Not my journey, I already got my citizenship when I was a 1 year-old baby, but for my born-and-raised American husband, who’s lived in the Czech Republic for 4 years now.
I’ve been through the Czech educational system, so I know the language is tough and the testing is even tougher.
Today was his testing day, the first step in becoming a Czech citizen. It was an excruciating 10 hour day of testing in the Czech language, which included listening, reading, writing, speaking, and knowledge of Czech culture & history.
I can’t help but reminisce about how very different my process of becoming an American was. But of course, when I took my test I had already been speaking English half of my life, and the contents of the exam were as widely known as the characters from the Simpsons.
One thing is for sure, the Czechs will not give their citizenship to everyone easily, and the candidate’s IQ’s gotta be at least high enough to learn the past 500 years of treasured national history.
To deter anyone considering a little fraud in the testing room, the immigration police are ever-present. They quadruple-check each person’s ID and watch for any foul play, so there is no chance of funny business.
There were about 30 candidates with him at the exam, and all had to get a negative Covid test 3 days prior to taking the exam. Another hiccup caused by the pandemic, but life must go on!
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