Citizenship (update)

I have not written for years, but it has come to my attention that many people have still been visiting my blog with questions about marring a Honduran/citizenship. Let me start out by saying I am NOT a lawyer. The information I give is what I have found online, or personal experience.

First- if you are a from the United States you can obtain Dual-citizenship, the United States does permit this, the question is does Honduras...

Born in Honduras: It seems if you were born in Honduras and are American (or any other nationality) you can obtain Honduran citizenship.

Born in the U.S.A. but have at least one Honduran born parent: Yes, this is information taken straight of the Honduran Embassy web page :

"How do I enroll my child born out of Honduras to the National Registry of Persons (RNP)? The parent Honduran by birth, must be filed with the nearest Consulate of Honduras and request the registration of the birth of his son. You must fill out the form that will provide the Consulate and submit the following documents: The original birth certificate of the child; A photocopy of the Act; Two photographs, and A photocopy of identity cards or passports of parents. The Consulate will issue a document that the applicant must submit to the National Registry of Persons in Honduras. The document may be submitted in person or by another person acting on behalf of the applicant. Before presenting the document to the RNP, must validate the signature of the Consul or Consular Agent, Authentic to the office of the Foreign Ministry in Honduras."

Married a Honduran:  Yes, you can obtain Honduran residency. The U.S.A. Embassy to Honduras is a great resource here
Honduran born Honduran: A Honduran born Honduran can keep their Honduran Citizenship and obtain United States Citizenship as well.

General Honduras Travel info:
Honduras does not require a visa to visit unless you are from on of these countries (question 4). When entering Honduras you will be granted a 90 day visa, be sure to check when they stamp you. After 90 days you can get a 30 day extension at the Direccion General de Migracion y Extranjeria (Offices in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro and La Cieba) . After a total of 120 days you will have to leave. The closest places you can go is either Costa Rica or Belize do to the Central American 4 Border Control Agreement . I have in the past spent four days out of the Honduras, and then returned with no problem but I don't know if this is legal. I hope this info is helpful, please leave a comment if you have any questions or corrections.


Info/sources http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1753.html http://www.hondurasemb.org http://honduras.usembassy.gov http://www.rnp.hn http://www.migracion.gob.hn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_America-4_Border_Control_Agreement

Citizenship

*PLEASE READ THE COMMENT SECTION OF THIS POST LA GRINGA POSTED SOME VERY HELPFUL LINKS*
Citizenship is to me such a curious thing. Some countries allow only one citizenship, others multiple until a certain age, others unlimited multiple.

I have had conversations with people who are surprised that I married to a Honduran do not have Honduran citizenship, and my Husband married to an American does not have American citizenship. Admittedly esposo is on track to obtain citizenship- we just are not there yet.
From reading the sparse information on-line and what I gather from other Hondurans in the news, dual-citizenship is accepted, but I cannot really tell if it technically legal.
The issues I have with Honduran citizenship regulations is that the best a child of a Honduran not born in Honduras can do is obtain a visa (does anybody have a personal experience obtaining this?) that allows the child to stay in Honduras for as long as they like. I find this mostly sad, why such restrictions? (I stand corrected please read comments)
The second thing is that I could move back to Honduras, and live there for the rest of my life and STILL never be a citizen with a passport.
I do understand there are many countries that have similar polices like this, and maybe this shows that I am truly a product of a western country for thinking this is crazy.

Living

People use to ask me when I lived in Honduras, what do you miss most? This question, as time went on became harder and harder to answer. Finally I came to the answer- not much. Sure, when there was no electricity- I missed it, but I didn't miss anything so much that I couldn't live without it.
Living back in the US I seem to have a harder time with things I miss. Like baleadas. Where I live I do not believe there is another Honduran in a 100 mile radius, which means no baleadas or really any Honduran food, except the food I make. No more corn sold on the corner, or green mangos... Oh I could go on.
I appreciate electricity and never ending runnning water more than ever- but sometimes nothing would make me happier than fresh tajadas...

Immigration Process

I am writing this blog in hopes that it my helps someone understand the process of Immigration
*please note I am not a lawyer or an immigration expert and am just sharing my personal experience

Esposo and I moved to Honduras and had all his immigration paper work transferred to the American embassy in Tegus. We lived in Honduras for three years, our process took a bit longer than it should have because our paper was sent to the wrong lawyer in the US. Lesson learned even if you have a lawyer stay on top of everything.

During this time I stayed in Honduras as a tourist leaving the country every 90 or 120 depending if I got an extension. I did this because US immigration is somewhat ridiculous. If I obtained Honduran residency I would not have been able to apply for esposo's residency. I never stayed over on my tourist visa nor brake any Honduran laws, so I was legal.
To prove that esposo would not be a burden to the US I used a family member as a financial sponsor. When all the paper work was processed we waited for the appointment which we found out about a month and half before hand. We decided to get the medical appointment done with ahead of time, which took an entire day in Tegus. It started with a lung x-ray, then blood test where esposo got his photo taken and he got a sweet bracelet with the American flag he had to wear until the appointment that afternoon. Honestly it was pretty uneventful.
The appointment at the embassy was mostly just sitting, and sitting. I brought a insane amount photos of esposo and I including wedding photos. I also brought everything esposo and I did together, plane tickets, lease agreements, cell phone plans. You name it I brought it. At that point we had been married for three years so it was a lot. Better be safe than sorry, right?
In the end they only looked at the random photos we had together, and the required documents they requested. They asked esposo only a few questions, how long we had been together, where I was from. They also asked about visas he had, and dates which esposo entered the US. She asked me three times what country did I claim domicile (re wording it each time, and different times.) I was very clear that I have been in Honduras as a tourist pretty much for the last three years and I am not a Honduran resident because we are planning to live in the US. She seemed happy with this.
We sat down and waited... and waited. We got called up again, another lady asked I why esposo married me, and then she said she had good news, esposo was approved for the resident visa! and come back at three o`clock to pick everything up.

San Francisco de la Paz

Some direction

I am writing this blog entry to ask for some ideas and direction.
I would like to send more kids to school, my basic goal. I would like to do this by somehow providing school uniforms, books, backpacks, etc. Eventually I would love to be able to provide tuition assistance, so kids could go to better schools but I realize I cant do everything all at once.
I understand that I need money, as shipping things down to Honduras is cost prohibitive. The thing is I am unsure on how to ask people for money if I don't even have an organization- or should I just go for it?
Thank you in advance for any ideas and suggestions you might have.

Ohh I do know that school does not start until February- but just trying to get ideas.

Bad words

I learned Spanish in Honduras, I had taken Spanish 101 in university but that only gets you basically nowhere. In learning Spanish my mother-in-law and husband were very guarded about the words I learned, trying as hard as they could that I learned as little bad words as possible. With the help of esposo's aunt it did not work out too well, but still they both tried as hard as they could.
One day working at the store my mother-in-law was very upset at an employee. She was going on and on about how the display was in the wrong place, but she kept on saying this word over and over, and I had no clue what it meant. Being the curious person I went to esposo and asked him. I said "esposo, what does mierda mean?" his faced dropped, he was upset "who told you that word?" me, looking confused, "your mom" pointing to the part of the store where she was at. Looking slightly defeated esposo replied "shit."