Quickly, I just learned about a new Romanian Immigrant who had won the Visa Lottery..

Take a good look at the photo [Alina Simona Crehul, left, and her 6-year-old son, Radu, join others in saying the Pledge of Allegiance after she had just taken the naturalization oath with her husband and 23 other new Americans Thursday in the York County Administrative Center. (DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS--JASON PLOTKIN)].

Don’t you think that if you win the Visa Lottery, you should at least try to learn the Oath of Allegiance by heart?

Maybe she was too emotional about it. After all, the Oath is said out loud and she only had to repeat it, just like everybody else.

Thursday, after friends photographed them kissing and holding the citizenship documents, Alina Crehul joked with her husband, who works for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

"He couldn't come without me. I won," she laughed. "You have to love me a little bit more."

A doctor in Romania, Alina Crehul now works for WellSpan. She said Radu's grandparents wanted her and her husband to leave their son, then 11/2, with them in Zalau, Romania.

"I said, 'I am a mother. We are a family. That is not an option,'" she said.

The diversity visa program is a lottery available to certain countries that have less than 50,000 immigrants to the United States each year.

Vasile Crehul, a transportation infrastructure engineer in Romania, said the lottery puts emphasis on applicants who are educated and trained.

My suggestion to new immigrants is read it over, then simply repeat after the Judge (or whoever reads it first). Keeping a paper in front of you on the shoulder of your visibly inconvenienced kid just looks bad.

I hereby declare, on oath,

• that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen;
• that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America  against all enemies, foreign and domestic;
• that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;
• that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law;
• that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when  required by the law;
• that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and
• that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion;
         so help me God.

In acknowledgement whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature:
..........................................................
(Complete and true signature)
As sworn by    Your Full Name    on    Date of Ceremony
during the Naturalization Oath Ceremony conducted by:
The name of the US District Court, or the INS/USCIS office conducting the ceremony
at City, State
and that such person was admitted as a citizen of the United States of America.

Good luck!

(The Canadian Oath of Citizenship is all about the Queen.)

Meanwhile, the EU Council postponed its Schengen enlargement decision; Bulgaria complains that it’s because of Romania:

Luxembourg. The Schengen issue was on the agenda of EU Ministers of Home Affairs at the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday. The Council postponed its decision on Bulgaria and Romania’s accession to the Schengen area. The reason was a lack of consensus among Schengen member states. Both countries’ applications are expected to be considered in March 2013. Bulgarian Minister of Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov commented that Bulgaria has become a hostage to political debates in some countries but did not specify the countries themselves and when a breakthrough may be expected. He added that EU ministers are waiting for the monitoring report on Romania, which will be published in December or January. Only then can the issue be included in the ministers’ agenda in order to be solved. Meanwhile, Darik Radio quotes EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, who reiterated that both countries have met all membership criteria and necessary prerequisites for taking a political decision. BNR quotes participants in the informal political dialogue on the topic who revealed that the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium are the countries which opposed Bulgaria and Romania’s accession. The reasons for that are the ongoing political crisis in Romania, as well as the two countries’ readiness to protect EU’s external borders.

Romania did something good, though: it celebrated King Michael’s birthday. The King had in the past a difficult relationship with virtually all of Romania’s rulers (see Tradarea and Presedintii); some refused him a visa, while others trashed talked to him.

While right-wing President Traian Basescu has criticized the former king for leaving the throne and last year did not attend Michael's first speech in parliament since his 1947 abdication, a leftist government showed support for the former monarch.

"Let's send him the warmest birthday wishes and sincere congratulations for what he did for Romania throughout history," said Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who is favored to win a December election against Basescu's rightist allies. "King Michael I is a living symbol of Romania," Ponta said on his Facebook page. (..)

He finally returned to Romania in 1992 and regained citizenship in 1997 after reformist President Emil Constantinescu took over from former communist Ion Iliescu. Michael made several appeals for the restoration of the monarchy in the early 1990s. Iliescu deported him on several occasions and even deployed tanks on one occasion to prevent him from touring the eastern Balkan country. Many Romanians respect Michael, but too few support the restoration of the monarchy to make it a possibility.

Some 200 supporters of the aged king, who walked without support to greet the small crowd in the square, located in an upscale Bucharest neighborhood close to government headquarters. They chanted his name and sang "Happy Birthday" after Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu revealed a bust of Michael.

"I came here because my father gave the military salute to the king in the 1940s," said Filip Atanasiu, a 69-year old pensioner. "And I am looking with sadness at the royal family, at what they meant to the country and how now they are not at all involved in ruling Romania."

Victor Ponta, whom I called, not long ago, the Red King (i.e., Imparatul Rosu), has started to do some things right. Maybe he’ll do another PhD as well, who knows? :)

Sources / More info: ydr, wiki, us-lottery, focus, reuters