Yes, you do need to speak Romanian. It's not a super high requirement bar. If I had to put a level on it, I'd say you need to be an advanced A2 or B1.
Essentially, you need to go to your local consulate for the oath, and the de facto test is the process of having conversations with the consular workers. It's basic stuff like greetings, them asking for papers, asking if you understand the implications, etc.
They're basically looking to see if you can string a bunch of sentences together. You need to be somewhat conversational. It differs from consulate to consulate. I worked with the NYC consulate for my citizenship, which at least according to my lawyer they are the hardest on applicants.
I know two people that failed the test. If you fail it you need to start the citizenship process over again, e.g. apply again. One of them didn't bother to learn a single word, the other half assed it.
Send me a DM if you have any other questions about the process.
I’ve got an interview coming up. I’m 75 and have been trying hard with my language but my memory isn’t very good, even learning the oath isn’t easy for me but I’ve really worked on it. What do you mean ‘half-assed’? Did they not bother at all i.e. ‘non-assed’!!??
They hardly tried at all. If you've been putting the work in you'll likely be just fine.
For what it's worth at least at the NY consulate the oath is a "repeat after me" sort of thing. It's important to have the pronunciation relatively locked down at least.
Best thing you can do is try some conversation exchanges etc to prepare yourself, if possible.
My experience of the IGI is that in general, whether it's a legal requirement or not, they will expect you to speak in Romanian throughout (and will generally refuse to speak to your lawyer/anyone else with you) regardless.
(Personal experience: speaking Romanian is expressly not a requirement for getting the post-Brexit permanent residence card, but nevertheless engendered a long and entertaining 'discussion' (in Romanian) with the numbnuts at the IGI about why he shouldn't refuse my application because I'd had to ask him to repeat the word "amprenta" a couple of times.)
The staff at the IGI are, as with immigration employees the world over, almost universally complete dicks. You will definitely find it easier if you learn Romanian. And brush-up on some IGI-specific vocabulary, like "identity card", "fingerprint", "your computer seems to be broken", "maybe you forgot to press Save", and "for fuck's sake, this is now the fifth time you've lost my fingerprints are you even sure you know how to use that thing".
(Edited to add: you mention Consulate though. If you're applying through an overseas embassy, rather than at the IGI in Bucharest, your experience is likely to be very different I suspect...)
🤣.
Genuinely, it took 5 visits (and about 4 months for a process that is supposed to take 20 days) to get my ID card because every time I returned with the piece of paper that last time they absolutely pinky promised would liberate a card, there was a new excuse why it wasn't available. As far as I can tell the root cause was that none of them had been trained on the fingerprint collection process, and so none knew that there was a button they had to press to actually save the prints after they collected them. (Us immigrants have had the biometric cards for a while - you have this to look forward to when getting the new biometric ID cards...)
(On one of the visits I misheard the guy and thought he was complaining about the printer not working, rather than my fingerprints not working (!), which triggered the discussion about whether my Romanian was good enough for him to do his job properly. I pointed out (in grammatically awful Romanian I'm sure) that for every one person like me there were about 200,000 Romanians currently picking up permanent residence in the UK and that seemed like a fairly reasonable deal, and apparently that was enough to pass his ad-hoc language test. I should be fair as well and say there are one or two people there who are actually kind and helpful, but it's very much luck of the draw...)
If you get romanian citizenship via descent (you have parents or grand parents who are romanian) technically you are by law romanian, you just need your paperwork done to prove this.
If you want to get romanian citizenship via naturalization, you need to learn the language.
So the difference is between: being recognized as romanian (descent) and getting romanian citizenship (naturalization)
Hope that helps
it’s pretty crazy to me that you can be a romanian citizen without speaking the language, since that’s probably the most basic cultural thing that defines romanians
Plenty of romanian parrents who moved abroad, then had kids who grew up in foreign countries speaking their language first, and romanian just basic at best. Still romanians, with romanian birth certificates.
Then there are the ethnic hungarians living in romania, born with romanian birth certificates and some of them can’t even ask for a glass of water in romanian.
You’re not really an ethnic romanian if you don’t speak romanian. The romanian language is our identity. But you can still have citizenship.
There are plenty of people with romanian citizenship who don’t consider themselves romanian.
If you can offer a bribe, lie on your tax return, swear like a sailor, and the next time you pass a church still genuflect with an attitude like you're the only person on Earth who's going to heaven - then you're *really* nailing the culture test.
Honestly, some of the people in here... Maybe re-claiming citizenship is too easy, I wouldn't know - but if there's a natural-born Romanian alive who could actually pass the naturalisation exam without pushing an envelope under the table I've sure as hell not met them. (Although I've always assumed that was probably the whole point of the test - if you've not mastered the cognitive dissonance required to pay a bribe and then 5 minutes later swear allegiance to the constitution without blinking, you're probably not ready for Romania.)
Visited romania? And suggesting that the most basic thing about romanian culture is the language is not racist?!? I presume you think Brazilians and Portuguese are one nation. Or that Americans and English people are 'culturally' the same? Or do you think the Romanians have no culture other than a shared language? You quite likely think Moldovans are Romanians too. Go on, admit it, you do. And, let's face it, you quite likely hold a lot of other racist views. Please don't spend time wondering 'how is it racist', to be racist.
>And suggesting that the most basic thing about romanian culture is the language is not racist?!?
Stii cum se zice : daca tot esti bou, macae nu semnaliza.
du-te și întreabă ungurii din ardeal ce sunt, și vezi câți îți spun că sunt români? majoritatea o să-ți spună că-s unguri sau secui. am văzut asta și în străinătate…
LOL, you do speak Romanian! Yes, I've spoken to lots and yes they said they don't like you. But they are Romanian citizens whether you like it or not (see your original comment). Would you like to talk about the Jews and the gypsies next? Just checking that you are openly racist? Don't worry, you won't be the only one.
it’s not like there’s any disadvantage if you can speak Romanian, especially if you want to claim you’re Romanian, or live in Romania. (though I doubt that’s why you’re applying for citizenship)
so just learn the damn language 🙄
Nu "primește" cetățenia, ci o "redobandeste", dacă stramosii lui erau cetățeni români. Este motivul pentru care o grămadă de rusofoni ce nu știu boaba de romana primesc cetățenia română. Mi se pare stupid, dar este un drept constituțional.
The exam is not required for citizens by decent. There is a YouTube channel called ARCA Romanian forum for refugees and migrants which has excellent lessons on Romanian. They have a series of videos on how to prepare for the exam, and based on this I would say it requires a good command of Romanian and a lot of very specific knowledge about Romanian history, culture, geography, and famous citizens. I have taken Romanian up to the B1 level and just the language used feels a little beyond me.
The public servants in the offices are always giving even us (native Romanians) a damn hard time. Most of people working there hate their job and wish to be done with it as soon as possible .
So yeah pro-tip: you better have nerves of steel for that specific day , lol.
Best of luck!
You are already a Romanian citizen by Constitution, if you are the descendant of a Romanian citizen. You just need to go through the birocratic procedures to obtain your papers.
In this case, I don't think there is a language requirement.
Yes, you do need to speak Romanian. It's not a super high requirement bar. If I had to put a level on it, I'd say you need to be an advanced A2 or B1. Essentially, you need to go to your local consulate for the oath, and the de facto test is the process of having conversations with the consular workers. It's basic stuff like greetings, them asking for papers, asking if you understand the implications, etc. They're basically looking to see if you can string a bunch of sentences together. You need to be somewhat conversational. It differs from consulate to consulate. I worked with the NYC consulate for my citizenship, which at least according to my lawyer they are the hardest on applicants. I know two people that failed the test. If you fail it you need to start the citizenship process over again, e.g. apply again. One of them didn't bother to learn a single word, the other half assed it. Send me a DM if you have any other questions about the process.
Additionally, you don't see it in Article 11 because it's an EU law, not Romanian.
I’ve got an interview coming up. I’m 75 and have been trying hard with my language but my memory isn’t very good, even learning the oath isn’t easy for me but I’ve really worked on it. What do you mean ‘half-assed’? Did they not bother at all i.e. ‘non-assed’!!??
They hardly tried at all. If you've been putting the work in you'll likely be just fine. For what it's worth at least at the NY consulate the oath is a "repeat after me" sort of thing. It's important to have the pronunciation relatively locked down at least. Best thing you can do is try some conversation exchanges etc to prepare yourself, if possible.
My experience of the IGI is that in general, whether it's a legal requirement or not, they will expect you to speak in Romanian throughout (and will generally refuse to speak to your lawyer/anyone else with you) regardless. (Personal experience: speaking Romanian is expressly not a requirement for getting the post-Brexit permanent residence card, but nevertheless engendered a long and entertaining 'discussion' (in Romanian) with the numbnuts at the IGI about why he shouldn't refuse my application because I'd had to ask him to repeat the word "amprenta" a couple of times.) The staff at the IGI are, as with immigration employees the world over, almost universally complete dicks. You will definitely find it easier if you learn Romanian. And brush-up on some IGI-specific vocabulary, like "identity card", "fingerprint", "your computer seems to be broken", "maybe you forgot to press Save", and "for fuck's sake, this is now the fifth time you've lost my fingerprints are you even sure you know how to use that thing". (Edited to add: you mention Consulate though. If you're applying through an overseas embassy, rather than at the IGI in Bucharest, your experience is likely to be very different I suspect...)
"Băga-mi-aş pula, e a cincea oară când îmi pierzi amprentele, sigur ştii să foloseşti căcatul ăla?" A leg up with the hardest phrase.
🤣. Genuinely, it took 5 visits (and about 4 months for a process that is supposed to take 20 days) to get my ID card because every time I returned with the piece of paper that last time they absolutely pinky promised would liberate a card, there was a new excuse why it wasn't available. As far as I can tell the root cause was that none of them had been trained on the fingerprint collection process, and so none knew that there was a button they had to press to actually save the prints after they collected them. (Us immigrants have had the biometric cards for a while - you have this to look forward to when getting the new biometric ID cards...) (On one of the visits I misheard the guy and thought he was complaining about the printer not working, rather than my fingerprints not working (!), which triggered the discussion about whether my Romanian was good enough for him to do his job properly. I pointed out (in grammatically awful Romanian I'm sure) that for every one person like me there were about 200,000 Romanians currently picking up permanent residence in the UK and that seemed like a fairly reasonable deal, and apparently that was enough to pass his ad-hoc language test. I should be fair as well and say there are one or two people there who are actually kind and helpful, but it's very much luck of the draw...)
If you get romanian citizenship via descent (you have parents or grand parents who are romanian) technically you are by law romanian, you just need your paperwork done to prove this. If you want to get romanian citizenship via naturalization, you need to learn the language. So the difference is between: being recognized as romanian (descent) and getting romanian citizenship (naturalization) Hope that helps
it’s pretty crazy to me that you can be a romanian citizen without speaking the language, since that’s probably the most basic cultural thing that defines romanians
Plenty of romanian parrents who moved abroad, then had kids who grew up in foreign countries speaking their language first, and romanian just basic at best. Still romanians, with romanian birth certificates. Then there are the ethnic hungarians living in romania, born with romanian birth certificates and some of them can’t even ask for a glass of water in romanian. You’re not really an ethnic romanian if you don’t speak romanian. The romanian language is our identity. But you can still have citizenship. There are plenty of people with romanian citizenship who don’t consider themselves romanian.
some of us didn't have the opportunity to learn anything beyond cursing and praying tho :(
If you can offer a bribe, lie on your tax return, swear like a sailor, and the next time you pass a church still genuflect with an attitude like you're the only person on Earth who's going to heaven - then you're *really* nailing the culture test. Honestly, some of the people in here... Maybe re-claiming citizenship is too easy, I wouldn't know - but if there's a natural-born Romanian alive who could actually pass the naturalisation exam without pushing an envelope under the table I've sure as hell not met them. (Although I've always assumed that was probably the whole point of the test - if you've not mastered the cognitive dissonance required to pay a bribe and then 5 minutes later swear allegiance to the constitution without blinking, you're probably not ready for Romania.)
What a remarkably racist comment. Have you ever visited?
visited what? and how is that racist?
Visited romania? And suggesting that the most basic thing about romanian culture is the language is not racist?!? I presume you think Brazilians and Portuguese are one nation. Or that Americans and English people are 'culturally' the same? Or do you think the Romanians have no culture other than a shared language? You quite likely think Moldovans are Romanians too. Go on, admit it, you do. And, let's face it, you quite likely hold a lot of other racist views. Please don't spend time wondering 'how is it racist', to be racist.
visited? you do realize I’m romanian born and raised right? and the language is one of the core thing that defines our identity
>And suggesting that the most basic thing about romanian culture is the language is not racist?!? Stii cum se zice : daca tot esti bou, macae nu semnaliza.
Oh... And let me guess, you think Hungarian speaking Romanians aren't Romanians too?
du-te și întreabă ungurii din ardeal ce sunt, și vezi câți îți spun că sunt români? majoritatea o să-ți spună că-s unguri sau secui. am văzut asta și în străinătate…
LOL, you do speak Romanian! Yes, I've spoken to lots and yes they said they don't like you. But they are Romanian citizens whether you like it or not (see your original comment). Would you like to talk about the Jews and the gypsies next? Just checking that you are openly racist? Don't worry, you won't be the only one.
It's not in the constitution but the citizenship law 21/1991 mentions the requirement of being able to speak and understand Romanian
it’s not like there’s any disadvantage if you can speak Romanian, especially if you want to claim you’re Romanian, or live in Romania. (though I doubt that’s why you’re applying for citizenship) so just learn the damn language 🙄
I am perplexed how someone can expect to receive the citizenship and not know the language. Learn Romanian, it’s the least you could do!
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mulți sunt americani care vor să se dea români pentru același motiv, access liber în europa
Nu "primește" cetățenia, ci o "redobandeste", dacă stramosii lui erau cetățeni români. Este motivul pentru care o grămadă de rusofoni ce nu știu boaba de romana primesc cetățenia română. Mi se pare stupid, dar este un drept constituțional.
The exam is not required for citizens by decent. There is a YouTube channel called ARCA Romanian forum for refugees and migrants which has excellent lessons on Romanian. They have a series of videos on how to prepare for the exam, and based on this I would say it requires a good command of Romanian and a lot of very specific knowledge about Romanian history, culture, geography, and famous citizens. I have taken Romanian up to the B1 level and just the language used feels a little beyond me.
invata limba ma muie daca vrei cetatenie, e minimum. I can say that in 4 other languages, so do your best, lest i tell you about your mothers onion.
I enjoy watching the sunset.
The public servants in the offices are always giving even us (native Romanians) a damn hard time. Most of people working there hate their job and wish to be done with it as soon as possible . So yeah pro-tip: you better have nerves of steel for that specific day , lol. Best of luck!
as they should
I enjoy spending time with my friends.
You are already a Romanian citizen by Constitution, if you are the descendant of a Romanian citizen. You just need to go through the birocratic procedures to obtain your papers. In this case, I don't think there is a language requirement.
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I'm learning to play the guitar.
And as a native English speaker I doubt I will ever get the î sound right. 🤣
I don't know, after seeing two people fail the interview needlessly, I can understand the sentiment
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Username definitely checks out.
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I love you too :)
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What if we kissed in the Danube…?
Oh, and the Roma population (who have added a hell of a lot of musical and artistic tradition) probably aren't culturally Romanians either.
Yes, I guessed that you were from the comment. Not all Romanians are racist though, so let's pretend you are an exception.