I just got my Irish citizenship! [View All]

I applied for this in May, 2006! So if any of you are/were hoping to go this route, I would recommend you gather all of the relevant documents and get moving - it's a long process, and the Irish Embassy in Chicago says they are getting inundated with applications so it's only going to get longer.

For those that don't know, I started gathering my documents after November 2004. It took my almost a year to gather everything (needed an original birth certificate for my Irish grandmother which took forever to arrive). I procrastinated for a few months and finally took everything down to the embassy and filed. The website told me it would take 6 - 9 months but obviously it took a lot longer.

I got an Irish passport application along with my citizenship papers and I think I'm going to get an Irish passport as well (again, the forms say that will take 6 - 9 months so perhaps in almost 2 years I'll finally have that.)

I originally applied because I was so disgusted with GW Bush getting re-elected I wanted to have an "escape". Now that my disgust has turned to real anger at what he's done to this country it doesn't seem as critical to get out as it does to fight.

But wierdly, I honestly feel good (relieved?!) now that I've got this piece of paper....