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We toodled off to the American Embassy this morning. Neil drove (there was no way we could take her on the tube in rush hour!) The US Embassy is god-awful ugly and resembles a fortress, an impression reinforced by all the roadblocks around it. It's almost a cliché of American-ness in the way it towers over Grosvenor Square. The only thing keeping me from being totally embarrassed about it is that it was built in the 1950s and pretty much all public buildings of that era are imposing and ugly.
We queued up (haha, citizens' queue, we sailed past the poor suckers waiting for visas--tip, if you ever DO need the visa queue, get the earliest appointment possible, because the queue was much worse when we left), went through an annoying security check (despite what the website said they didn't give me any trouble about the liquids in my bag. Or the fact that I was carrying a large bag.) Inside was decorated in that particular US Government bureaucratic dinge; it looked and felt just like a US government building back home. (This is not a compliment. Neil said he could just see Patty and Selma working behind the counter, but I told him that the Foreign Service requires that employees be qualified. Except for ambassadors; the more important the country, the more likely their sole qualification is "famous" or "friend of the president".) We queued up (15-20 mins maybe) and got a ticket. Sat down and waited, fed Aliza, got called up, Neil paid, someone looked at our documents and witnessed our signatures and told us to sit down. 5 minutes later I was called up to check that everything on the birth report was spelt correctly, sat again, got called back to pick up the signed birth report. That was it--no questions, nothing (I'd provided my old passport so it was clear I'd spent the required amount of time in the US). Her passport will be delivered in 2 weeks, and her Social Security card in 2 months.
Side note: The slip of paper accompanying the CRBA says that it's unclear whether citizens born abroad are "native born" and can be president. There's a bill in Congress to clear this up and define "native born" as anyone who acquires US citizenship at birth rather than through naturalisation, but in the meantime it's legal limbo. Nice of them to think that this is a major concern for parents ;)
Then we went to Toys 'R' Us (nice and quiet on a weekday) and got Aliza one of those play gyms and a couple of other toys. Did some shopping and now we're home :)
We queued up (haha, citizens' queue, we sailed past the poor suckers waiting for visas--tip, if you ever DO need the visa queue, get the earliest appointment possible, because the queue was much worse when we left), went through an annoying security check (despite what the website said they didn't give me any trouble about the liquids in my bag. Or the fact that I was carrying a large bag.) Inside was decorated in that particular US Government bureaucratic dinge; it looked and felt just like a US government building back home. (This is not a compliment. Neil said he could just see Patty and Selma working behind the counter, but I told him that the Foreign Service requires that employees be qualified. Except for ambassadors; the more important the country, the more likely their sole qualification is "famous" or "friend of the president".) We queued up (15-20 mins maybe) and got a ticket. Sat down and waited, fed Aliza, got called up, Neil paid, someone looked at our documents and witnessed our signatures and told us to sit down. 5 minutes later I was called up to check that everything on the birth report was spelt correctly, sat again, got called back to pick up the signed birth report. That was it--no questions, nothing (I'd provided my old passport so it was clear I'd spent the required amount of time in the US). Her passport will be delivered in 2 weeks, and her Social Security card in 2 months.
Side note: The slip of paper accompanying the CRBA says that it's unclear whether citizens born abroad are "native born" and can be president. There's a bill in Congress to clear this up and define "native born" as anyone who acquires US citizenship at birth rather than through naturalisation, but in the meantime it's legal limbo. Nice of them to think that this is a major concern for parents ;)
Then we went to Toys 'R' Us (nice and quiet on a weekday) and got Aliza one of those play gyms and a couple of other toys. Did some shopping and now we're home :)
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