Early Adventures of Baby L - US Citizenship

Since both G and I are US citizens who have lived in the USA, and we are in married, Baby L is automatically a US Citizen upon birth.  Unfortunately, saying that is a lot easier than putting together the paperwork to report her birth abroad.  Since I know everyone is wondering, Baby L is not a UAE Citizen.  In the UAE, unlike the USA, being physically born in the country is not enough.  You must be born to Emirati parents to have citizenship, so Baby L does not qualify.

G has been a champion in this effort.  Usually administrative paperwork is my forte (I mean, my title at work IS "Business Lead"), and with me working and him at home, he has taken on responsibility for making sure we have all of our expat documents in order.  Baby L's proof of US Citizenship falls within G's domain, and so he put together the list of documents.

Step 1 is getting an official birth certificate from the hospital.  Like everything having to do with the government, this sounds easier than it actually is.  Because of Sharia Law in the UAE, we have to provide a government attested marriage license - it is illegal to have premarital sex in this country, let alone have a child.  Next after marriage license, we need to provide passports, copies of our residency visas, and our Emirates ID cards.  My paperwork was easy because I received my visa and Emirates ID at the end of July.  G's was harder - we have been waiting for the processing of his residency visa for weeks, and so he had to provide a copy of his old residency visa in Abu Dhabi, his old Emirates ID, and a letter stating that his visa was not yet complete.  Figuring out which  documents  G had to provide took several submissions to the  office that  issues formal birth certificates since they kept kicking it back and asking for something different. Finally, 5 days after Baby L was born, the hospital finally issued us a birth certificate.

Step 2 is getting an appointment with the embassy.  You can only do this via email, and you have to attach scanned copies of all the required documents to the email.  The embassy only does Consular Report of Birth Abroad appointments Sunday thru Wednesday from 1:00pm-2:30pm.  G had gathered all our documents ahead of time and filled out all the forms except Baby L's birth date and signature dates - this  is the list of what was required:

DS-2029 (CRBA Form)
DS-11 (Passport application for minors)
SS-5 (Social Security Application)
Official Birth Certificate
Marriage License
Divorce Decrees for both parents
Passports for both parents
Residency history for both parents

G emailed the embassy the day that we received Baby L's birth certificate, and we were able to get an appointment one week later.  This was a big win for us because G would be heading home soon to pack up our home goods, so if we couldn't get an appointment within 2 weeks of receiving her birth certificate, we were going to have to wait until the last week of September to start the process.

Ready for our appointment at the embassy!

Step 3 is going to the embassy with all the documents above, plus extra copies of everything to leave with the embassy.  They'll make copies for you there at the embassy, and of course, they charge you for each copy so G printed 3 copies of everything ahead of time.

Actually getting into the embassy is interesting.  There is a line of people waiting outside the embassy - those are non-citizens applying for various visas to the USA.  They are allowed to interview for their visas after 2pm, so in general, it's best to schedule appointments with the embassy before then. US Citizens just need to show a passport and printed notification of appointment to get in.  Once inside, all cell phones, purses, and car keys are surrendered to the security guard - he gave us a ticket to collect our items afterwards.  We were allowed to bring in water once we taste-tested it in front of them, Baby L's diaper bag once it ran through the x-ray scanner, our paperwork, and a bottle for Baby L in case she got hungry.  Security also swab-tested Baby L's carseat before allowing that through.

Once inside the embassy, G and  I went through all the documents with the clerk, we paid our fees, and then we were interviewed by a state department official. We had to swear that all the documents were accurate, sign them, and that was it! We were given a receipt and told her passport and CRBA should be ready for pickup in 2-3 weeks.  They do not have "expediting" options for overseas  passports, but since there are so few applied for abroad, the overseas passports are processed at about the same speed as expedited passports at home.

Baby L was an angel for all of Step 3.  She slept the entire time we were at the embassy with only a few squeaks coming out of her carseat.  The odd thing for me was that nobody ever asked to actually see her, I was expecting to have to take her out of the carseat.  Nope.  Just her being there was enough.

Now, as I mentioned in Step 1, normally, all of this would be relatively painless.  The major wrinkle in the whole thing has been G's Dubai residency visa. We've been having  to shuttle his passport back and forth between Abu Dhabi and Dubai so that the team working on his  visa  application has  it when he needs it, while at the same time we have it for application of Baby L's passport.  In addition to that, G has had to make a few trips to Dubai in person because while our visa application team has  a lot of relationships with government officials, sometimes you just need to show up to get the process moving again.  Now that Baby L's documents are in processing for the next 2-3 weeks, we headed over to my office so we could give G's passport to one of the project team drivers to take back to the Dubai team to finalize his residency visa. We are hopeful his residency visa is sorted out within the week since he has to leave the country soon, and that Baby L's Dubai residency visa will be less challenging that G's was!