NY Consulate Timeline

[Nocta]

I have an appointment at the NY consulate in March to submit all of my paperwork (finally!). Does anyone know approximately how long it now takes the NY consulate to process applications? Any inofrmation/tips would be greatly appreciated.

(Sorry if you already read this in the Genealogy forum - I posted it there by mistake.)

[mler]

We have been in the queue for five months (papers submitted last September), and our best guess is that we will have to wait at least two years. Sorry.

[johnmilano]

two years?! oh my god.

[mler]

Consider yourself lucky. I've been hearing some unsettling news coming from San Francisco. Some people have been told that there is a 3-4 year wait for appointments (see the forum at italylink.com) 8O I'm wondering what's going on out there!!!! Happy to be here.

[ricbru]

Yes, the law says up to 730 days.
But it depends a lot from the requests.
In south America they wait for 3 or 4 years, I read somewhere that people stay in line in front of the door or Italian consulate at night time!
Unbeliveable!!
ciao Riccardo

[johnmilano]

oh my goodness, i've heard that it only takes up to a year at most?
why would it take so long? that really sucks.


and yes, i've heard horror stories about San Francisco and
California in general.

[ricbru]

My cousin lives in San Francisco, he is applying next March 8th, he already went to Italian consulate in San Francisco a couple of times, and they told him that he will have his italian citizenship "up to 2 years".
So it is just like the law says,
bye Riccardo

[johnmilano]

oh wow, so do they have to wait two years to process an application for citizenship? or is it that they cannot process an application after
730 days? Maybe some consulates take care of it quicker than
others. If it takes San Fran 2 years, maybe less for us? hahah.
oh man, well... it is how it is...

My cousin lives in San Francisco, he is applying next March 8th, he already went to Italian consulate in San Francisco a couple of times, and they told him that he will have his italian citizenship "up to 2 years".
So it is just like the law says,
bye Riccardo

[wldspirit]

Think of the sheer number of applications they are processing....reports from other posters have stated that Chicago alone has over 80,000
request...Miami even worse.
wldspirit

[PaulinNY]

I just got my letter Friday from the NY Consulate confirming I am registered and that I can apply for a passport. Took 17 months 5 days exactly. I had what I believe is a simple application. I was a single application (no spouse, children, or siblings submitted at that time) using my mother as the direct line to the "Sanguinis". She was born and married in Italy so no US birth or marriage documents for her. The only complexity to my application was the fact that I was born in NJ so my records are from that state. The NY Consulate has to send them to the Newark Vice-Consulate for validation and translation. That adds much time to the process. Most folks don't understand that fact. Your application spends a significant amount of time in transit between the consulate you apply at and the "home" consulate for that vitial records document.

I was easy - applying via a direct parent whose documents are all from Italy (so require no translation and validation), who is still alive, and was never divorced.

Now imagine this case - some one who applies in NY (as the live there now), was born in NJ, was married in Florida, kids born in California, Iowa, and Texas. Then divorced and remarried in Michigan with kids born in Illinois and Georgia. This person is applying via their Grandfather who has passed away and their father, born in the US but also passed away, has equally a complex personal history of marriages and divorces in many different consular jurisdicitions. Now if an applicant could EVEN gather all of these documents long form with apostilles, etc., imagine how long it would take the poor NY Consulate to process that without losing some paperwork along the way. Now you know why people are quoted YEARS to process their application...

Good luck in your application...