Mono-citizenship

First off, Carmen will be a US citizen only, no Belgian citizenship allowed. Their laws are a bit different than those in the US, so they do not allow dual citizenship unless you meet a list of special circumstances, one of which is you must plan to remain a permanent resident here, not just be born here. While that is a “bummer” we still think our daughter is pretty special in that she is from another country.

Today we went to Brussels to register Carmen at the DMV, I mean US Embassy. We went with our friends Jim and Krista as they were also registering their newborn, Joah. Here is a recap of our experience, no pictures allowed at the embassy, so you will have to paint your own picture from my eloquent words. HA!

We all piled into a full rush hour train with our out-of-place strollers filled with blankets and diaper bags. We arrived at the Brussels Central station about 10am with one hour to get to the embassy. We walked for about 25 minutes, although we probably could have made it in 10 minutes if we weren’t encumbered with strollers, narrow sidewalks, and poorly marked roads. The embassy had tacky barbed-wire fences blocking the road with armed security guards at all the gates. It was interesting that all the outdoor security guards were Belgian locals, as the need for trilingual security is paramount in Brussels. We were told that most of the security on the inside of the embassy was US military, just not the outside. We were allowed entrance one person at a time and went through a metal detector and chemical explosive check similar to an airport security check, except these security personnel were friendly. I am always curious what type of detectors they used for the explosive checks, but figure asking might get me in trouble.

Inside the embassy we found ourselves in what looked exactly like the Illinois DMV, except Bush, Cheney, and Rice were pictured on the wall instead of Jesse White. The room was small, there were glass windows in the front, and Shrek was playing on a TV for our entertainment. The process was nearly identical to getting a license or id at the DMV, so nothing else really need be said about that. Although I did get to do a rough translation on the birth certificate from Leuven that was all in Dutch. Got some help from someone else in the room for that. We had the wrong size passport pictures for Carmen, so that we needed to correct, but the embassy employees allowed us to complete the application as is and bring back the pictures later. The considerate attitude of the employees was especially apparent here as they told us exactly where to go to get “American worthy” passport pictures and then just told us to drop them off with the security detail out in front of the embassy anytime that same day. This saved us so much queuing time, and was almost like being in a small town atmosphere in the middle of Brussels.

After waiting about an hour we got to swear our oath that all of our application was true, and then “POOF” our daughter was a US citizen (oh and $150 for the paperwork processing). We will get her info in official form in a few weeks. But now we should be all able to come back to the US in May. The embassy building complex was actually much larger, but we only saw this one room, the rest is where all the secret government stuff happens I guess. It is nice to have this done now. There were atleast 5 infants being registered that we saw, the room was full of strollers and car seats.

Overall the embassy was a pleasant experience. While I do compare the setting to an Illinois DMV facility, the employees were all friendly, helpful, and considerate. The process only took about one showing of Shrek, but with babies in tow, the trip to Brussels was an all day event. We ate lunch down near the market square and then went to an English bookstore before riding an even busier train back to Leuven.