A million questions

[namante]

Hey everyone!
My names Nick and I'm planning to backpack around Europe summer of 2006. This will be my first major trip out of the US so I'm full of questions. These boards have been really helpful but there are still a few things I'm unsure of so any help would be appreciated.

1.) I'm still unsure of which places I should visit. England and Ireland ( ) and Italy are my top 3 right now, but I'd like to visit many more. What countries are your favorites for a first time and why?

2.) ATM Pins abroad - I'm using Bank of America which for some reason uses a 6-8 digit pin instead of 4 like most banks. I've heard there might be issues with this in European countries, but I don’t think it's possible to get a pin less than 6 digits. Would it be better for me to open a new account somewhere else or will most machines be able to handle the longer pin?

3.) Dual Citizenship - Has anyone had experience getting dual or triple citizenship? I'm American by birth but I'd like citizenship in at least one country in the EU. Ideally I'd love to have triple citizenship, both in Italy (Great Grandparents on my fathers fathers side were both Italian Citizens) and/or Lithuania (Grandmother on my fathers side is Lithuanian).
Where should I go to check the exact requirements for citizenship (by blood) and how do I go about getting birth certificates from foreign countries?

4.) For my first trip, should I go it alone or find myself a travel partner? I want to get the most out of my trip but I also don't want to feel lost alone in a forign place. What are your opinions.

Thanks for all the help people

[rjt98]

1. Might as well hit up scotland if your gonna do Ireland and England... Edinburg is a very cool place, and so are the highlands.

2. Dont know

3. Not sure

4. You will be fine if you travel alone... I always go alone, but I never feel alone when im there.. Theres alot of people to meet, especially in the hostels.

-rt

[franky84]

hows it goin

1)well for the atm dilemma, i think u should be fine....i had to sort out my banking stuff for my upcomming trip and was told that some european atm's use the 6-8digit pins....if you do get a 4 digit pin u just need to put zero's in front of your pin to make up the digit requirement

2)to get italian citizenship is abit confusing but i'll try my best to explain it as it is complicated! trust me my head almost exploded when i was looking into italian citizenship law!

anyways it goes like this. your first right to citizenship is through your parents. if they have italian citizenship (by descendance or birth) than you automatically inherit that right at birth even though u were born in the US. since u mentioned ur great grandparents this probably doesnt concern you. ok so your great/grandparents are italian citizens by birth i take it?.....now this is where is gets tricky! if your grandfather was naturalised as an american and therefore renounced his italian citizenship before his son/daughter was born then NO you cant get it..... if he made his daughter or son naturalise before they where 18 though, then technically they didnt renounce their citizenship as they werent of legal age and therefore still have right to citizenship and maybe it will make it down to your generation.

yes its a pain in the ass....i had to go through this garbage only to find out i couldnt get it...and my parents were both born in italy so yeah its annoying!

your best bet if ive confused you is to contact the italian consulate in your country. there would definately be one in washington and i think there is one near san francisco...but hey im from Oz so i wouldnt really know

and yeah you dont get a birth certificate from the country, what happens is a copy of your american birth certificate is sent to italy and kept in the town/city where your ancestry originated from...then they'll send u a passport

one word of advice before i stop rambling...when dealing with italy do it with alot of time at hand.......the beaurocratic wheels of italian officials are very SLOW! so do it in advance!

cheers mate hope ive helped

[namante]

Thanks for the info guys

As for italian citizenship, my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother were italian citizens, they came to America and had my grandfather. My Great Grandfather was never an American citizen and died when my grandfather was young. My Great Grandmother became an American citizen at some point after his death which from everything I've read means my grandfather is still an italian citizen. My Grandfather then married my grandmother who was a lithuanian citizen at birth (I'll get back to this). They had my father in America, and I was born in America. I think this means that since we've all become citizens by birth I should be able to claim citizenship, but I'm not sure.

Now as for my grandmother, she was lithuanian, but fled when the russians came so lithuania sort of ceased to exist for a while. According to http://www.henleyglobal.com/lithuania.htm , lithuania "allows former citizens of Lithuania who held its citizenship before 15 June 1940, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to re-acquire their Lithuanian citizenship without having to give up their existing citizenship."

I'm still not sure if there are paternal stipulations to that, but I'd like to find out.

[Joker]

FYI: http://www.italiandualcitizenship.com/


I'm looking into it, and AFAIK, my great grandfather never became an American citizen.

But I also have the Irish dual available when my father gets his...

[namante]

Originally posted by Joker@Sep 10 2005, 08:25 PM
FYI: http://www.italiandualcitizenship.com/

I saw that site, and it seems like I'd meet all of the requirements (#5), but I get the sense it's just a site trying to sell copies of italian documentation so I'm not sure how official what they say is. I havent found official documentation from the italian government yet.

I found more on Lithuania:
The following persons shall be citizens of the Republic of Lithuania:
1) persons who held citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania prior to 15 June 1940, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren (provided that the persons, their children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren did not repatriate from lithuania);

Does anyone know exactly what 'repatriate' means in this context? I thought repatriating was returning to the country of your birth/allegance.

[Joker]

Originally posted by namante@Sep 10 2005, 08:54 PM
I saw that site, and it seems like I'd meet all of the requirements (#5), but I get the sense it's just a site trying to sell copies of italian documentation so I'm not sure how official what they say is. I havent found official documentation from the italian government yet.

I found more on Lithuania:
The following persons shall be citizens of the Republic of Lithuania:
1) persons who held citizenship of the Republic of Lithuania prior to 15 June 1940, their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren (provided that the persons, their children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren did not repatriate from lithuania);

Does anyone know exactly what 'repatriate' means in this context? I thought repatriating was returning to the country of your birth/allegance.

[snapback]76484[/snapback]

I think in the quite literal sense, not change their citizenship from Lithuania to another country and thus renounce their Lithuanian citizenship.

[worldwidemike]

Originally posted by namante@Sep 10 2005, 10:17 PM
2.) ATM Pins abroad - I'm using Bank of America which for some reason uses a 6-8 digit pin instead of 4 like most banks. I've heard there might be issues with this in European countries, but I don’t think it's possible to get a pin less than 6 digits. Would it be better for me to open a new account somewhere else or will most machines be able to handle the longer pin?

[snapback]76464[/snapback]

I'd call my bank and tell them that you're going overseas and want to see if they can change your pin to 4 digit. If they are absolutely unable to do it (if the first person you get says they "don't think" it's possible, keep pressing to talk to their supervisor, or the right department, or whatever), then I would open up a new account and put your stash money in there. Also, take a credit card and get your pin number far enough in advance so that you can have that for backup if one doesn't work.

Oh, and make sure the ATM is part of the Cirrus system -- I've never had a problem getting cash out overseas with a Cirrus ATM or credit card.

And finally, DON'T treat it like your ATM here...don't get $20 worth here and there, cuz they'll kill you with foreign ATM fees. Go to a country, guess how much you're going to need there, and withdraw that amount.

Good luck! And feel free to post more Q's...

worldwidemike

[namante]

So wait, do they use 4 or 6-8 digit pins over there? franky84 made it sound as if they use 6-8.

[beergal]

we use 4 digits here in europe

[namante]

Originally posted by beergal1@Sep 12 2005, 07:08 AM
we use 4 digits here in europe

[snapback]76604[/snapback]

Ah alright, thanks for the clarification, I guess I'll need to address that before I go.

As a side question, which forum would be the best place to post a topic on Dual Citizenshio, specificaly I'd like to hear about peoples experiences getting documents like birth certificates from forign countries and naturalization records (or statements of No Records) from the US.
The only 2 things I'm worried about getting for my Italian Dual Citizenship are my great grandparents birth certificates from Sicily and getting my great grandmothers Naturalization records and proof of my great grandfathers lack of records from NJ and the US. Another question is how to handle afadavits from my living direct line ascendants to the fact that they never renounced their claim to citizenship.

[beergal]

have you tried contacting the consulate/embassy in your own country? They may provide an info pack or serives on how to gain your dual citizenship the most effective way.


It seems to me that the easiest way of gaining back your citizenship would be through the Lituanian route...however this may have its drawbacks if you want to live in the UK because we are not part of the schengen agreement.

My advice to you would be to check out www.europa.eu.int

which is the european union's website.

[llemus7]

Another country you should hit on your trip should be Germany and if possible the best time to go to germany will be between June7 to July 9. You will enjoy a great world cup tournament. Even if you are not a soccer fan, you will still enjoy the party atmosphere there for a whole month.

[travelguy]

agreed with llemus. especially since europeans love soccer so much. then germany being the beer capital of europe, that is going to be some party there.

[namante]

Originally posted by beergal1+Sep 13 2005, 03:15 AM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(beergal1 @ Sep 13 2005, 03:15 AM)</div>

I've been trying to contact the Italian embasy but they're hard to get in touch with. They suggest the best time to call is 2-4pm EST (11-1pm since I'm in Seattle at the moment). I tried calling them today but half of the menu choices send you to the wrong place (i.e. the citizenship choice takes me to a fax line) and the Vital records department says they're closed till October so I'm gonna try them again tomorrow and hopefully get a hold of a person.
I think the lithuanian route is out of the question beacuse my grandmother gave up her lithuanian citizenship when she moved to America and married my grandfather. I'm not 100% sure if she did this before or after having my father, in which case it could work if Lithuanian citizenship is by blood as well.

<!--QuoteBegin-llemus7@Sep 13 2005, 09:09 AM
Another country you should hit on your trip should be Germany and if possible the best time to go to germany will be between June7 to July 9. You will enjoy a great world cup tournament.* Even if you are not a soccer fan, you will still enjoy the party atmosphere there for a whole month.

[snapback]76740[/snapback]

I'd definatly like to visit Germany. So far my rough plans are something like this:
England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain (July 7th-14th for the running of the bulls), Germany, Amsterdam, Italy
I'm probably going to add a few more countries once I figure out the best route to take for these countries.

[beergal]

when you come to europe you will also realise that we europeans call soccer football

[namante]

Originally posted by beergal1@Sep 14 2005, 01:13 AM
when you come to europe you will also realise that we europeans call soccer football*

[snapback]76831[/snapback]

I never understood why we couldn't have just come up with a new name for American football... especialy since you hardly ever toutch the ball with your feet.

[beergal]

exactly! especially seeing as football was invented in england in the 16th century or so

[namante]

Originally posted by beergal1@Sep 14 2005, 02:40 AM
exactly! especially seeing as football was invented in england in the 16th century or so

[snapback]76836[/snapback]

I think we're trying hard to be different... farenheit, feet/inches/miles, color without the u, etc