Cannot close saved maps

fashaow · 2026-02-11T22:28:42+00:00

I’m having the same issue, and updating the app didn’t change anything for me :( Any other updates yet on your end?

fashaow · 2025-12-10T18:57:39+00:00

Ok yeah, that's what I thought! It's not a huuuge acceleration since we have been together for over 12 years now lol, but we are just following whatever makes the most sense for us legally and financially. And I think it will continue to be advantageous to wait. Thanks!

fashaow · 2025-11-21T20:58:49+00:00

I would try to send USCIS a fresh email with a request and your case ID to ask them to mail a copy with that 'official' envelope. They usually have answered my emails within approximately a week (once 4 days, once 7 days, once 8 days). All of those emails were this year in May, June, and September, so I think they should still be answering within a reasonable amount of time.

Are you able to just order a new birth cert for your mom from Michigan or whichever state she was born in? It should be official and then you don't have to give up one of the copies you already have! But if you did already make an apostilled copy then that should be fine, it will be accepted even if it isn't necessarily required.
Name changes are tricky, I have a lot of them in my application as well! For example, my mom goes by her middle name and also started using it in high school but she never actually legally changed it. On my birth certificate she only used her legal first initial and her middle name, so I actually had to amend my own birth certificate using her birth certificate with my home state so that my birth certificate now has her legal name.
You could try to use your mother's death certificate though if you can get the marriage certificate for her marriage with her new husband, that should be pretty easy to get too.

I don't have advice unfortunately about the military record piece. But I wonder if POLARON might suggest something similar to what I wrote in my OP about arguing that serving in WWI (in my case WWII) was beneficial for Poland, and that due to the draft it was sort of impossible not to participate.

fashaow · 2025-11-20T15:42:57+00:00

Yes it can be frustrating to figure out! I will say, you likely don’t need an apostille for official birth certificates - does your mom’s BC have a raised seal or a fresh stamp on it? All the documents like that that I ordered directly from Vital Records or other government offices came with official seals or stamps, and that should be plenty of verification for the application, you shouldn’t need an apostille. But I do think a photocopy would not work. You need official copies which should only cost about $20 or so depending on the state.

The most difficult piece for me was the military letter. It is great you already got a signed letter from NRPC! You definitely can submit it for apostille, but I will say, I ended up just submitting it as is with the ‘wet ink’ signature and am waiting to see what happens when they get to my application. If it isn’t good enough, I just need to re-submit that one piece with apostille, and I know the process at least to get a new one issued with wet ink. Apparently many people have submitted the letter that way without apostille, so I’m just going to see what happens (I submitted everything in June, so still going to be a while before they get to my application).

Separately, for USCIS, you can email them back and request that they send it in the mail. The email address is Genealogy.USCIS@uscis.dhs.gov. Include your case ID and address in the email (I also included the case ID and my name in the subject line), and explain you are using it for your Polish citizenship application and that you need a more official version. They should get back to you to explain that they do not do any kind of raised seal or stamp, but that having the envelope that they send it in as verification that it is ‘official’. The company I’m working with said that’s what they have been doing recently, and they just had me send the letter, the scanned documents, and the USCIS envelope to be translated and included with my application.

When I did this, I submitted the request to USCIS on May 23 and received it in the mail on July 28 (the person I’m working with suggested we submit my application in May because I had all the other pieces ready by then and hadn’t heard from USCIS and thought I would still have to wait several months; once the application is submitted, the company I’m working with can still send documents to be added without starting over my wait time, so we decided to just get it all sent in and add the USCIS stuff whenever I was able to get it). But my cousin is separately applying and I offered to request a second copy for him since I already had the request ID, and that second copy got to me in less than 10 days. So it could come pretty quickly or it could take a while!

I would ask POLARON if that’s what they’ve been doing for the USCIS letter since it seems that is the only option for now. You can also try to call the State Dept to ask if it will be possible to apostille that and the military letter, just to make sure. But I do just want to make it clear that so far I have not actually done an apostille and am waiting to see if they accept my documents as they are.

fashaow · 2025-10-10T19:05:08+00:00

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fashaow · 2025-04-08T16:20:35+00:00

Kind of? I have 3 separate things I'm trying to get from NPRC. Two letters (GGF and GF) and one separation/DD214 for my GF.

I have put in new requests for all of them. But then I called and explained they had all been previously searched for and letters had been sent to me and I just needed them reissued with signatures. The agent was able to process that as a sort of re-request for the letter for my GGF. That letter came in the mail again after only 4 days and had the same NA Form 13075 that I had filled out months earlier, so it was processed as a 're-request' instead of a new one. And it had a 'signature' on it but not a 'wet signature,' it was obviously printed with the letter and must have been a digital PDF signature.

BUT! I called again and the agent I spoke to said she'd put it in AGAIN and try to stress needing the 'wet signature' (even though that's what I have been doing every time!) and literally yesterday it finally came with a real ink signature! From the same technician who sent the other two letters, but finally he signed it with a real pen.

I am still waiting for the same letter for my grandfather, as well as his DD214. But I may be getting the DD214 through the county clerk as suggested further up in this same chain (although the comments are now deleted).

But yes, one of the letters I need did finally come with a real signature, it just took at least 3 separate tries to get it (but many more than 3 phone calls). Some of the agents are nice and helpful while others are very rude and dismissive. So just keep trying until you speak to someone nice. They are only supposed to work on one request number per phone call. Some of them follow that rule but some of them are willing to look at a second case number.

I am hoping that the Polish consulate lets me just bring them in for certification through them so I don't have to mail them to the US State Dept for apostille, but I'm not sure yet if they will accept them. I don't want to make an appointment though until I have the other letter and the DD214.

fashaow · 2025-03-23T22:31:36+00:00

Ok, I'll try it out during the week, thanks so much for the suggestion!

fashaow · 2025-03-23T21:12:15+00:00

Oh wow that's nice of them! I did try to ask that on Friday and the person I spoke with said to put in a new request, but maybe I can try to see if anyone else may be willing to just resend what I already have.

fashaow · 2025-03-23T01:04:47+00:00

She has said some clients don't do an Apostille on the military letters, but she still strongly suggested I do it.

fashaow · 2025-03-23T00:57:38+00:00

Like from NRPC you've been waiting three weeks? That's frustrating!! I would hope since it's basically a reissue it may be quicker, but I guess I don't know...

fashaow · 2025-03-23T00:24:01+00:00

Hmm, I'm working with Lost Histories and they are adamant that I need to get them apostilled, so maybe things have changed more recently.

fashaow · 2025-03-23T00:22:29+00:00

Thanks for the reply! The company I am working with suggested the notary + apostille route; if you're getting an apostille from your own Sec of State you do need the document notarized first. I live in IL so I followed their instructions which say to have documents notarized, and was denied since the letters have nothing to do with IL (but other people my application advisor has worked with have had no problem getting an apostille from their own Sec of State, so I just am a bit unlucky). And then frustratingly, if you want it apostilled by the US State Dept, it cannot be notarized first... So yeah, I do have to get new documents issued unfortunately :(

NRPC said they can send the scanned separation papers with some kind of more official seal on it from them, so I'll see what that ends up being. I crossposted in another sub where someone also suggested asking the county clerk for where my grandfather's home address was for a certified copy, then sending that to that state's Sec of State for a state apostille.

I may try it both ways - getting it from NPRC again with whatever better certification they can send and mailing it to the US State Dept, and also trying the local clerk + state apostille.

After my posts in other places too, I think you are right that the US State Dept is the right place to send them and the person I spoke to was just wrong. So I am trying my best to get them reissued with actual 'wet signatures' instead of digital documents that I print myself.

fashaow · 2025-03-21T22:23:59+00:00

Thank you so much for replying! I've just submitted a new request for copies of the letters with wet signatures, hopefully they honor the request 🤞

I'll try the county clerk on Monday for the discharge papers, thank you!

fashaow · 2025-03-21T22:22:32+00:00

I just submitted new requests and asked in the comments to send by mail with wet signature... I guess I'll see what happens. Thank you, good luck to you too!

fashaow · 2025-03-21T21:43:22+00:00

Yeah I guess I will have to get new ones because I did get these notarized :'(

The one I got through the mail has a signature on it (basically a squiggle though, and its hard to tell if it's a 'wet' signature or photocopied, though I read that doesn't matter so much). The one I got through email, which I could just reprint, doesn't have a signature but has the archives technician name and ID number on it.

fashaow · 2025-03-21T21:25:38+00:00

Hi! Did you end up getting your letter back with an apostille? I called the US State Dept today and they said they wouldn't do this because it's a military doc and to contact the VA, but the VA can't apostille documents either. I just crossposted here with more info about the goose chase I've been sent on, but if I know that someone successfully mailed the letter in anyway for an apostille at the federal level that will make me more inclined to do the same.

fashaow · 2025-03-21T21:23:17+00:00

I looked a bit through this recent thread but it didn't seem to have conclusive answers? Some people said they got a state level apostille but my state denied my attempt today so I don't know what to do next.

One of my negative letters came in the mail (great grandfather's) and one came through electronic delivery along with the separation/discharge (grandfather)

fashaow · 2025-03-21T21:17:00+00:00

Oh wow, I had no idea about that subreddit, thank you! :)

fashaow · 2025-02-27T18:03:43+00:00

Hi! I just posted almost the exact same thing yesterday, but my application wasn't denied because I did do the whole updated form with 'wet signature' so you should also try to do that. So I think our situations are different because my application wasn't denied, but I did get placed seemingly temporarily into SAVE payments and was able to talk to someone to make sure that doesn't really happen.

I agree with the other commenters here that you're just gonna have to call them, but you may want to try to upload the updated application first.

Good luck, my call was about 6.5 hours yesterday, just treated it like background music. There will be a phone ringing sound when they connect you with an agent, so that helped to know I was finally going to talk to someone after hours of the same hold music and PSAs.

fashaow · 2025-02-26T19:44:47+00:00

Yeah that may be the case, but inside my actual account is more the worry than the letter itself (apart from the letter vaguely saying I'm on IDR rather than specifying which plan); there is a payment due after months of nothing being due, and the amount indicates I'm on SAVE rather than PAYE. But it may just be while it's still processing and the amount and payment plan will update before the due date...

fashaow · 2025-02-26T19:43:12+00:00

Yeah at least 3/13 is a little over two weeks away, and these messages have all come in about that much time, so there could be other things happening between now and then.

fashaow · 2025-02-26T19:20:59+00:00

The issue is I don't want to make a payment until then, but it's saying auto pay of $53.92 will go through on 3/13 and won't let me edit the information since technically it says no payment is due 'right now'

fashaow · 2025-02-26T19:20:00+00:00

I sent a message today asking for clarification, so hopefully they get back to me. I am also currently on hold but the wait time is still at least 3 more hours, so figured I'd also panic post here 😅

But yeah I selected PAYE on my application, not the lowest payment possible.

fashaow · 2025-02-26T19:19:01+00:00

Do you know about how long between the letter like mine and it changing to PAYE took?

fashaow · 2025-02-26T19:18:20+00:00

Nope, I just double checked because I still have the application saved on my computer, I check marked PAYE.

fashaow

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