Better news at last! (Naturalization)

[hellosquire]

Something wonderful happened today! After pressing my Dad, he found an old box that I thought we had trashed when we hand-shovelled asbestos out of the basement (we didn't know it back then )

Under a pile of old photographs, he found my great grandfather's naturalization certificate from 1921! It is indeed from Westchester Co., NY, even though the court and archives here, as well as NARA, did not have it on file. Now that I have the naturalization certificate, and it proves beyond a doubt that I'm eligible, I don't have to wait 15 months for USCIS to send me his file or a 'no record' letter!

On top of that, I found his original Italian passport from 1903, and his wife's from 1906! It is very fragile and moisture-damaged. Even though I already have his birth certificate, it's confirms his name, date of birth, and location of birth, from Bonefro. I'm sure the embassy would like to see it. No photo, of course, but a detailed description in Italian, which even states he is "clean shaven." The US visa inside was good for three years.

I've been pulling my hair out having to wait 15 months for USCIS, when it was ten feet away from my computer for six years, and in the house for 86 years!

For all of those people at their wits end, hang in there; good things happen with perseverance.

[wldspirit]

Congratulations......must of been like finding a treasure chest!!
But one question.......
How did you confirm that the request would take 15 months?
wldspirit

[mler]

Super news. That will save you a lot of time. And you will get it back to keep with your genealogical records.

[hellosquire]

I hope they give it back after checking it - my dad would never give it up, and I don't think I would either. I can't really confirm it would take 15 months, but I spoke with someone just yesterday at USCIS, at the Lee's Summit MO address, who told me the wait was on average 15 months for brand new requests, which mine was prior to today's discovery.

[wldspirit]

Thanks for the info!!
wldspirit

[nuccia]

hellosquire..

Wow! Thats great. I know just how you felt since the same thing happened to me last year.

Once you get all your paperwork in order for citizenship can I suggest you look into preserving those records you found? I would take high resolution scans of them if you have access to a printer so you can have copies and then get some acid free paper/sleeves etc to prevent them from getting anymore damaged. Thats what I did with mine. I also emailed the copies to myself, put them on CDS, and added them to my Family Tree Maker program. I wanted to make sure I had access to them no matter what.

See these sites for some suggestions..

http://loricase.com/faq.html

http://people.maine.com/photos/tip.htm

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~george/p ... hotos.html

[Gildone]

My request (in the second half of 2005) was processed in just over a month through this address:

US Department of Homeland Security
2nd Floor, FOIA Unit
111 Mass. Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20529

Are all immigration file requests being processed through Lee's Summit now?
I know the Administration and Congress have cut funds for records archiving so maybe they're consolidating?

My no-record request from the 4th Floor, Records Services Branch took 7 months (request in July, rec'd in late February)

[wldspirit]

Good question. I know alot of our posters are being discouraged from using this resource due to an overly long wait time.
I suppose if your only interest is in dual citizenship, then by all means use the fastest route possible. But if you are interested in pursuing genealogy, then use this request and ask for copies of all documents in the file. You may end up with far more than just naturalization info.
wldspirit

[Gildone]

It's being discussed at Italylink that all naturalization information requests have been consolidated to Lee's Summit and that any requests sent to the address I gave are forwarded there. Someone there said their request to DC was forwarded to Lee's Summit.

[Nello-LosAngeles]

On March 20th I received a Certificate of Noneistance of Record in 45 days.
It came from 111 Mass Ave, Washington DC. There is a critical typographical error on the Certificate, so I called the only phone number I had which is Lee's Summit. They told me that all requests dealing with genealogy go to 111 Mass Ave. In the conversation they told me the normal wait is 12 to 15 month, but many requests are "Simple tracked" and responded to more quickly.

Nello