Although fate took the twin sisters abroad, Kadri and Kalvi are Estonians through and through. Their father, Ervin Pari, fled Estonia as a child in 1944 to escape the ravages of war.

"I'm a child refugee. On September 20, 1944, we fled Estonia by ship. My father remained behind in the local defense forces and my mother, my older sister and I boarded the ship. We left with the thought that we would return once things settled down, but that never happened," Ervin recounted.

The family traveled through Germany and eventually settled in the United States, in New Jersey, where many Estonian war refugees found a new home. It was among this community that Ervin met his wife, Irja. After earning an engineering degree from a U.S. university, Ervin received a job offer to work on road construction projects in Cameroon. In 1975, he moved to West Africa with his wife and their two older children. A year later, on August 12, the family welcomed twin daughters.

Ervin said he personally took care of obtaining stamped birth certificates for his daughters. "Kalvi has her own birth certificate and Kadri has hers, and they are very, very similar — only the names and birth times are different, by ten minutes," Pari explained.

The girls spent their first five years in Africa, until the family moved again for Ervin's work. In late 1980, they returned to the United States, where Kadri and Kalvi, now 48, established their own families and built careers. Ervin and Irja later divorced and after Estonia regained independence, Ervin returned to his homeland. He currently resides in Tartu.

Despite the family being spread out across the world, both Kadri and Kalvi are Estonian citizens by birthright. Kalvi, who was born ten minutes later, was the first to apply for citizenship, receiving her Estonian passport without any issues in 2009.

According to Siiri Leskov, a citizenship advisor at the Ministry of the Interior, the government receives between 600 and 800 applications annually from people born abroad who want to claim Estonian citizenship as adults. "Some of them are quite elderly, even over 70 years old," Leskov said.

Kadri, a mother of four working as a real estate agent in Florida, only applied for Estonian citizenship in 2022. Her children had grown old enough to take an interest in their roots, which motivated her to pursue her application. She took her documents to meet with a visiting consular officer in Florida, who told her that her birth certificate lacked the necessary seal and wasn't apostilled.

Kadri was told that her birth certificate had to be certified by the country that issued it. She then obtained a document from Cameroon's embassy in Washington, D.C., which placed an official seal on a copy of her birth certificate. However, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs later informed her that this was insufficient and that the document needed to be legalized.

"They told me I had to legalize it, but I had no idea what that even meant," Kadri said, adding that the situation was extremely frustrating for her.

Leskov explained that Estonia requires proof of lineage through original documentation. "We need to see the original document, not a copy. And indeed, depending on the country, the original document must be certified by the issuing country to confirm that it is authentic and valid," Leskov said.

Last Christmas, Kadri and her husband visited her father in Estonia, bringing what she says is her original birth certificate, complete with the seal from August 1976. The Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to provide any on-camera comments for the "Pealtnägija" program, stating in writing that citizenship regulations are determined by the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA).

"Pealtnägija" contacted the PPA, the Ministry of the Interior and the Estonian Embassy in Washington, D.C. After comparing the often unclear and conflicting instructions from these institutions, it became evident that Estonia essentially expects Kadri to travel to Cameroon to have her original birth certificate stamped again to confirm its authenticity.

Leskov acknowledged that each case is different and complicated but expressed confidence that a solution would be found in cooperation with the PPA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Kadri and her father feel like they are caught in a bureaucratic maze. First, Kalvi received her passport in 2009 during a visit to Estonia. At the time, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official in Tallinn stamped Kalvi's Cameroonian birth certificate, deeming it authentic. In Kadri's case, however, the authorities have refused to do the same. Neither the PPA nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been willing to explain why Kalvi's documents were accepted then, but Kadri's are not.

Second, even if Kadri were to travel to Cameroon with her birth certificate in hand, it remains unclear who, or which institution, would be able to provide the additional seal required by the Estonian authorities.

Despite the obstacles, Kadri has not given up. During her visit to Estonia over the holidays, she took her birth certificate to a translation agency to have it officially translated. She remains hopeful that one day she will hold an Estonian passport in her hands.

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