Preparing for my naturalisation request

I initially wanted to do one post summarizing the entire process, but I'll forget things by the time everything is done in a few months, so I'm starting with a "preparation" post.

First off,

I went to the Préfecture before I went back to work at the University to get the application form. They actually had it scanned online as well as the list of accompanying documents, but I had a couple questions so I went to the Préfecture.

One of my questions was which documents would need an Apostille. The guy looked it up and said that the "état civil" documents (birth certificates, marriage certificates) don't need an Apostille, but my background check from the FBI would.

My own birth certificate, that of my husbands, and our marriage certificate must be less than 3 months old when I hand in my request, so I decided to start with requesting American documents because they would take the longest.

I looked up online how to request my dad's birth certificate from Illinois and my mom's birth certificate plus my parents' marriage certificate from California.

Most of the time County Clerks say you must include a self-addressed stamped envelope. Since I can't buy American stamps from France I ordered international reply coupons from the La Poste website (they aren't sold in post offices anymore). They arrived in 4-5 days.

Then I mailed off my request for my dad's birth certificate, but about 2 1/2 weeks later it was returned to me because they didn't accept a personal check (written from my American bank account) that was not from the person who's record was being ordered. "Please send a money order." So I was off to the post office to buy an international money order. I didn't understand the guy when he explained how it worked, so I waited for the money order to be delivered to me before sending off the form again. After 2 weeks I realized that the money order was sent directly to Illinois so I sent off my form. Hopefully they will be able to match up my form and the money order (no news for the moment and it's impossible to get a real human being on the phone).

For the California records, things were different. In order to request birth, death, or marriage records by mail, you must get a piece of paper notarized that says you are related to the person and have the right to request the document. I made an appointment at the American Consular post here in Toulouse, had a 15 minute appointment where the nice Consul used a fancy embossing stamp on my piece of paper, and paid $100 (80€) for my two pieces of paper. The marriage certificate has arrived, so I assume the birth record will follow.

I'll save the story of my FBI background check for another post!