and us a favor and apply early, early, early! Please remember to stay safe. I hope everyone has read the Worldwide Cau-tion of March 5 and the Travel Warning for Bang-ladesh of January 5. These are important, because they contain the latest in-formation to help you keep your families safe and also they keep you from becoming compla-cent. With fond farewells to all of you,

Dear Fellow Americans:

It has been a great pleas-ure serving at the U.S. Em-bassy Dhaka (and the Em-bassies in Paris, Kuwait, Manila, and Port au Prince, and the Consulates in Mon-terrey, Martinique and Casablanca), but my tour here in Dhaka is coming to an end, and so is my 31 years of consular work. It’s been a great ride, but it’s now time to retire and I think that will be equally delightful. Per-haps less exciting, but defi-nitely delightful! I was so happy to see so many of you at our Town Hall Meeting at the Embas-sy last February 28! Thank you for taking the time to come. I hope you’ll all be at our next Town Hall. Thanks to all of you who have begun your passport renewal process early. As you are aware, it’s been ten years since the West-ern Hemisphere Travel Initiative – it seems like

yesterday, but yes, it really HAS been ten years – and all of the people who used to travel without passports lined up to get them in 2007 and created a mon-strous passport back-log! Well, since those pass-ports are expiring this year, that means we’re ex-pecting another back-log. So if your passport expires in 2017 and you have not yet started the renewal, you should do so without fail now. And if your passport expires in 2018, then mark that expi-ration date and give your-self one full year to start the process. Don’t worry that it’s going to be the same story every ten years! It won’t be! The first anniversary of a new process is always the roughest. In 2027, we may notice the workload in-crease, but it probably won’t affect our clients, and by 2037, the workload bump will be practically imperceptible. But this year, please, do yourselves

From the Consul General

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

From the CG 1

CRBA by mail 2

Worldwide

Caution

2

Pohela Boi-

shakh

3

Book Donation 3

Bengali Recipe 3

ACS services 4

Embassy

Contact

4

Embassy

Closures

4

U . S .

E M B A S S Y ,

D H A K A

The ACS Newsletter A P R I L 2 0 1 7 E D I T I O N Q U A R T E R L Y N E W S L E T T E R

Consul General

Elizabeth P. Gourlay

Enroll with the Embassy for receiving alert emails by visiting the webpage at https://step.state.gov/step

Enroll with the Embassy for receiving alert SMS by visiting the webpage at https://usembassy.sslwireless.com/

P A G E 2

CRBA & Passport

Worldwide Caution

Applying for your Child’s Consular Report of

Birth Abroad (CRBA)

Most, but not all, children

born abroad to U.S. citizen

parent(s) are eligible to re-

ceive U.S. citizenship.

Effective March 01, 2017,

U.S. citizens will be able to

submit their CRBA applica-

tions by mail.

Please use the CRBA check-

list to ensure you have all

the required documents

prepared for the CRBA ap-

plication.

=> A completed DS—2029

=> A completed DS—11

=> One color 2x2 passport

photo of the child is re-

quired.

=> Evidence of Physical

Presence in the United

States:

a) In the event the child has

one U.S. citizen parent and

one foreign national parent,

proof of the U.S. citizen

parent’s physical presence

(i.e. the number of days the

U.S. citizen parent was de-

monstrably IN the United

States) is required. In such

cases, the U.S. citizen par-

ent will need to show five

years of CUMULATIVE

physical presence in the

U.S., two of which must

have been after the age of

14. Examples of items that

show physical presence are

entry/exit stamps in cur-

rent and previous pass-

ports, school transcripts,

income tax returns with

Form W-2, social security

earnings history, pay

stubs, etc.

b) If the U.S. citizen parent

cannot clearly demonstrate

the required 5 years of

physical presence then

the application cannot be

approved and any associ-

ated passport application

will be denied. In such

cases, applicants are not

eligible for a refund. Ap-

plicants are strongly

urged to review their own

history of physical pres-

ence in the United States

before applying.

c) Evidence of physical

presence is not required if

BOTH parents are U.S.

citizens. However, evi-

dence of residence of one

parent is required.

Please visit our website

bd.usembassy.gov for fur-

ther details on transmit-

ting citizenship to the

child born abroad.

the Worldwide Caution with information on the continuing threat of ter-rorist actions, political violence, and criminal ac-tivity against U.S. citizens and interests abroad.

LAST UPDATED: MARCH 6, 2017

As part of the Department of State’s continuous ef-forts to provide U.S. citi-zens traveling abroad with information about safety and security events, we are updating

This replaces the Worldwide Caution dated September 9, 2016.

More information at

travel.state.gov

T H E A C S N E W S L E T T E R

BANGLA NABABARSHA YEAR 1424 & POHELA BOISHAKH IN BANGLADESH: APRIL 14

P A G E 3 Q U A R T E R L Y

Bangla Nababarsha is celebrated as a public holiday in Bangladesh Bengali New Year, also known as 'Pohela Boishakh' is the first day in the Bengali calendar. Pohela means ‘first’ and Boishakh is first month of the Bengali calendar. The Pohela Boishakh is warmly and joyfully celebrated all over Bangla-desh and in other countries who adopted the Bengali calendar. People celebrate the event with loud festivi-ties and parades to the streets.

Traditionally, business owners close all their book of accounts and start new ones on the first day of the Bengali calen-dar. This is believed to be a way of re-newing and strengthening business rela-tionships with their customers and busi-ness partners. People start the celebration by having their house cleaned. It’s also common for people to bathe in the morning and wear their finest linen clothes. They then visit their relatives and neighbors. During the festivities, families also gath-er to follow the float parades and band performances on the street.

Preparation Time: 10 mins. Cook-

ing Time: 20 mins. Total Time: 30

mins. Makes 3 servings.

Ingredients

18 big eggplant slices

2 tsp chili

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup gram flour

salt to taste

2 tsp oil for greasing and cooking

4. Repeat step 3 to make 1 more batch.

5. Serve immediately.

days from dawn until sunset.

So, the next time you find

yourself in line for the copier

with your Muslim colleague, be

mindful of the following list of

suggested Ramadan etiquette:

Non-Muslims can eat in

front of Muslims but avoid

food/drink with strong

odors

This year in Bangladesh, Holy

Ramadan will be starting at the

end of May.

The month of Ramadan is a happy

occasion; it is the month that the

Muslim holy book, the Quran, was

revealed to the Prophet Muham-

mad (PBUH). Muslims are called

by their religion to celebrate the

month by coming together in wor-

ship and fasting each day for thirty

Ramadan etiquette

Bengali recipe: Begun bhaja / Eggplant fry

Method

1. Combine the chili powder, turmeric

powder, lemon juice, gram flour, salt

and 2 tbsp of water in a deep bowl and

mix well.

2. Add the eggplant slices and mix well.

Keep aside.

3. Heat a non-stick pan (griddle), grease

it with ½ tsp of oil, arrange half the egg-

plant slices and cook using ½ tsp of oil

on both sides till golden brown in color.

Collected from : www.tarladalal.com

Non-Muslims should try not to schedule

working lunch meetings

Non-Muslims don’t have to fast with

Muslims but you can if you want

Greet Muslims with Ramadan Mubarak

Please be a little flexible

U.S. Embassy Dhaka

American Citizen Services

Madani Avenue, Baridhara Dhaka – 1212

Phone: 88 2 5566-2000

(Hours of Operation: Sun, Mon, Wed, Thu, from

8:00 am - 4.00 pm)

E-mail: DhakaACS@state.gov

Website: https://bd.usembassy.gov/

ACS Services include:

PASSPORT RENEWAL

CONSULAR REPORTS OF BIRTH ABROAD

CONSULAR REPORTS OF DEATH ABROAD

NOTARIAL SERVICES

ABSENTEE VOTING AND VOTER INFORMATION

SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER APPLICATION

MEDICAL EMERGENCY COORDINATION

FEDERAL BENEFITS APPLICATION

TREASURY CHECKS DISTRIBUTION

EMERGENCY MONEY TRANSFER FACILITATION

Stay Connected

U. S. EMBASSY, DHAKA

Upcoming Embassy Closures

Diplomacy in Action

All regular American Citizen Services are by appointment only. Walk-in hours are not available. To

schedule an appointment online please visit the Embassy website at https://bd.usembassy.gov/

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10

Buddha

Purnima

11

Shab-e-

Barat

12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28

Memorial

Day

29 30 31

May 2017

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 Shab-e-

Qadr

23 24

25 Eid-ul-

Fitr

26 27 28 29 30

June 2017

Notes: April month has no official holiday. (*) Subject to change based on religious calendar.