Trip to Philly Consulate

So although I had all the documents that I needed, I was still not able to apply myself until my father became an Italian citizen. I called my dad and explained the situation. He was aware that I had been wanting to apply for citizenship. He had some general questions regarding what it meant to apply for citizenship and if it would jeopardize his US citizenship. I explained that he was actually always an Italian citizen and that the US allowed for having two passports. He agreed to apply so that I could then apply. He lives in NJ, so he would have to go to a different Consulate than I did. The Philadelphia Consulate covered his area of NJ. Since I had already collected all of the documents, he didn't really have to do any work. We planned it so that I would come down to visit and we would go to Philly and present the paperwork. I had been told at the Boston consulate that since I had a younger brother who was still a minor that when my dad applied, my younger brother would also get his citizenship automatically. I just needed to make sure to bring his birth certificate along. I had already received a copy of this birth certificate because he had shown interest in applying.

It was May 2004 that I went to the Philadelphia consulate with my dad and my brother. We made sure to arrive early, just as the consulate was opening. Again, there was already a line of people waiting to get in. Most were there to apply for visas.
We signed in at the front desk and then sat and waited for our name to be called. As we waited, more and more people started to come in. There were quite a few Italians there coming in for one reason or another. It was great to hear Italian being spoken and I tried to pick up as much as I could.

Eventually our name was called and we went to the window. At the Philly consulate, they don't have offices, just windows like at a bank. The woman behind the counter was very nice and spoke American English, but also spoke fluent Italian. I explained why were there and that I had been told by the Consulate in Boston that my father would have to apply first before I did. She took my documents and slowly reviewed each one like the gentleman did in Boston. She confirmed to us that everything looked in order. She said I didn't need any of the documents for the maternal side that I had collected. Next she gave my dad a short application to fill out. Once he filled it out, she said the next step was to get Apostilles for all the required documents. Once I got those, then I should return the documents to her and they would prepare them to be sent to the Commune in Italy where my great grandfather had his documents. Regarding the translation of the documents, she said that I didn't need to have that done because the consulate did it before sending off the papers.

That was it. The whole process went by pretty quickly. Now the next step was to start collecting Apostilles for each of the documents...