u/CrzySquirrel

My story:

• Great Grandparents - Mother's Side - Both Born in Germany, documents not needed/required.
• Oma/Grandmother - Born in Germany in 1926 - married her first husband, a German man and moved to Iran in: before re-immigrating to Germany in 1963 and having my mother, out of wedlock (see below) in Feb 1964 in West Germany. My mother was issued a German Birth Certificate and a Certificate of Birth Abroad.
• Grandfather - Born in the US, served the US in WWII.
• Mother: Born out of wedlock in 1964 to an American and a German mother, born a dual citizen. Proving this was critical and key to our case.
• Me: born in wedlock in 1995 to an American father and my now proven dual citizen German mother.
• Note: my mother also proved she was born German and never lost her German citizenship in all of the back and forth with the Embassy.

Timeline:

• March 2026: Documents and forms submitted to Embassy
• May 2026: Approved for appointment for direct to passport for both my mother and myself
• July 2026: Did expedited processing
• August 2026: Passport received

Documents Required/Utilized:

• Birth Certificates: mine (US long form (see below)), Mother's Certificate of Birth Abroad and Geburtsurkunde, Grandmother's Geburtsurkunde
• Grandmother's Reisepass
• Parent's marriage certificate
• Grandmother's naturalization paperwork
• Grandmother's Marriage & Divorce paperwork
• Grandmother's Death Certificate

Notes for Others:

• My mother was told she lost citizenship upon naturalization of her mother, we proved that was true
• We had a copy of all my mother's original documents from her Mother / my Oma who passed in 2022.
• My mother did need a name change, my prior note here suggested they could use her marriage certificate and they did not. She, because of this, has not actually received her passport.
• IMPORTANT FOR FUTURE SEARCHES FOR OTHERS: I had to get a long form birth certificate because I was not born in a city, I was born in a county and they would not accept my birth certificate, we learned this at the appointment and it was a big deal.
• Everything was done at the Embassy in DC.

Question for the group, what should I know now? What did you learn/do etc. once you received your Passport?

Hi RVA! My wife and I got married back in September last year and finally received our dried flowers from the vendor that we worked with to dry them. As you can see in the photos I've attached the frame arrived completely busted. Funny enough the vendor is now dissolved.... and so there's no recourse for fixing this or getting information about insurance information. My wife rightfully so is quite upset that her wedding flowers are effectively destroyed and we're looking for some help finding someone who can help salvage them for us/her. This could be remaking them into a resin item: table, dice, etc., fixing the frame, etc. If you're an artisan and want to help drop your notes below on what you'd do and a way for me to contact you!