Central Europe Citizenship by Descent Reminder: If you have a great grandparent born in the territory of modern day Slovakia, you very likely qualify for Hungarian 🇭🇺 citizenship by descent if you learn the language, and you may qualify for Slovak 🇸🇰citizenship by descent too (no language language required). Both are EU countries. 🇪🇺

Good week last week at Malakouti Law. - One U.S. green card approval (marriage-based AOS) ✅ - One successful FBI IdHS background check challenge (expunged conviction) ✅ - One Slovak citizenship by descent approval (grandchild of Czechoslovak citizen)✅

Navigating a bureaucratic logjam at ground level (without litigation) is essentially about 2 critical steps: 1. finding who actually has the authority to help you, and 2. persistently but politely staying on them, while shaking off attempts to send you to you to the GLD - the "Get Lost Department.

#mobilitymeme Monday

Palau Digital Residency ID - To Check in at a Quest Diagnostics Location? Attempt #26 to use the Palau digital residency ID. I tried to use the Palau ID to check in to a Quest Diagnostics location in Las Vegas to have blood drawn for some routine testing. Result: SUCCESSFUL. https://www.malakoutilaw.com/palau-digital-residency-id-to-check-in-at-a-quest-diagnostics-location

#mobilitymeme Monday

Ultimately, history never sides with the “papers, please” bootlickers.

Not so long ago, "prepper culture" used to be viewed as an edgy, paranoid, sorta right winger thing not too many people were into. Now, this Reuters article claims 20M Americans are preppers, including "people considered left-of-center politically." Take away the negative stigmas, and prepping culture is just part of a philosophy of self-sufficiency, freedom, and non-reliance on government. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/prepping-disaster-diversifies-more-americans-lose-trust-2024-03-09/

Mobility prepping is the extension of short-distance bug out prepping, and a new frontier of prepper culture. Being able to bug out of your city, state, or country immediately if necessary. This requires birth certificates & marriage certificates, apostilles, valid IDs, citizenships, residencies, passports, & bitcoin. To be prepared in 2025, these go right next to the med kit, firearm, ammo, multi-tool, aquatics, and canned foods. 1) bug-in, 2) bug-out, and 3) country exit each require different (but partially overlapping) tools and different set of preparedness heuristics.

Regarding the hypothetical consequences of no birthright citizenship, would INA 237(a) even apply to “aliens” born in the United States? They were not “admitted to” the United States.

8 USC 1227: Deportable aliens

AUSTRALIAN LAWMAKER CLAIMS INABILITY TO RENOUNCE AFGHAN CITIZENSHIP Article 44 of the Australian constitution prohibits foreign citizens (including dual citizens) from serving in Parliament. “Payman said she had tried to renounce her Afghan citizenship in 2021. She explained the Taliban takeover prevented the Afghan Embassy from finalising her application. She urged Hanson to take up the matter with the Taliban.” —> Opt-out ability is nearly as important as opt-in ability (perhaps AS important). https://x.com/parvizmalakouti/status/1881033323721703692?s=46&t=6tY61DeU36AfeOwpVn9Mmg

Quick & dirty cheat sheet (published by the EU) of passports & travel docs issued by different countries.👇 Dozens of them are not issued exclusively to citizens of the country, or at all to citizens.

Migration and Home Affairs

Travel documents issued by third countries and territorial entities (Part I)

Travel documents issued by third countries and territorial entities (part I)

You can avoid disclosing your home address all over the place by using your U.S. passport card instead of your driver license/state ID for official purposes within the U.S. The card is the same size as a driver license and fits easily in the wallet.

#mobilitymeme Monday

10s of millions with enough immigration info to be dangerous; only thousands with enough info to know how it actually works.

Eventually large mobility content creators will bitterly realize it was a big mistake to use “passport” and “citizenship” interchangeably for years in thousands of content pieces and will have to start editing old articles en masse so they make some sense for readers moving forward.

Another FBI background check (IdHS) successfully challenged and updated today to reflect an expungement. ✅

Attempt #24 to use the Palau digital residency ID Use case: to use the Palau ID to enable deposits, withdrawals, and trading on Binance crypto exchange (KYC) Result: Unsuccessful. ☹️ Full field report 👇 #crypto #kyc #Palau #Binance  #documentdependence https://www.malakoutilaw.com/palau-digital-residency-id-to-open-a-crypto-account-on-binance-exchange-field-report-21

Each time I run across a former classmate in the course of practice, I'm reminded of the line "Grades are golden but personality is platinum." Someone told me this when I was a young student, before the price of gold overcame that of platinum. 😁 12 years on from law school, I have a vague recollection of how academically impressive (or not) many of my classmates were, but I have a CRYSTAL CLEAR recollection of how friendly, willing to help, and pleasant (or not) each of them were to me and others. The latter sticks out "like a bright star in the night sky" in my mental image of the individual. I suspect it's the same for everyone else. Classmates who said hello and were willing to share a note, a file, an outline, explain a point, give intel on a prof, inform you of an opportunity, lend a charger, or make an introduction. These were platinum people and I remember. People remember how they feel talking or dealing with you, above everything else about you. By the way, those same qualities apply in the professional world after graduation. Funny how the easiest task for building your professional network might also be the most important.