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Appointments for a CRBA at the US Embassy in Bangkok?

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing CRBAs. That is a Consular Report of Birth Abroad. For those who are unaware, when an American citizen or American citizens have a child abroad, that child needs to be reported so that they can be sure to be documented, presumably as an American citizen provided that the American transmits their nationality at the time of birth. There is sort of an adjudication although I wouldn't necessarily call it that; it is basically more determining whether or not if in fact nationality was transmitted at the time of birth depending on the circumstances of the case.

A recent article from The New York Times that is nytimes.com, is titled: Why an Estimated 100,000 Americans Abroad Face Passport Problems. Quoting directly: "Consular appointments for US citizens overseas are nearly impossible to come by as many Embassies plagued by COVID restrictions and staff reductions remain all but closed." Quoting further: "At the US Embassy in London, the availability of appointments for both in-person passport renewals and obtaining an official record of a child's claim to US citizenship known as a Consular Report of Birth Abroad plummeted when Britain went back into lockdown last fall." I urge those who are watching this video to check out this article if you are really interested in this. I know there are a lot of folks out there that are having issues with this. Again, Why an Estimated 100,000 Americans Abroad Face Passport Problems. A lot of interesting information in there. 

We are definitely seeing this issue here. The current so-called third wave here in Thailand and more importantly the response associated therewith has caused a number of backlogs here. We are seeing it with the American Citizen Services section; that is ACS that deals with passports, CRBAs, all of that kind of stuff, it is all being slowed down. We have seen cases, dealt with cases that are just not moving at the same pace. The other thing to bear in mind is apparently internally they are taking precautions where there is less people working at any given time and things are just moving more slowly. So, at least for the present, yeah I think it is probably going to be an issue getting even an appointment to do a CRBA. Now exactly what the ramifications are of that, it remains to be seen. I do ultimately think, and I have said this before everybody is doing their best I think over at the Embassy. I can't speak for them, I am just an outside observer but I think they are doing the best that they can with the bad hand they have been dealt having to deal with this COVID situation.

Long story short at least for now, processing times on CRBAs are moving a lot more slowly at least to the point of in some cases it feels like it is not moving at all and the US Embassy is doing their best and they are trying to get people scheduled but they have got to deal with their own protocols and we all just have to bear with them and just everybody get through this. 

Now understand, once you have gotten your CRBA issued you can also get the child's passport issued. With respect to passports we have done another video contemporaneously with this one where we discussed some of the backlogs associated with that, so those were interested in passport information for a child born abroad, may want to check out that video as well.