When my grandmother got her naturalization, she had to hand over her original birth certificate from Italy over to the office in Newark, New Jersey. They kept the birth certificate. Is this a common practice? This was in 1974. I'll be calling them tomorrow when they open but was wondering if anyone else has been able to get a copy from a situation like this directly from the office. If I can, this would save a ton of time having to contact Italy at all.
Thanks.