In-Between Categories 43 Figure 3: Themis Cathopouli’s passport information Kostas, a first-generation Egyptian Greek born in 1943 in Alexandria, received Egyptian citizenship once he retired in 1988. Until then, he stayed in Egypt with his ten-year residence permit, a common practice for many Greeks born prior to 1956. As he was the only one from his family to obtain Egyptian citizenship at that time, he attempted to claim it for his wife, too. To his surprise, he discovered that his wife was already an Egyptian citizen since birth. The officer on duty told him: “Why do you request Egyptian citizenship for your wife? She is already an Egyptian national, as both her parents are Egyptians.” Kostas tried to explain to the officer that his parents-in-law were Greek, having migrated from the Dodecanese island of Kastellorizo sometime in the 1930s. Though his wife, Elvira, was born in 1945 in Egypt, her nationality should have corresponded to that of her parents. The officer did not pay much attention to Kostas’ story, explaining to him that though he should investigate why this happened, what mattered was that his wife had Egyptian citizenship, which Kostas could have claimed too after they got married. In fact, Kostas solved the mystery of the Egyptian citizenship after asking his father-in-law about their papers. Yorgos, Kostas’ father in-law, explained to him that he and his wife, Polyxeni, had Italian papers when they migrated from Kastellorizo to Egypt. Their daughter, Elvira, was born in 1945, when Italy’s involvement in World War II was still ongoing. To avoid facing any danger (including imprisonment, as Kostas noted), the patriarchate issued Egyptian papers for the whole family once their daughter was born. As a child and then as an adult, Elvira never knew about her actual (first) papers and was unaware of