Woohoo, I'm done!

After I received my Italianized birth certificate from Italy, I made an appointment to go to the Boston Consulate and complete the application process. From what I was told, this was a pretty short process where I just gave them a copy of the certificate and then signed a few items. This was pretty much the case. I showed up at the Consulate bright and earlier. This was near the end of May 2005. I gave the Consulate a copy of my "Italian" birth certificate and they filed it away with my other documents they had for me. Next, I was given a form to sign up to vote for the Italian elections. That's when it really hit me that the citizenship process was complete.

I was now officially an Italian citizen. For me, being told this was exciting, but I knew I wanted an Italian passport so that I could have physical proof and also be prepared for the future. They gave me my file to bring to the passport and visa office down the hall. It was already crowded, but I knew I wanted to get the process completed, so I waited. After about two hours I was called into a small office. The gentleman in the office asked what I was applying for and I gave him my file and explained I wanted to get an Italian passport. He took my file and also made a copy of my US passport. I filled out a basic application and gave him approx $43 in exact change. He told me that they should have my passport in about a week. The whole process took about ten minutes once I got into the office.

A week later and went back to the Consulate and picked up my passport. I was finished! It was now officially about a year and a half from when I first started the document collecting process. Although it was a long time, I know I was very luckily that it didn't take longer.

So what is next? In my next post or two I am going to list a timeline so that the steps that I took can be more easily followed. Also I would like to get some feedback from all of you. I know that this blog is being read by a number of people, but I would like to know if it was helpful and if there are any questions on the steps that I took. I can be reached directly at mfseverini@gmail.com.

Ciao a tutti!