I've been diligently collecting the documents I need for Italian Citizenship since January. One of the members here, suanj, helped me obtain my great grandparents' birth and marriage certificates from Italy. They arrived far quicker than I expected, and everything seemed to be going well.
The problem I have is New York State refuses to give me, or even my father, my grandmother's birth certificate, and my great grandparents' death certificates. Even worse, the name on my grandmother's birth certificate is entirely wrong.
I visited a lawyer today. The lawyer told me that she'd be able to force the city of New Rochelle to give me the documents through a court order. However, she said it would be extremely unlikely that NYS will allow a change in my grandmother's birth certificate - even when the name is spelled correctly on her death certificate. And to top it all off, the order and the lawyer's time amounts to $1,800 dollars!
I'm really worried that even if I get the certificates, the embassy will have a problem with the gross mis-spelling of my grandmother's name. It makes me very upset that the state can make a mistake in the spelling on the birth certificate, for reasons I can only imagine to be negligence on their part because my great grandfather did not speak English, and was probably illiterate. Why should they care how to spell a poor immigrant's child's name? And now her own son, my dad, can't get her birth certificate? They're using "September 11th" as an excuse - even with the burden of proof entirely in my favor, giving me a birth certificate from 1911 is a security risk? Nonsense.
I don't know what to do with myself. Has anyone had any experience with mis-spellings? Would a simple attached affidavit as to the correct spelling be enough for the NY Italian consulate? If I spend 1800 dollars for nothing, I'll be at my wits end.