Sept 04 comes and goes....

I followed up at the end of Sept 04 with the Consolato d'Italia - Filadelfia (Italian Consulate of Philadelphia). They still hadn't heard back from Manoppello and told me to check back again in November.

I checked back in November and again in December, both with the same responses that nothing had come back. Now, because of the Christmas holiday and New Years, I was told that it would be best to wait until after the new year to check back.

At this point I was definitely getting frustrated because I really wanted to get my Italian passport. Unfortunately all I could was wait until after the holidays and check back again in Jan 05.

Still waiting...

I was told by the Philly consulate that it would take a week or two to translate my documents and prepare them to be sent to Italy. Once sent, I was told that it shouldn't take that long to get a response. In affect, by sending the documents over, my dad was now considered an Italian citizen because the Philly consulate had approved them.

So, two months go by and I haven't heard any word from Philly. I decided to call and check up on my dad's citizenship progress. I spoke with the lady that had handled the application. She was surprised that they hadn't received anything back. She went through the latest batch of responses they received and confirmed that my dad's wasn't there. She told me to check back in Sept because it was the end of July, I could pretty much skip Aug because that is when Europeans take their holiday. She also mentioned to me that I shouldn't have to wait until they received word back from Italy to be able to submit my application and birth certificate. She told me that they could send a document to the Boston consulate informing them that they recognized my dad as an Italian citizen.

I contacted my consulate in Boston to ask if this is something they would accept. I was told that yes, if the Philly consulate would send them verification that my dad was an Italian citizen, then they would go ahead with my application and send it off to the Commune di Manoppello. However, the gentleman that was helping me told me to have Philly send this info quickly because he was going on vaca for all of Aug and that he would submit it if he got the paperwork in time.

I had the Philly consulate send the document to the Boston consulate informing them that they recognized my dad as an Italian citizen. Once Boston received it I also gave them a copy of my birth certificate that they would translate and send over with my application. I also had to register for the draft over there, but was told that this was a formality because military service was no longer required.

So, luckily I was able to get the guy at the Boston consulate to send all this over before he went on vacation. I would have to be patient and just wait for a response....Hopefully in Sept.

Apostille collection

After my trip to the Philly consulate, I set about obtaining all the apostilles for the documents. An apostille is an international legalization that is attached to a document. The secretary of state from the state in which the document comes from issues the apostille. Luckily for me, most of the documents I had collected all came from NJ. I could've sent these documents to NJ and then waited for them to attach the apostilles. Instead, I had my dad go to the secretary of state office, which is located close to where he lives and had him get them done while he waited. I did the same for my birth certificate in MA.

Once we had all the apostilles, we sent the complete package of documents to the Philly consulate. The next step for them was to translate the documents and then send them to the Commune di Manoppello (town hall of Manoppello, Italy) where vital records are stored. There, they will record each of the documents and then send a reply back to the consulate in Philly confirming that they received the documents and that they were recorded.

Now, although all the documents had been sent to Italy, it was all for my dad's application. I still needed to apply. However, I had to wait until the Philly consulate received a written reply back from Manoppello, then I could take that written reply and give it to the consulate here in Boston. That would be proof that my dad was now an Italian citizen and then the Boston consulate could go ahead with my application.

So, at this point, it was June 04 and all I could do was wait for a reply from the Commune di Manoppello....

Trip to Philly Consulate

So although I had all the documents that I needed, I was still not able to apply myself until my father became an Italian citizen. I called my dad and explained the situation. He was aware that I had been wanting to apply for citizenship. He had some general questions regarding what it meant to apply for citizenship and if it would jeopardize his US citizenship. I explained that he was actually always an Italian citizen and that the US allowed for having two passports. He agreed to apply so that I could then apply. He lives in NJ, so he would have to go to a different Consulate than I did. The Philadelphia Consulate covered his area of NJ. Since I had already collected all of the documents, he didn't really have to do any work. We planned it so that I would come down to visit and we would go to Philly and present the paperwork. I had been told at the Boston consulate that since I had a younger brother who was still a minor that when my dad applied, my younger brother would also get his citizenship automatically. I just needed to make sure to bring his birth certificate along. I had already received a copy of this birth certificate because he had shown interest in applying.

It was May 2004 that I went to the Philadelphia consulate with my dad and my brother. We made sure to arrive early, just as the consulate was opening. Again, there was already a line of people waiting to get in. Most were there to apply for visas.
We signed in at the front desk and then sat and waited for our name to be called. As we waited, more and more people started to come in. There were quite a few Italians there coming in for one reason or another. It was great to hear Italian being spoken and I tried to pick up as much as I could.

Eventually our name was called and we went to the window. At the Philly consulate, they don't have offices, just windows like at a bank. The woman behind the counter was very nice and spoke American English, but also spoke fluent Italian. I explained why were there and that I had been told by the Consulate in Boston that my father would have to apply first before I did. She took my documents and slowly reviewed each one like the gentleman did in Boston. She confirmed to us that everything looked in order. She said I didn't need any of the documents for the maternal side that I had collected. Next she gave my dad a short application to fill out. Once he filled it out, she said the next step was to get Apostilles for all the required documents. Once I got those, then I should return the documents to her and they would prepare them to be sent to the Commune in Italy where my great grandfather had his documents. Regarding the translation of the documents, she said that I didn't need to have that done because the consulate did it before sending off the papers.

That was it. The whole process went by pretty quickly. Now the next step was to start collecting Apostilles for each of the documents...

First Consulate Meeting Continued...

I got to the Consulate early so I wouldn't have to wait too long. When I got there though, I was amazed that there were people already waiting. However, I quickly found out that they were not there for citizenship, but to apply for visas. I went to the office of the gentleman that handled the citizenship applications and explained who I was and why I was there. I handed the folder I had with all my documents and he proceeded to slowly look at each one. I had put them all in chronological order so I think that helped. I was pretty nervous because he didn't say a word while reviewing each document. After he looked at the last document, he looked up and said that although the documents looked in order, there were two problems. The first was that my middle name was the same as my mother's maiden name. He informed me that in Italy, you can't have your name like this. However, this could be fixed pretty easily and depending on the commune (town hall) where my documents would be sent, they may not care.

The big problem that he mentioned was that since my father was still alive, I couldn't apply for citizenship unless my father did. Then, once my father had citizenship, I would be able to apply through him. I had never heard about this being a requirement, but apparently it is, at least for the consulate in Boston. So, I left knowing that I had the right to Italian citizenship. However, I would need to contact my dad and explain that he would have to become an Italian citizen if I wanted to also become one.

First Consulate meeting..

Although I used vitalchek for most of my document collection, some of them I was not able to collect myself because of the State I was trying to get them from or because the document I was trying to get was for someone that was still living. For example, my mother was born in NY and the vital stats office there is quite strict. She had to apply herself. However, my parent's marriage certificate was in NC and I was able to get a copy of it without any trouble. It seems like there would be a standard rule for all document collection. All I can say is thank God for the Internet.

So, when it was all said and done, it was the end of March, beginning of April 2004 that I had finally obtained copies of all the certificates I needed. The next thing I had to do was call the Italian Consulate that served my area and make an appointment for someone to review my documents. Since I lived in Boston, there was a Consulate right downtown. When I called, I was transferred to the gentleman that was in charge of citizenship. He asked me some preliminary questions and I explained that I had copies of all the documents. They didn't take specific appointments, but told me to come in the morning because of how busy they get. At this time, I was pretty excited and felt confident with the documents I collected.

It turned out that the building I work in was only a few minutes walk to the consulate. A few days later on my way to work I stopped by the Italian Consulate for my first meeting...

Document collection

At the time I received the petition for naturalization, I didn't have any other documents. To apply for Italian citizenship, the requirements are to have certified copies of all birth, marriage and death certificates starting from the person whom I'm applying through and then going all the way down the line to me. The only document I needed to get from Italy was my great grandfather's birth certificate because he married an American and he died in America.

To get a certified copy from Italy I used the services from myitaliancitizenship.com, also known as ICGS. I sent them a request and paid them the fee through paypal. I provided them with the name, date of birth, and town that my great grandfather was born in. I made this request on Jan 31st, 2004. I was informed that they found the document on March 8th, 2004. Two months may seem like a long time to wait for a document, but I am actually very lucky that they were able to find it so quickly because I know that some peoples' experiences were not as good.

During this time I also started the bigger process of collecting certified copies of all the other certificates I needed. Luckly the majority of my family stayed in the NJ area, so I was able to get most of the documents from one state. To collect the certs in the US, I used a service called vitalchek. I was amazed at how easy it was for me to do all of this online. The process basically involved me faxing a request in with a photocopy of my drivers license. I paid extra to have the certificates sent by fedex. So as not to get confused with what docs I had received or was waiting for I created a checklist with all the docuements I needed and then once I received them I would check each one off the list.

Here is a list of all the documents I requested:

- Great-grandfather petition for naturalization - NYC
- Great-grandfather birth certificate - Manoppello, Italy
- Great-grandfather death certificate - NJ, USA
- Great-grandmother birth certificate - NJ, USA
- Great grandmother death certificate - NJ, USA
- Great-grandparent's marriage certificate - NJ, USA
- Grandfather birth certificate - NJ, USA
- Grandfather death certificate - NJ, USA
- Grandmother birth certificate - NJ, USA
- Grandparent's marriage certificate - NJ, USA
- Father birth certificate - NJ, USA
- Mother birth certificate - NYC, USA
- Parent's marriage certificate - North Carolina, USA
- My birth certificate - Massachusetts, USA
- My younger brother's birth certificate - Florida, USA ( I will touch on this in a later segment)