Becoming Irish

Any person who has at least one Irish grandparent can apply for Irish citizenship by descent.  A rather welcoming provision in Irish law, don't you think? 
I first learned of this  when I was in my twenties, and entertained the fantasy of living in Europe and Ireland for a few months.  But being in my 20's and having few marketable skills, not to mention social graces, I was soon distracted by the demands of rent and food costs.

In the intervening years, Ireland joined the EU (not such a great idea, according to some), enabling Irish to travel freely and live and work in any of the other EU member states.  As I approached retirement age, this began to hold a certain attraction to me, and so I took up the task once again.

I would need some proof to present to the consulate:

1.) A copy of my grandmother's birth certificate--the long form, legal birth certificate. 
Unfortunately, she died in 1969 and nobody in the family had a copy of her certificate.  Luckily, there are agencies that can assist someone in this endeavor for a very modest price (in my case $40USD was modest enough).  I just had to provide the agency with her name, place and date of birth, and they did the rest.

In two weeks, an email arrived from Dublin with a partial copy of her birth certificate in pdf form.  Once I forwarded the fee, the actual legal copy of her birth certificate (not unlike Obama's birth certificate--computer generated by scanning) arrived in my mailbox in California. Four days transit time!


Now I needed:
2.) My grandmother's marriage certificate.
3.) My mother's birth certificate.
4.) My mother's marriage certificate.
5.) My grandmother's death certificate.
6.) My birth certificate.
7.) My mother's death certificate.

Luckily, my family settled in San Francisco, and the events certified above all happened there.  It took a week to do the research to get the dates from the family and pick up the certificates.
 With those in hand, I had to fill out an application, provide two passport photos and a copy of my passport.
In addition, I was asked to include a reference from "a bank manager, police officer, member of the clergy" indicating that the photos I was enclosing were really photos of me. 

I filled out the form and was told it would take from 12 to 14 months for processing.  Ok.  Off to the Irish Consulate in San Francisco I went, turned in the forms, paid the fees (about $200),made some corrections suggested by the very helpful and friendly clerk and began my wait.
After 14 months, when I'd heard nothing, I made a call to the consulate.  A recorded message said that the processing time had increased to 14 to 18 months, owing to a downsizing in the government a result of the property bubble bursting and government insolvency.  Well, those weren't the exact words, but the cause was obvious and plastered all over the newspapers.
But hello, after a year and a half, the "Certificate of Foreign Births Registration" arrived (it was dated four months earlier), along with a letter form the Consul General congratulating me on becoming an Irish citizen.

On reading this, I just stood there with my mouth open for a few minutes.  It was a shock.  I was a dual-citizen. 

The next step was to get a passport.  That wasn't included.  There were two ways to go:  Go to Dublin, apply directly and wait one week, or apply at the consulate in San Francisco and wait 8 weeks.  The 8 weeks, which was what I chose, was subsequently stretched to 10 weeks, but it arrived via FedEx.

And that is how one becomes a dual Irish-US citizen.