I wanted to make this a section although I don't have anything to say about it. I made my appointment April of 2019 and it was scheduled for Jan 31, 2022. I knew I had a 3 year wait to get all of my documents together. As the date grew closer, about April of 2021, I was thinking of planning my trip. I lived in Phoenix at the time and was going to fly to LA, rent a car, get to the consulate and then that afternoon fly back to Phoenix. What a waste of gas!
At that time we were also well into, I don't know the 3rd COVID wave, I really thought "Epsilon" would follow "Delta" instead of "Omnicron" - who knows. Anyhow, California was still rolling shut-downs through the state so I was getting a bit worried. I continued to plan on masking up and heading out there anyway. Around June 2021, I think I got incredibly lucky. Around the same time I heard that the LA consulate was cancelling people's appointments and not allowing any more new citizenship appointments. I also got an email stating that due to the pandemic, I was able to mail in my application if everything was ready to go; six months early!
Luckily, my application was ready except for one document, my GGM birth certificate. I was able to obtain that document and the apostille and translation in about 4 days from Illinois. I got the money order for the consulate fee, put that in the clear flap in the front of the binder, put it in a USPS priority medium box and sent it off the morning after getting that last apostille back.
I received an email about a week later from the consulate informing me that they received my application. This was worrisome because I knew USPS delivered it the next day from mailing it. I did have a week of wondering if someone stole it and wondered of the scenarios that would allow that to happen. Anyhow, I was relieved.
January 2022 rolls around and I had a pending question. Do I still need to go to my appointment? Logic says no, why would I need to mail it in and go to the appointment. But I never was told not to go. I sent an email to the consulate just to make sure. They very politely told me that my application is pending, they will get back to me, and not to send any other requests. I wound up not going and I think that was probably the right way to go.
June 2022 I get the email stating that my application has been processed and they will send information to Sant'Arsenio for my registration of my Birth Certificate and AIRE. I understand that this may also take about six months to complete. I'll update this page when I hear the next chunk of information.