One particularly critical piece of documentation I need for dual Italian citizenship is my great-grandfather Angelo Palmeri's naturalization record.
In order to qualify for Italian citizenship, my grandfather must have been born before my great-grandfather became naturalized.
I need a statement from homeland security showing his full name, place of birth and date of birth, date of the naturalization, certificate number (or, if a legal alien, his permanent resident card number). Before ordering this record, I had found my great-grandfather's birthdate when I found his Social Security Death Index record on ancestry.com.
My first filed attempt was a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Apparently, since 2008, naturalization records are no longer access via FOIA. So my request by email and fax was rejected.
Instead, I submitted an online request through the Genealogy Program website at http://www.uscis.gov/genealogy. Requests can also be mailed to USCIS Genealogy Program, PO Box 805925, Chicago, IL 60680-4120.
It took a few clicks to find the right place on the web site. First, I clicked on "Make a Genealogy Request" along the left hand side. "Order Online Now" appeared on the right hand side. Apparently, this is a two step process. First, for $20, you need to do an Index Search Request. If that returns a match, for $35 you need to do a Record Request.
We'll see how long it takes to get a result of the index search.