1 week away from Philly appointment - status update

[caridimondo]

Buon giorno tutti,

My appointment at the Philly consulate is next Thursday March 1 so I figured I'd give a quick status. I am applying through GGF-GM-M (my mother was born in 1956). I took off work today to get the remaining birth certs from Harrisburg because the Philly Vital Records office was completely incompetent and never mailed me the docs I requested back in December. I figured I'd go to Harrisburg so I could obtain the apostilles the same day.

All the documents check out except for my mother's birth cert - her mother's maiden name is listed as "Lafirta" when it should be Lafiata. My Nonna's birth/marriage certs and her father's death cert are ALL correct, but I still have to get this fixed before next week...getting quite nervous!

I sent the other documents to Gabriella Einaga for translation but I haven't received any updates from her in the past 2 weeks so I have no idea what the status is. I might have to send them to someone else if I don't hear back from her in the next day. I am also thinking of doing the birth certs myself because they're pretty simple and all of them are identical aside from names/dates/birth places. Do translators usually use Word or do they get down to the details and Photoshop the translated text over the photocopied documents?

Thanks in advance for any advice, and thank you to everyone that has helped me so far! This site and Expats are amazing resources and I wouldn't have gotten this far without them.

A presto,
Tom

[JJ313]

I saw posted that she was in Italy for a few weeks and was slow to respond to emails. I did the translations myself using templates (in word) that were posted on italiancitizenship.freeforums.org (look in the Templates forum)

Don't worry about getting everything fixed before your appointment. If you can get it done great. If not you can always submit the one or two items either by mail or dropping them off.

Good luck on Thursday!

[caridimondo]

Thanks! I've never read any negative feedback on her so I'm pretty confident she'll have my documents ready before my appointment. Thanks for sharing the link, I'll do some research. I should be able to handle the birth certs at least. My mother went to Harrisburg and got her birth cert fixed, so I should be in good shape.

I'll post a recap after Thursday..

[garypeg]

You have to get the translations certified as correct at the consulate with jurisdiction. Sounds like all of your US docs came from PA. You can get them done after your appointment. My translator has been slow to reply often as well. My appointment is March 20th.

[caridimondo]

I received the translations last night with Gabriella's certification. I spoke with someone at the consulate and they said any professional translator will do, and after reviewing it looks like Gabriella did a thorough job aside from some words that were illegible in the documents (all pertinent info is clear though - names, birth dates, etc). I'm just glad I got everything organized in the nick of time!

[garypeg]

Not her certification, you need them from the consulate having jurisdiction. For ex I have to have the consulate in Houston certify that the translation of my marriage cert is accurate as I was married in Dallas. It's a new requirement.

[caridimondo]

Oh ok - then I should be fine since all of my documents are from PA and I am applying through the Philly consulate.