Lure of Luxembourg fuels thriving business

Kevin Wester estimates he has helped more than 2,000 people obtain Luxembourg citizenship.

It started a decade ago when Wester was working at the Luxembourg American Cultural Center in Belgium and was contacted by the Luxembourg ambassador to the United States, who asked if Wester could put together an English step-by-step guide to applying for citizenship — so Americans could stop annoying the Luxembourg citizenship office with calls.

Wester said the “test run” was applying for his nephew, his friend Mike Ansay  and himself. After figuring out the process for them, Wester started to offer his assistance to people at the Cultural Center and his service quickly took off.

Since then, Wester said he has helped people of all ages worldwide: people living in Ozaukee County to Japan and Great Britain; young professionals hoping to get new opportunities in Europe, and older people hoping to reconnect with their roots.

Starting with a consultation on Zoom, Wester compiles the birth, marriage and death records of the client’s ancestors and fills holes left by shoddy or non-existent record keeping.

Wester said Wisconsin law did not require that major life events be documented until 1907, which means he often has to get creative. Frequently, Wester digs through clerical records for baptismal records instead of birth certificates.

Originally, it was required that applicants had an ancestor living in Luxembourg as of 1900.

“You could imagine how disappointing it was if the ancestor died or left in 1899,” Wester said.

In recent years, however, the process has changed to so most people who have a Luxembourg ancestor qualify for citizenship, Wester said.

About three-quarters of applicants must apply for citizenship in person at a government office in Luxembourg.

People always get nervous and excited to see the new country and become a national —“It’s like a homecoming,” Wester said.

One time he did applications for an entire 80-person family from Minnesota. By stitching together the family tree, Wester said he discovered the family descended from a Luxembourgian great-great-grandfather who moved to Iowa before leading the family north.

“These are all of his descendants, and they don’t know anything about him,” Wester said. The family learned that right in their hometown, the patriarch’s old barn was an event venue and his old home an Airbnb.

“It amazes me that some people don’t know their grandparents,” Wester said. “People not only get citizenship but a history of their family.”

Many people seek out citizenship after being surprised by their ancestral roots through a DNA test or report from an amateur genealogist in the family. Commonly, people think they are German and have to Google Luxembourg  to learn it’s a small, landlocked country in Western Europe when they get the news, Wester said.

By the time applicants have learned so much about their history and sit down with the citizenship authorities, it can be an uneventful conclusion.

“It’s kind of an anticlimactic, ten-minute meeting. Because we have Luxembourg ancestry, we are exempt from the language and civics exam,” he said.

It takes another six to eight months to become a citizen after that meeting, Wester said.

A quarter of applicants can gain citizenship through the mail because they have a line of male ancestors going back to Luxembourg — an artifact of the past, Wester said, from when nationality passed only through the father.

“Most people are happy to find out they can do it by mail because it’s cheaper,” he said. “But I always kind of feel bad because they miss out on the excitement.”

Wester said the process is not easy.  A lot of his clients come to him after attempting to apply themselves based on information found online.

“It’s not a cookie-cutter thing. Every family I deal with has unique issues because of name changes, adoptions or missing records. There’s so many levels that complicate it,” he said.

Wester said he has to order criminal records from every country the applicant has lived at and translate them to an accepted language by the Luxembourg government.

Luxembourg started the program, which has allowed 25,000 people to obtain citizenship, in 2008 for several reasons, Wester said. For one, it helps Luxembourg in the European Union by bolstering its population numbers without adding expenses to social services and public infrastructure.

It also helps Luxembourg maintain its cultural identity. Almost 70% of the residents of Luxembourg City are foreign-born, while 50% in the nation are.

“They like the immigrants coming, but one of the struggles is losing what is traditionally Luxembourg,” Wester said. “It’s not nationalistic, but it’s a concern that even in 50 years all the Luxembourg names will be gone.”

Wester said he is putting together a report that will be distributed to the Luxembourg Parliament about how the program helps promote Luxembourg’s tourism and cultural awareness in America.

“All of these new citizens are small ‘a’ ambassadors. When you go to social media, there are all these people online talking about Luxembourg,” he said. “They don’t realize what this is doing for the country here in America.”

For Americans, the program has a lot of benefits, Wester said.

Because the country is so rich and is small enough to have no enemies, a Luxembourg passport is one of the best in the world, he said.

While new citizens don’t have access to social benefits like free education and healthcare, which start after two generations, Wester said, education is extremely cheap. For example, he said the tuition for studying for a doctorate is less than $1,000 a year at the University of Luxembourg.

The demographics of his clients has changed over the years, Wester said.

“When I started it was 50 or older. Initially, the motivation was, ‘Oh this is cool,’ or, ‘This is a tribute to my parents or my grandparents,’” he said. But now, more clients who are usually younger see gaining citizenship as a way to expand opportunities.

Wester said he’s not concerned about running out of clients.

“As far as prospects, it’s a couple of million people that could do it,” he said, noting there are more people with Luxembourg ancestry in America than live in Luxembourg.

“At some point, they are going to pull the plug,” he said. “It was supposed to end in 2018, but because so many people were doing it, they continued it indefinitely.”

Wester said he’s always been an independent worker, from when he was a priest to Executive Director at the Cultural Center to now, but he recently faced having to turn away clients or hire an employee.

So, he hired Rebecca Bley Shamblin, a genealogist living in Minneapolis with family ties to Belgium and Luxembourg, who he knew from her historical work.

“She reminds me of me, and how crazy I am,’” he said.

Shamblin handles most of the initial consultations, Wester said, and will help him guide a double-group tour to Luxembourg in May as part of his company Luxembourg Adventures.

Wester leads tours of about 40 people in Luxembourg. Each tour is different and can be personalized. Often, tour-goers find their old family homes or cemeteries.

He also helps tour guides in Luxembourg who bring their groups to Ozaukee County. Wester lays out their stops, including Stony Hill school, Port Washington City Hall, Pioneer Village and St. Mary’s Cemetery in Lake Church.

“There was one man who was here two summers ago who lost his luggage. The poor guy hung on for three days with clothing donations from the tour group,” Wester said. “So, I took him to Kohl’s.

“Later, I saw him in Luxembourg and he told me it was a high point of his trip. He said, ‘It was so interesting to see an American shopping center.’”

Wester was knighted by the Grand Duke of Luxembourg. He was named the Wisconsin attaché for cultural affairs and public relations by the country.

He said he has respect for the Grand Duke, who is richer than the English King but is humble and forward-thinking.

Wester said his interest in Luxembourg has become his defining characteristic.

“I always say, ‘Don’t ask me a thing about anything but Luxembourg,’” he said.