u/JohnBrownLives1859

Hey y'all,

So my 7840U Mainboard on my F13 has always had an issue where it would crash under high loads, I didn't have the ability to go without a laptop/time to fix it while it was in warranty and so (stupidly) I ignored it as it didn't impact daily use. Framework said they won't replace parts outside of the one year warranty. Whatever, my bad.

Looking for advice with which board I should replace it with. I'd like to not take a dip in power, and ideally not need to buy something new anytime soon. Best bang for my buck is ideal.

Thanks.

Hey y'all,

I've finally submitted everything and thought I'd give a rundown on the process and whatnot for y'all. My situation is described below:

great-grandfather

• US Citizen by birth
• Deceased 1995

great-grandmother

• Born 1930 in Wiesbaden
• Married grandfather in Germany late 1951
• Naturalized US Citizen October 1955
• Deceased 2023

grandmother

• born 1950 out of wedlock in Wiesbaden to grandfather and grandmother
• Obtained US Citizenship on or before June 1952
• Married grandfather

grandfather

• US citizen by birth

father

• born in 1976 in United States, citizen of no other nations
• Lived abroad in Italy for 2 years with US Military

self

• Born 2005 in United States, citizen of no other nations

Obtaining Documents:

Once I realized I had a case, I went about searching for the documents I needed. I gathered that I needed the birth certificates and marriage certificates of everyone involved. This was a trivial matter for those not born in Germany. I only lacked the marriage certificate of my grandparents. This was a simple request of the state's vital records office. The fee was about $45 and took a week or two.

I had access to an ancestry.com account that had access to the records of petition of naturalization. I'm not entirely sure if this is totally necessary, but I did get a copy of it from the national archives. I think the fee was $50? It arrived promptly and the staff was very helpful.

German Documents:

I needed:

- Birth Certificate of Grandmother
- Marriage Certificate of Great Grandparents
- Birth Certificate of Great Grandmother
- Birth Certificate of Great Great Grandfather
- Marriage Certificate of Great Great Grandparents

I was told that I needed the records of my Great Great grandparents to establish German citizenship of everyone else down the line, as they were born in Germany pre-1913. This would later prove unnecessary, as my great grandmother is listed as "Deutsch" on her marriage certificate. These were records older than 100 years, and so publicly available at the Hessian Archives. I emailed asking for a certified copy, and received a response from them within a week. I wired them 34.75 euros for the copies and they arrived within 2 weeks.

The records of my great grandmother and grandmother aren't publicly available yet. So I requested records from the Standesamt. They had a simple page to request records, although I had some confusion with it the first few times. This is due to my lack of speaking German. Eventually however, I was able to request all of the documents I needed from them. At a total cost of around 60 Euros. There was some trouble with 2 of them, that required me to email them and ask for them to be sent again, but they responded within a week.

Background Checks

My cousin who lives in another state joined in on our application, so on a visit to see that side of the family, everyone applying went to a USPS office to get fingerprinted and submit the FBI background checks. The process was fairly painless, although somewhat expensive. $50 per set of prints and $18 for the background check itself. This accounts for nearly half of the total cost.

My father spent some time abroad with the US Military. I was at a loss for how to prove good standing for his time in Italy, and especially Iraq, so with his application I included his DD214 to attest to his good standing.

Consulate Appointment

I was somewhat familiar with the area by the Atlanta Consulate and so wasn't super worried about getting around. Found on street parking for $6. Upon entering tower two of the Marriott Marquis, I asked the receptionist for the German Consulate and she told me the 9th floor. The receptionist/guard in the Consulate took my cell phone and smart watch and put it in a locked box. I then waited for a few minutes and spoke with the consular agent(idk what to call her) at her desk. This was behind a glass wall with a microphone and speaker. So if you're slightly hard of hearing (like me) just be prepared to ask people to repeat themselves lol.

The process was fairly straight forward. I had everything sorted by each applicant and things that needed certified copies by the consulate. Her assistant took the copies and she looked over each application. Everything seemed in order so I gave them the copies, got my originals and headed home. Whole thing took maybe 20 minutes.

I was slightly worried that it would be awkward, as my sense of humor doesn't tend to match European sensibilities haha, but the lady was very nice and very kind and we had some nice small talk about university and sports.

Total Cost

This is a rough estimate, but I think this cost me about $350-$400 in total. If we include the tank of gas it took me to get to the consulate then it increases by $50. All in all I think it's very doable to do this on your own, and you shouldn't pay $10,000 for someone to do this for you. Maybe if I was a very busy person I'd pay $1000 to do it. It was actually somewhat fun. I felt like a private investigator.

From learning about this to application submission it took me 3 months to track down all the documents. This was mostly waiting for German bureaucrats to answer my emails.

Closing Thoughts:

Thank y'all for reading. Thanks to everyone who answered all my silly little questions on this subreddit, especially /u/Football_and_beer, /u/dentongentry, and u/staplehill for their help and resources. Now I begin the long wait.

Hey y'all, finally have everything together (I hope), my situation is described below:

great-grandfather

• US Citizen by birth
• Deceased 1995

great-grandmother

• Born 1930 in Wiesbaden
• Married grandfather in Germany late 1951
• Naturalized US Citizen October 1955
• Deceased 2023

grandmother

• born 1950 out of wedlock in Wiesbaden to grandfather and grandmother
• Obtained US Citizenship on or before June 1952
• Married father

grandfather

• US citizen by birth

father

• born in 1976 in United States, citizen of no other nations
• Lived abroad in Italy for 2 years with US Military

self

• Born 2005 in United States, citizen of no other nations

Applicants:
Father, self, sister, cousin (same standing as myself and sister)

Here are the documents I have obtained (or will obtain shortly):

- Great great grandfather's birth certificate (father of my great grandmother)
- Great great grandparents marriage certificate
- Great grandmother's birth certificate
- Marriage certificate of great grandparents
- Great Grandmother's Petition of Naturalization
- Grandmother's birth certificate
- Grandparents' marriage license
- Father's birth certificate
- DD-214 showing clear discharge of my Father (hoping this will be sufficient for "Good Standing" during his time abroad)
- Parents' marriage license
- My birth certificate
- Sister's birth certificate
- Marriage licenses of cousin's parents
- Birth certificates of cousin
- FBI Rap Sheet on all applicants

Does anyone see anything missing?

Somewhat convoluted question but here goes:

I have an appointment in ~2.5 weeks at the German Consulate local to me, I'm currently missing 2 documents that should be in the mail, however I'm beginning to think they've been lost. Of course the Standesamt where I ordered them isn't responding to my request to send them again. However, in earlier correspondence they did send me an email with a scan of the documents.

Assuming they don't arrive in time, would it be possible for the Consular authorities so read the email I received and attest to the veracity of the documents? I'd print them there and send them to the BVA.

Failing this I'd just send the missing documents in after I receive my reference number yes?