Ciao all, well I had my citizenship appointment at the italian consulate in new york city on may 28th. I was scrupulous about gathering all the required documents and translations and apostilles over the past year and 8 months. Not to mention how much I spent on the process. I also had a few documents re-issued and /or amended. I felt at ease the night before my appointment. The only thing was there were two very minor clerical errors on my grandfather's Peitition for Citizenship and Declaration of Intent which were certified copies with raised seals. (I ordered the actual certificate from USCIS but it hasn't come yet. However, the Petition and Declaration are accepted). Since the USCIS/Homeland Security won't alter naturalization documents and there was nothing I could do about the small errors and since everything else gelled and all the other documents supported that the naturalization papers were my grandfather's I lost NO sleep the night before. Want to know what happened??
My elderly father wanted to accompany me to the appointment and I wanted him to be there as well because I thought that if there were any questions my father would be able to clarify things. Also, as he is getting his citizenship using the same documents that I am from his father through himself we thought that he was eligible to come to the appointment with me. SO....we get to the embassy and got up to the floor where citizenship is. We walked into a room where there were three officials at their desks. I had spoken several times with questions previously to a man there named Rinaldo so I asked for him, since i thought he was already familiar with my case. However, a severe, unpleasant looking man coldly commanded me to sit at his desk for my review. The entire interview was SICKENING. The man obviously from the start took the approach of looking for reasons to deny my application, no matter how silly the reasons may be. He was RUDE and arrogant and condescending and huffy the whole time. He bawled us out for me not coming in my myself. My dad and i compared notes and agreed later that we knew instantly we were in big trouble having this person in charge of our application. Anyway, he also seemed to not know what he was doing---he kept going back over the same documents over and over excessively. When he had a question for us he mumbled in a heavy italian accent so that neither of us could hear him or understand him if we could have heard him. When I had to politely ask him to repeat his command, and believe me they were commands, he acted annoyed---like I was the rude one. He finally, after a long visit where i had to keep from vomiting and grew huge hives on my chest (that happens when I am extremely upset about something)
he said, "i'm afraid these naturalization documents are no good. "
He proceeded to point out that though all of my grandfather's documents consistently say April 19, 1875 for his birthday, a clerk wrote down April 20th. Second, this same clerk listed November 26 rather than 29 for my dad's birthday i.e. turned the 9 upside down. therefore, this "official" triumphantly exclaimed, " I don't believe these are your grandfather's naturalization papers."
Now what are the chances that there were 2 people with the exact same name born one day apart in the tiny town of Comiso Sicily who both married a woman named Carmela and had the same named children??
This man obviously could have used his common sense and logic and CHOSE not to. He then left the room for 15 minutes and came back and claimed he conferred with his supervisor who backed him up.
Then he said I have to get a judge to rule that the documents really do belong to my grandfather.
Something else: I have to have the judge's order and the translation of the order Apostilled. I also have to have the TRANSLATIONS of my divorce decree and my and my father's legal name change documents translations Apostilled. Then he saw that on my paternal grandmother's death certificate the person who recorded it decided to eliminate an "s" from the last name. Otherwise, everything matches everything else. So i have to get THAT amended. he gave me a return appointment of july 10th. I was in such shock especially about the naturalization papers I didn't think to ask for something in writing. I explained to him I am moving to Italy on July 20, I have been engaged to sing opera in tuscany through aug. 15 and then had wanted to stay in italy partly to be reunited with my cousins in comiso. He said, "that makes no difference to me. Furthermore, you have to come back to this country after your concert tour, you can't stay there."
Although later he admitted if I am eligible i can apply for a visa but i have to get it here before i go there, and then apply for my dual citizenship over there. Che pasticcio!!!--what a MESS! I have already dispensed with 90% of all my belongings...
Anyway...I spoke with two immigration attorneys---one is very knowledgeable in italian dual citizenship legal issues and interestingly he himself was turned down for his own because on his american documents, some of them, his grandfather who was giuseppe in italy is listed as joseph. AND--get this!---he was rejected by the same man as me. I think this is outrageous!! I have heard of people with much more severe discrepancies being waved right through the process at other embassies. According to the ital dual citzenship lawyer, he found out that this man has a temporary assignment at the embassy. Also I have been learning that Italy is starting to close the door on citizenships and they are going to ridiculous lengths to do so.
Anyway, the dual citizenship lawyer told me to forget about trying to go to court, the first immigration lawyer said he wasn't even sure how to proceed since he had never come across this before and neither had his senior partners---he said, I guess you need to become a plaintiff against the immigration and naturalization services U.S. but it won't be heard before july 20th and they could refuse to correct the errors and it would be a long drawn out very expensive battle.
Plus you need to give me a retainer of $2500.00 today.
I left.
I WOULD BE VERY INTERESTED TO HEAR COMMENTS FROM MY FELLOW FORUM FRIENDS. HAS ANYONE ELSE EXPERIENCED ANYTHING LIKE THIS? AT WHICH EMBASSY/IES? HAVE YOU HAD YOUR APPLICATION ACCEPTED IN SPITE OF THE SAME OR WORSE KINDS OF DISCREPANCIES? DID ANYONE COME UP WITH A SOLUTION TO THEIR PROBLEM? IF ANYBODY HAS ANY IDEAS FOR ME PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP. IS ANYONE ELSE OUTRAGED THAT ITALIAN AMERICANS WHO ARE LEGITIMATELY ELIGIBLE ARE BEING SO CAPRICIOUSLY DENIED THEIR CITIZENSHIPS? I ACTUALLY CAN DEAL WITH EVERYTHING THEY WANT ME TO DO----IT'S THE NATURALIZATION CLERICAL ERRORS IN THE FACE OF EVERYTHING ELSE SUPPORTING THAT THE PAPERS ARE HIS THAT IS FROSTING MY COOKIES!! I WILL BE GRATEFUL TO HEAR FROM YOU. THANKS AND IF YOU ARE THE PRAYING KIND, PLEASE KEEP ME IN YOUR PRAYERS AND GOOD THOUGHTS. OH ALSO, THE LAWYERS BOTH TOLD ME TO CALL HIS SUPERVISOR ASKING FOR CLARIFICATION OF WHAT THEY ACTUALLY NEED ME TO DO. THEY BOTH POINTED OUT THAT THOUGHT HE SAID HE CHECKED WITH THE SUPERVISOR HE MAY NOT ACUTALLY HAVE, ESPECIALLY SINCE HE NEVER GAVE ME ANYTHING IN WRITING. I HAVE HAD A TERRIBLE TIME GETTING THROUGH TO THE SUPERVISOR AND TIME IS RUNNING OUT.
PLEASE !! ANY HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS ARE NEEDED AND WELCOMED!!
Tangobunny PH P.S. IN CASE ANYBODY WANTS TO SUGGEST I SPEAK WITH NICOLA I ALREADY DID, HIS ADVICE ALSO WAS TO CHECK WITH THE SUPERVISOR.
my citizenship disaster of an appointment new york consulate 
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