Certified for non italian side?Do documents come back?

[buzzinrizza]

A couple of questions about obtaining dual citizenship. First, do documents such as Birth Certificates etc. need to be certified copies with apostilles for a side(maternal in my case) that Does NOT carry the Italian bloodline? I have almost all of my documents together and have hit a roadblock (oddly enough) in Maryland. They don't seem to give birth certificates to anyone but a select few, all of of which are deceased. Maryland has both my grandmother's(non Italian) birth certificate as well as my grandparents marriage cert. Which sounds like it should be easier to obtain. I do have her original birth certificate which of course should work, but I am afraid of never seeing it again. Which leads me to my second question. Has anyone that has gone through with the whole process gotten any of their documents back? FYI -I will be dealing with the San Fransico Consulate if that makes any difference. Thanks for any help.Justin

[mler]

The consulate does make a difference. Some (like NY) require documents from only the direct line. I believe Chicago requires documents from both lines. You should be able to find this information on the consulate website. (I'm having a bit of a problem w/my computer and am unable to download it at this time.)

Unfortunately, documents are not returned. The only original the consular officer returned to me was my grandfather's Italian birth certificate. He needed to see the certified copy of the original but kept only a copy. He did, however keep both the original and one copy of all the other documents.