Bobby's Passport

So.....I haven't updated in a while.

After the appointment in September things happened really fast! Bobby got his passport in December 2009. Amazing!

Right now we are waiting for his AIRE number, which I need before I can get my passport. So yeah...that's pretty much it.

But Bobby is officially a citizen with an EU passport in his hands!! I can't believe it!

THE APPOINTMENT!!!

Monday, September 21, 2009

I was so nervous I couldn’t believe it. We walk up to the building and it’s just so daunting. This big glass shiny building that holds our future. I took a picture. Then we hugged. Then we went inside and there were 10 or so people in the waiting area. Bobby thought we should leave and come back, but I wanted to wait. I couldn’t leave. Then two seconds later a guy called us back. So good thing we stayed! We went into Rafaella’s office and she was so incredibly nice to us. We just went through document by document matching them up with the translations. We had everything she needed and stuff she didn’t need. She was just so helpful and so encouraging. We told her we were planning on living there and we were ready to go as soon as we got the ok. She asked if it was like he had a job there waiting for him or what and he started to say no, but I said yes! Why yes he does! It was kind of funny. She said I’d do just fine over there. She also said that she would put our file in the urgent folder. Yay! She said she didn’t want to make any promises, but she may be able to have this done by Christmas. Wow!!! Christmas!! I couldn’t believe it. Then she was explaining what I’d have to do once he got the ok for citizenship. It seems simple enough and you can do it all from the states, which is good. She didn’t mention living in Italy together for any length of time. Now I just need someone to call and anonomously ask what happens when you get divorced. Then at the end I asked if she did email or what was her preferred form of contact and she said “Nothing” and we all laughed. That was way funny. She shook our hands and I felt so great. We walked out and I thought I might cry, but I was figuring I’d wait until we at least got to the lobby or outside. But nope. As soon as that office door shut and we were in the hall I just started sobbing. I mean like loud uncontrollable sobbing. I was completely overwhelmed. I don’t even know how to explain it. I felt so incredibly lucky and so fortunate and just so fucking happy. How cool is that though? I remember this part in City of Angels where someone asks why people cry and Nicholas Cage says that he thinks it’s just because your body becomes overhwlemed and all you can do is weep. That’s exactly what happened here, except it was out of happiness. I cried because I was so happy. Isn’t life amazing like that? Wow! I just…I can’t believe this is happening. I feel like the whole world just opened up in front of me.

That Fucking Certificate

Friday, July 31st

So today we went by to check the mail one last time and that fucking certificate of no records finally came. That has been the biggest fucking pain in the ass of everything we've had to get. First of all, it's taken over a fucking year to get. We submitted a request and were counting down the thousands of numbers ahead of us. Then our request was processed so we awaited the certificate. But nope! Instead we got a letter saying we had to submit another request for another search. Fuck! Thankfully this was only took a month or so, instead of a god damn year. And when it was processed I still didn't get my hopes up. But then I opened the envelope and there it was! A fancy certificate of no records. A big fancy seal on it. And no more steps to take. We're done. Well, with phase 1 that is. I'm sure I'm going to look back on this and think "Fuck! That certificate was a fucking cake walk compared to this...." But I am still optimistic. I will not give up on this. And I look forward to reading back on this blog from the Italian countryside with my EU passport in hand. I know it's worth it.

Update....FOIA, Consulate appointment, second FOIA request

Ok, so I haven't posted anything in a while so I'm just making one big post. We continued checking our FOIA "Certificate of No Records" request and all of the sudden we went from #472 on April 2nd to "Request processed" on April 3rd. We were completely psyched.

A few weeks later we got the letter in the mail but it said we had to fax something in to do the second leg of the search. Damn it! I was hoping that was going to be automatic. So we faxed in the paper to do the second leg and it felt like starting all over again. We got another control number and started going back to the same website checking our number every day.

We went ahead and made an appointment with the consulate though. It's for September 21st. It's for Bobby and we're going to see if I can apply at the same time, or if I need a second appointment. It doesn't really matter either way because I can go to Italy without citizenship as long as Bobby has it.

So we were still pretty high up on the FOIA list, number 8000 or something so we were thinking we might have to change our consulate appointment, but then Bobby checked today and our request was processed! So now we're waiting to get it in the mail and hopefully it's the final "Certificate of No Records" and we don't have to do anything else at all. That would be sweet!

FOIA Request

So Bobby checked today and we jumped up like 20 spots. We are now 619. Woot!!

Consulate Appointment, USCIS & FOIA request

February 10th
So today I checked the website like I always do and Bam! There was the number! I called Bobby and told him to go look. He said he'd call as soon as they opened. I couldn't wait. He called and made an appointment for March 6th! I couldn't believe it was that soon. So then we checked the status of our FOIA request and we were still #640. Don't think we'll jump up that much in less than a month. So we called the USCIS to see if we could pay to get bumped and they said they don't do that except for death or imprisonment. The guy did say though that the average for our type of request is 6-9 months, so we've already exceeded that, which I think is good. At least he didn't say the average is like 4 years or something. Hmmm...but I'm trying to stay positive. It's supposed to happen this way, right? And it's not so bad because if we have to wait a little longer that just means we can both apply at the same time, which would be easier anyway. So maybe that's what we're supposed to do, but you know I wouldn't intentionally wait. I'd have to be forced, which is exactly what is happening. So it's not so bad. So now we have a new website we're checking every day to see the status of our fate.

Consulate website

December 19th
So we've been checking the consulate's website every day to see if there are any new updates. For a while it said that appointments were all booked up for the remainder of 2008 and to check the website for updates on 2009 appointment availability or something like that. I changed a few weeks ago to say that appointments are booked for 2008 and they are in the process of creating a new system to schedule appointments by phone starting in February of 2009. And of course....to check the website for updates. So I'm still checking every day. I wonder when our appointment will be?

On another note we also have not received the document yet from the USCIS. Going by Bobby's prediction we should have received mid November. Oh well. No rush obviously.

Census Documents

October 26th - Today I checked the mail and our census documents were in there! The certification looked sort of like an apostille. Yay!

Translation

October 17th - Today I mailed all the stuff to Laura.

October 20th - Laura emailed to say she got everything and it'd be $390 - $30 per document.

Translator

October 13th
Today I emailed a woman named Laura, she called back and left me a lovely VM and then I called her back and we finally talked. She was the nicest lady ever and had such a beautiful accent. I am going to the post office today to send her all of our documents. $35 a document! Ouch. She did say she'd give us a discount.

Census Docs

September 30th
So today we sat down together and ordered the census documents online. It still seems unreal. Like they're going to write back and say they don't have them or they won't give them to us. This all seems unreal and I'm sure we'll feel that way up until we're holding our passports....

Consulate Phone Call

September 19th
So today we were driving to LA for our cruise and the closer it got to 9 the more nervous I got. It was awful! Ugh. Finally it was almost 9 and I realized I hadn't written down the phone number! Jesus. So I called Donny and he looked it up online for me. Then I tried to call but didn't have service so Bobby pulled over at the next town which wasn't far. I called and called and could not get through but I kept trying and finally I did. I talked to a woman named Ragaela who was actually very helpful. The gave me some great answers, but did say the thing about the census. Damn. So then Bobby called because it was his turn. He also got Rafaela and he told her he was my husband and he just had some more questions about the census. She was super helpful and did not make it sound black or white. She said the 1930 census would probably be fine and to go ahead and bring in the 1920 census anyway and to even bring in the boat records. It was a great conversation. We felt like we were on top of the world afterwards and what better way to celebrate than to take a cruise! Now we just have to order the census docs and print out the boat records....

Downtown Archives

So today we went down to an archives building and they didn't end up having anything, but they did have access to ancestry so the lady let us sign on with their subscription. We sat there for hours and I was getting frustrated, but Bobby had a hunch and was looking at the census going by street numbers and stuff and he ended up finding his family, but with a severely mis spelled name. That's what we really needed! Now we can order stuff from the census!

Census

September 8th - So today I've just been thinking about the census. The last week or so I've been trying to figure out how to get it. The woman at the Mormon research center was no help. I called the NARA and the woman on the phone said I didn't need to go through the microfilm page by page she said they could do some sort of search for me. But then she transferred me to someone who needed all this information - information I don't have and need from the census! Ugh. So I called the library and gave them what information I had a the research lady said she'd look into ordering the microfilm and if it was even available and she'd get back to me. She hasn't called me back yet. It sucks because in order to order a certified copy you have to know what page you need. I don't know what I thought. I guess I just thought I'd say I needed a copy of the census and they'd send it to me. I mean obviously that doesn't make a ton of sense because it'd be like thousands of pages long. But I don't know what page the name appears on. So we're going to have to go through the microfilm, find the page number and then we can order our certified copy. Sheesh. We have an appointment to ask more questions on September 19th so I'm going to not mention the census and ask the woman what we need to prove he was never naturalized. And see if she says the census. Maybe that first cunt didn't know what she was talking about. 

More certs

August 25th - Today I got Bobby's moms birth certificate's apostille and my birth certificate and our marriage certificate with apostilles. I called and asked about a marriage certificate and a marriage license. I got transferred a couple of times, but finally got someone that knew what they were talking about. The woman said that Arizona does not do certified copies of marriage licenses - we don't have them, we just have certificates. I asked if that was specific to Arizona and she said yes. She said she's never had a problem with it in terms of citizenship before. I sure hope it's not a problem. The consulate says they need a certified copy of the license and of the certificate. 

USCIS Request

August 20th - I made another email request to the USCIS and I got a response in the mail today. We are now number 1659 out of 6346. That gives me a way better idea. We're movin down the list! Bobby did some sort of caculation and said they should get to our request by November! Woo hoo! I can't wait. 

Apostille's

July 27th - Today I got all of the Mass certificates back with all of there apostille's. 

Katie's birth certificate

 June 27th - Today I got mine in the mail!

Bobby's moms certificate

June 13th - Today we got Bobby's moms birth certificate in the mail from Buffalo. 

Declaration

June 10th - Today we got Bobby's dads declaration, and copies of his ID and passport. Yay!