The package had reached Cincinnati. Surely it would arrive Friday. How long could it take to travel from Cincinnati to northern Indiana?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turns out: considerably longer than one might expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The package cleared Cincinnati at 6:57 AM Friday and headed to Fort Wayne, a short distance from my home and, in my increasingly hopeful imagination, the final stop. Instead of delivering it, DHL sent it to Dayton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dayton politely emailed me requesting that I verify my address again. I complied and selected Tuesday as my delivery date because, apparently, choice is an illusion and Tuesday was the only option available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then things became truly creative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, Dayton sent the package to Erlanger, Kentucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An excellent question. Customer Service did not know either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erlanger held the package hostage for two days before returning it to Fort Wayne on Monday, now a full week after it had left Croatia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Wayne then declared it had arrived at the wrong destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, Fort Wayne. I live near you. We were so close to success. Had someone simply called me, I would have cheerfully driven over and rescued the wandering documents myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Fort Wayne sent the package back to Dayton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dayton placed it on hold Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Wednesday it had returned to Fort Wayne, which once again announced it would be delivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hope springs eternal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, experience had by then replaced hope with strategy. Before Fort Wayne could develop another urge to send the package sightseeing, I called Customer Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shipment was finally received Wednesday at 6:54 PM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customer Service had promised delivery by 7:00 PM, and to their credit, they met that deadline by a remarkable six minutes, albeit nearly seven days late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As genealogists, we love timelines. Postal timelines? Not so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this point, I am fairly certain the Pony Express could have delivered the records faster and with fewer state lines involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The package was torn open but thankfully, the documents were intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now for the painful epilogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This postal adventure cost over 150 euros for the original shipment. Thanks to my own missing attachment mishap, I must now spend another 150 euros to have the overlooked birth record translated and shipped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which means I will soon be playing the DHL Waiting Game once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If genealogy is a study in patience, dual citizenship is a graduate-level course in patience, frustration, and occasional disbelief. Back in April, I reached out to a court-approved translator recommended by the consulate to translate and certify the records I had painstakingly collected. I waited. Nothing. I wrote again. Still nothing. Hoping for another recommendation, … Continue reading “The Scenic Route to Citizenship”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1390,1344],"class_list":["post-3870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organizing-and-planning","tag-dhl","tag-dual-citizenship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3876,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3870\/revisions\/3876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogyatheart.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}