The road is over. I wrote my first “Guide to a Passport” post just under six months ago, and in that time I’ve been in contact with governmental agencies of three nations at varying levels. I’ve read laws, I’ve made ill-prepared phone calls, I’ve scanned in documents. It was a process. But it paid off, [...]
Continue reading about Penultimate “Guide to a Passport” post
The “Guide to a Passport” series is coming to a close, I hope. Despite still not receiving (though they say they mailed it out three weeks ago) my grandfather’s death certificate from the State of Michigan, the upcoming travel season means I need to submit my imperfect application for citizenship in the Republic of Lithuania [...]
Continue reading about Submitting the application for dual citizenship
This website, I hope, won’t devolve into a Lithuania-in-the-news spotter, but an amusing little thing happened during last night’s episode of How I Met Your Mother, called “Murtaugh.” Ted has come up with a “Murtaugh List” of things he think he is too old (at 30) to do any longer. Barney decides to run through [...]
Not much has been going on in the “Guide to a Passport” front, as I’m waiting for Michigan to send me a copy of my grandfather’s death certificate. I mentioned in my last post, however, that a professor at my university recommended that I contact the International Tracing Service based in Arolsen, Germany, about documents [...]
Continue reading about Unexpected proof of post-1940 flight from Lithuania
[UPDATE 8 July 2009] Having received my letter of citizenship from the government, described here, I can say that, in fact, showing proof of flight from 1940–1990 is still important, but that using ITS‘s services is sufficient. [UPDATE 15 April 2009] Having submitted my application, and having had nearly no attention paid to this part [...]
Continue reading about Proving flight from Soviet-Occupied Lithuania
Now that I’ve completed the first step on the Roadmap to Citizenship, proving that I’m my grandparents’ grandson, it’s time to move on to the second step, which is proving that my grandparents were citizens of Lithuania before 15 June 1940, which covers this installment of the “Guide to a Passport” series. This step I [...]
Continue reading about Proving Lithuanian Citizenship pre-1940
This is old news, but it’s still important. Lithuanian Airlines, which changed its name to “FlyLAL,” (which, when pronounced with a Lithuanian accent, sounded a lot like “El Al“) went bankrupt last month. There had been efforts to try to salvage the company in January, but nothing worked out. Considering how small VNO is, losing [...]
Continue reading about FlyLAL goes bankrupt, strands Vilnius
This is the second post of the “Guide to a Passport” series. We’re still on step one of Roadmap to Citizenship, which involves proving that I’m my grandparents’ grandson. I’ve already gotten an apostille for my State of Illinios birth certificate, and given the specific instructions to do so. So I’ve proven that I’m my [...]
The biggest, by far and away, task facing the myriad diaspora Lithuanian organizations that had been formed before 1990 was, after Lithuania regained its independence, figuring out how to integrate the new wave of immigrants into the diaspora society. Many casual and lazy prognoses about the difficulty these organizations have faced since 1990 blame the [...]
It was probably obvious to everyone that when I wrote yesterday about news in the works, I was guaranteeing myself a post on the same topic again today. And so it has been: the workgroup created last year by president Valdas Adamkus has presented their recommendations to the Seimas about dual citizenship. (In English) And, [...]