To all who have replied so far, 'thank you' - I appreciate your information. In addition:

Perche, how did you manage to jump from the NYC Consulate to the Consulate in Houston? Do you have to live in the area to make an appointment? - or are they not as strict about this.

Andreadbc, I am going to write one more time and as Slawecki suggested, call them both this week. If I do not hear back in about a month, I may fly to Italy also.

EMB, I got on the ICAP's website. Most of the documentation needed is fairly easy to obtain, but if one uses them primarily for the Birth Certificates, they seem very good and their fees reasonable. This is a very good suggestion and probably just as good as flying over myself: it's nice to have a choice.

I previously mentioned, I am going to write one more time. There is a small Italian restaurant near my house and I am always going in there and talking about Italy and food. The servers are very nice and there is little doubt they will help with a short cover letter. Maybe there are some 'buzzwords' I do not know.

Lastly, a family member has gone thru the process and become a citizen. Some of the documentation I am seeking, he submitted for himself. This documentation has already been 'accepted' and the information somewhere in the system. I am wondering if the Chicago Consulate can 'pull-up' the accepted information and apply it in my case. I may email the Consulate and ask them if this is possible, but this is only if I start getting desperate. Has anyone else tried or done this??

Perhaps I'm missing the obvious, but if the information from the family member is the same, why not just ask them for it?

Not a close family member and someone I rarely see or talk to. He did all of this a while ago: in addition the last I heard, he never got the information back - it is (probably) still at the Consulate.

I should have mentioned - not all of our documentation is the same - just a portion of it. Unfortunately for me, it is a portion that I do not have.

I know I always keep a good copy, or the original if I can when sending off important documents.

I realize Perche was accepted in an hour in Houston, but the way I remember his story, it was far different.

For your appointment in Chicago, you must bring the original and 2 copies. The relative lives on the west coast, but no doubt, had to bring original to his. The story gets second-hand at this point, but apparently he presented his documentation and that was the end of the interview. The Consulate kept his documents and told him they would be in touch. I am assuming the documents are further examined but about a half year later he received a letter congratulating him on becoming a citizen.

Even if he had made copies and I had them, I do not think they would help. All the information on the BC I know, and the Chicago Consulate requires an original.

Deleted:

"Normally" you are supposed to use the consulate that covers the area where you "live". "Normally" they will eventually seek some sort of "proof" of that like your mailing address. But the consulates operate somewhat like government here in Italy so if you know someone or have a mailing address you can "borrow" in a different service area you can always try a different consul. In the past, especially under the prior Consul General we always had good luck working with the Houston Consulate (which is in a highrise near the Galleria in Uptown, near many of the other Euro consulate like Germany, France, etc if you make the trip)
The new consul Sr. Nava seems to have changed attitudes a bit. For example, I couldn't get a passport for my second child (who is Italian) as they wanted him to travel back on his American one, and just do it in italy, even though they should do it per the rules. Gets into complications about whether one is registered overseas or not and such, but my point is, like everything in Italy, the "rules" can change on a whim.

As I said before I know Australians registered in my little commune who have been waiting over 3 years for Roma to act on their paperwork and I know other expats that have only needed around 9 months. again, I don't mean to discourage at all, just go into it with patience and the proper expectations.

I'd suggest using a service like the one recommended above might be better than going over to Italy intitially (unless you just want a vacation too which is a great deal ) If the commune is small, the person you need might be gone, these things happen.

For example a couple of years ago before I had my Italian citizenship, I had to go get some documents and such stamped (Italians love stamps). The two guys that do that had gotten into an argument, and both closed the shop and taken two weeks off each, at the same time, so the office was closed-end of story everyone had to wait. Again, my point is in smaller places you don't always know what you are going to get. My commune ignored the consulates e-mails for nearly two weeks once, then magically 'finding' it when I showed up with copies.

Last advice- Do not get an immigration lawyer in Italy. Not at this stage anyway; it is not worth it. Just trust me on that one. I haven't used them, but I know people who have; it can be a big waste and not get you what you need.

Sorry to hear from Flying Houstonian that the new consul in Houston may have a different attitude. We are ready to go with all our paperwork and emailed the consulate back in June. They told us they were busy and not to contact them until November 1 for an appointment. I travel to Houston frequently on business. Would showing up there on the days that they have open question time do us any good? Or do we just need to be patient and request an appointment come November 1? I realize most of the employees may be on holiday this month. Thank you for your advice.

U2fan - ICAP has been super helpful. We thought my great grandfather was from a different city but they found his birth registered in Catania. And I think their charge was very reasonable. There was no way we could have found it on our own.

u2fan, be aware, it's August, and everything is closed in August. Everybody's on vacation and probably nothing will get done till september.

Italian citizenship
 

I think I misspoke with regard to obtaining my Italian citizenship and passport, and also, about the consulate in Houston. The paperwork took a long, long time, and involved many hours of work, and lots of persistence. The real goal for me was to get the passport, as that would be of actual use when traveling in Europe. Also, I spend a fair amount of the year in Venice. The citizenship took a long time, but getting the passport was a piece of cake once the citizenship was obtained. We initially used a NYC address, as that is where my father was living at the time. They were absolutely not helpful. It is correct that you have to document that you live in the area served by a particular consulate. When there was no way that we were going to get anything out of NYC, we transferred everything to Texas, where we were living. The citizenship just comes in an envelope in the mail. It's all a matter of paperwork, with no consular visits required. The consulate is needed in order to get a passport. Once I had received the citizenship papers, I then called the Houston consulate, obtained an appointment, went there for a perfunctory 30 minute interview, and about 2-3 weeks after that appointment, I received the passport in the mail. I apologize for any confusion.

Perche - Thanks for the clarification but I am still confused. So we have all the paperwork - birth certificates, naturalization paperwork, death certificates, marriage licenses, etc. We also have apostilles and italian translations. The agency we have used said that we need an appointment at the consulate to present our documents and prove that we live in the jurisdiction for the Houston consulate. At the appointment, they confirm we are eligible for citizenship. Their website provides information about making appointments for citizenship.
So if I understand you correctly, we do not need an actual appointment at the consulate for this? If so, how do we get the paperwork to fill out and where do we mail it?

Citizenship
 

You definitely need to make an appointment with the consulate. No walk in's. I did not go to the consulate to obtain citizenship. The hard part was obtaining my grandfather's birth certificate from 1888 in a small town in Italy. Had to go there and get it. Then, had to get his marriage certificate in NYC but the church no longer existed. NYC didn't have a record because they misspelled his name when he was processed on Ellis Island. Finally, with that obtained, I had to submit papers to make my father a citizen. This was all done by mail. Once that was done, I submitted my papers, along with the proof that my father was a citizen. A few months later, I received a birth certificate in my name, from my grandfather's small town, even though I was born in NYC. There was no involvement with the Italian consulate to do this.

Perhaps that is something you could do with the help of the Houston consulate. I just did it by mail for my father, then myself, and once I became an Italian citizen, submitted paperwork to obtain citizenship for my wife and three children.

The citizenship is established when you receive an Italian birth certificate. I have my wife's at hand. It says, Comune di Calabrito, Provincia di Avellino, Certificato di Nascita. Then it gives her name and date of birth, and says, E' nata a El Paso - Stati Uniti D'America. Then it's dated, and says, Calabritto 17.02.2009. It's stamped and signed. So despite being born in Texas, she has an Italian birth certificate, as do I. A birth certificate is proof that you are an Italian citizen.

Once you have the birth certificate, you just take it to the consulate and it's no harder than getting a U.S. Passport. It took less than an hour to process my two sons and me, and we received the passports in the mail a few weeks later.

You may be going a different route than I did if you are going to the consulate for help in getting an Italian birth certificate - the document that makes you an Italian citizen. I didn't get involved with the consulate until I obtained my citizenship, and just had to obtain a European Union/Italy passport.

There are advantages, not just ease in getting through customs in Europe. I have a medical problem and need frequent blood tests. There's something that is sort of like a social security card that you can obtain as a citizen, and you can get free medical care. Sometimes I stay in Italy for several months, and I don't have to worry about getting a visa. I may take a job there, and citizenship is practically a requirement for work. It makes everything easier. And it's really an EU passport, so some benefits are valid across most of Europe.

Perche,

Thanks for the update. I knew that once we received the citizenship paperwork we would get an italian birth certificate, which we need to apply for the passport. What is confusing me is that you applied for citizenship without going to the consulate. Where did you find the paperwork to submit for citizenship?

I too would like to work in the EU or at least have the opportunity to stay as long as I want. Now if I can just secure citizenship!

Thanks for your comments!

citizenship
 

The only thing that we couldn't obtain by mail was my grandfather's birth certificate. For that, we had to go to Italy. The small town there just wouldn't respond. We had to go to NYC and dig around until we finally found the marriage certificate. Otherwise, it was all handled by mail. When we finally received the birth certificates we had our first encounter with the Consulate. There certainly may be other ways to do it. If the consulate is willing to help you with the birth certificate, that might be a good thing to accept.

Again, Thank you everyone for your information and encouragement.

I received my grandmothers BC from Alfadena (Thank you Alfadena) which has given me hope I will hear from S'Elia Fiumerapido. Palel I almost forgot about August - and you are correct: maybe in September.

EMB, the more I look at ICAP and their fees, the more convinced I am they are a extremely reasonable.

Perche Your hard work certainly paid off!