As regular readers will know I have been deciding whether to give up British nationality and apply for German citizenship. A friend in Amsterdam recently gave up his UK passport and became a Dutch citizen (I must ask him how his vote went yesterday's national elections), so there are precedents.
There has been though something of an impasse. Previously there was no hurry, but I had left the situation also as the UK government led by the awful British Conservative Party has not yet decided to leave the EU, so accordingly my rights as a EU citizen in another EU country, applicable under the various treaties, are not affected.
Things though are suddenly coming to a head for the following reasons:
1. My wife has decided, even if we have no money for anything else for the next 12 months, that we are visiting her family in Thailand for 3 weeks from the start of November. I have said "no" enough times, I have repeated the fact that I do not want to go several times - without success. Before October 1st we can get the money back in full on the tickets (or at least on my ticket), and it could be used for other (much!) more important things! I am still hoping that sense will prevail.
2. My passport expired in July. My travelling days being over almost and having a permanent residence permit for Germany, it has not seemed that important. The quick and easy solution (despite the fact that I would not want the same passport as anyone belonging to the wretched BNP or the xenophobic UKIP, though given that the UK is in their eyes "Heaven on Earth" why would anyone in the UKIP need a passport????) would be to get it renewed as a one-off.
That suddenly is not as easy as it used to be. The British Consulate in Düsseldorf has closed the passport issuing office. Accordingly now you have to fill out a load of documents, send them to Düsseldorf, they send them to the UK and weeks later your passport arrives.
In 2002, when I was still living in Amsterdam, I walked down to the British consulate there (20 minutes from my apartment), filled out everything as required and had everything back within a week. No chance of that any more. 6 weeks is not out of the question! (How do you spell incompetence????). For that matter in 1972 I was able to take the old passport for renewal to the office concerned at 9 o'clock in the morning and pick it up later the same afternoon!
And if you want an additional bit of nonsense - I cannot recall the exact price that it cost me in 2002, but in the back of my mind is the sum of €65 (the then equivalent of 40 pounds). This may be wrong - memories can play tricks on you. This time they want €170!!!! I do not have €170 spare (we have enough financial problems already - see also above). Period! It strikes me as a ridiculously high sum. Definitely so for a one-off!
3. Applying for German nationality will take more than a few weeks. Also the cost of application is some €255, and again the money is not available currently. Probably well worth it in the long run, but that does not resolve my current issues.
Timing is really a serious issue now. The possibility exists that I will get my way and not make this trip, purely by accident - which means that we lose the money on the ticket. Which at any time would be a waste, but particularly now. You wonder why governments seem to be making things increasingly more difficult and less efficient. Or maybe there is a subtle message that you are not supposed to look beyond the country's borders and never leave. That is if there isn't a nice juicy war that needs fighting somewhere!
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