Part 7 - My Journey to Hungarian Citizenship

My Second Interview to become a Hungarian Citizen - this time in Washington, DC

Note: In March of 2023, I took my Hungarian Citizenship Oath. It was a lot of work and dedication to get there, and I know many others are on a similar journey through the Simplified Naturalization Procedure. I'm writing a 10-part series of posts with details of my citizenship process. I hope this will help and inspire others.

 See Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3 ; Part 4; Part 5 and Part 6.

It's important to note that after I completed my first interview for Hungarian Citizenship, I continued studying Hungarian - in a weekly class with the American Hungarian Library and on my own with materials from Hungarian with Sziszi. I kept in touch with my new Hungarian friends and continued to immerse myself in Hungarian culture.

But after I found out that I had to do another interview, to test my language skills, I immediately reached back to Hungarian Solutions, whom I had studied with before. The teachers here specialize in preparation for the citizenship interview, and I knew I'd need some more rehearsals.

After a mock interview, when I realized I needed to relax a bit more!

Renata and Julia at Hungarian Solutions were very supportive. Together, we designed a short curriculum to help me prepare (again) for the important day. Key to this preparation was the writing of my biography - a required part of the interview process that must be done during the interview. (You cannot write it in advance and bring it.)

I also had to go back to the document chase, and obtain the long-form version of my US birth certificate, noting my parents' birthplaces. I have learned that this process varies by US state, and you can find out how by contacting your local Vital Records office here.

screen shot from the PA Vital Records webpage where I ordered my long form birth certificate

In Pennsylvania, I requested my birth certificate via the online form, and noted that the purpose was for dual citizenship. This was very simple and I received my long-form birth certificate in the mail quickly.

I then had to send this to Hungary for official translation. This service was part of my package with the consultants Helpers Hungary. They had the official translation done and all sent back to me also, fairly quickly.

I then made my appointment via the Hungarian Washington DC Embassy's online appointment calendar. Importantly, I had received a case number (ügyiratszám) in the correspondence from Hungary, so entered that into the information on the appointment request.

In the weeks leading up to my interview, I doubled down on my studies. I wrote and re-wrote my biography several times a day, practicing my spelling. I also ran mock interviews with my teachers and also on my own, using pre-recorded questions that I would listen to and then answer out loud.

Ritual, costume, ceremony and repitition are helpful to me. So I decided to wear the same outfit I wore to my first interview in Budapest. This included a dress made by my Old Country grandmother and a religious necklace that the Monsignor in our church had brought from The Old Country and gifted to me when I was a child.

My "lucky" outfit that I wore throughtout the citizenship process.

I told all my friends and family about the important date, so had many people sending me good energy on the day. I booked my train ticket, took the day off work, practiced lots of deep breathing, planned a celebratory treat for after the interview (a fancy sushi lunch) and headed to Washington DC early one January morning.

Reading this blog, I assume you can guess that my interview was successful.

Later that day, I sent this breathless, excited email to my teachers (pasted below.)

It details everything you might want to know if you are also heading to DC for your interview.

For everyone else, I hope you find some joy in reading the words of someone who just succeeded with something they worked very hard for:

Hi Julia and Renata,

The top news: my interview at the DC embassy was successful! The consulate said I spoke and wrote "szépen"!!!!!!!

Here is the rundown of how it went, for your files and for your other clients to know:

First of all, the DC embassy can be a little complicated to get to - I walked from the Metro but I was thinking that if I wasn't a confident city person, it would have been difficult. So I'd recommend a cab or driving for others who aren't.

Top tip: there is a park right in front of the embassy with bathrooms, that are clean and open during the day!  But I found out later there is one inside the embassy to use if you want too. (When I went to the Budapest kormányablak there was no public bathroom available, which was difficult!) 

When you get to the embassy, there is a gate at the bottom of the driveway and you ring a bell. There is an intercom, and the receptionist inside asks how they can help (in Hungarian of course!) So I answered that "11 orára időpontom van. Gadomski Tara vagyok" and she said in Hungarian "ok I'm going to open the gate for you." 

Then you go up the drive way and into a small foyer where the receptionist is sitting and she said something in Hungarian which I understood meant "Go through the next door" So I did and into a big room that was colorful and bright. It almost looked more like a cafe or bookstore or modern library. There were little round cafe tables everywhere with chairs around them. There were also two "ablak" with seats in front (resembling the ablak at the Budapest government office.) 

The receptionist asked me I wanted to use the "mosdó" but I didn't, then she asked me in Hungarian why I was there and I said it was for hiánypotlas. 

She then gave me a short form to fill out. The form was in both Hungarian and English, just asking for my contact information. Nothing too stressful. She told me to sit at one of the small tables.

Then the consulate came to my table. She was very nice, and because I had noted my ügyiratszám when I made my online appointment, she had my file all ready and knew what documents were missing. I opened my folder and she saw the documents and took them. So I didn't have to explain what they were, but I did anyway, because I had practiced it so much!! 🙂

So once that was sorted, she handed me the blank önéletrajz page from the application and asked me to write, while she went and made copies of my documents and my passport.

I had practiced writing that biography every day for the past two weeks, so had it nearly perfect (even the accents!) and wasn't stressed - but only because I had practiced so much. 

She came back and read over the biography and asked me these questions about it:

1.) To talk about my profession. So I talked about how every day is different and some of the things I do. Then she asked about what kinds of films I make and I explained "drama filmek, családról" When she asked about  my current screenplay, what I'm writing now, and I was able to explain that too. So it started as a basic question, but then I really did need to be able to answer her follow up questions - and I did!

2.) Because I had written on my biography that I love being an aunt, she asked me about my nieces and nephews-to tell her about them and what we like to do together. So I was able do that pretty easily too, and I had practiced this many times. 

3.) Then she asked the standard question: Have you already been to Hungary? So of course, I had practiced this too and told her about going to Budapest and Nyíregháza and the Falumúzeum in Sóstó..... well would you believe: the Consular is from Nyíregháza!!!!!  So she knew the falumúzeum and exactly what I was talking about with the houses from my great gradmother's era and so we had a really nice conversation about that.

And that was it. She said she was happy with my speaking and writing and that she would send the documents to Hungary. Then she did ask (all in Hungarian of course) if I planned to do the citizenship ceremony in Washington DC or Budapest, and I said "Washington DC so my family could see." Then she said, "Do you think your sister would want to become a citizen too" and I explained that my sister didn't have a lot of time to study the language because but that my nephews were interested.

So that was all good and she said she hoped to see me at the ceremony!

So overall I'd say I was really, really well prepared from all the practice we did and then my continued practice (every day for the two weeks I wrote my biography and gave myself a "practice interview" running through all the questions and my answers out loud) 

Of course on my way home I remembered all the little mistakes I made in the interview (forgetting a few suffixes, etc) But because I was able to say enough correctly and I think, most importantly, I was prepared to have a conversation   not just answer questions, that's what did it. The follow ups she asked me within each question were really important to be able to answer. And of course, being calm and confident and friendly was important I think.

Thank you for everything!

Tara

And that was it! Or so I thought....but my journey to Hungarian citizenship was far from over.

In my next blog post, I will detail my next, very nerve-wracking hurdle....

Here are some photos from my day in D.C. Subscribe to my blog and I'll email you when I post next. And if this blog is helpful to you, please consider a donation. It's a labor of love and I want to help others who are inspired to learn more about The Old Country.

Outside the Hungarian Embassy in Washington DC (you can just about see the flags behind me. It wasn't a windy day!)

On the train to Washington, D.C. heading to my interview--in early 2022 when we still had to wear masks on public transit

The walk to the Embassy from the Metro took me through this wooded path! It was a bit surreal.

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