My legal battle
For the last decade I’ve been collecting all the documents I need to claim US Citizenship by birth abroad to one US Citizen parent. My father was American, but was adamant that none of his children would be. During his lifetime he refused to sign the affidavit that would have made the process a hell of a lot more difficult. I really don’t blame him for that – I know he meant well, but a second passport is always handy.
I have mountains of paperwork: certificates, records, transcripts and so forth. Some were very hard to obtain, others are old and fragile so I’ve decided to preserve them in page protectors. It also makes life easier for the people at the consulate. I want the process to be as quick and simple as possible, so I’ve organized all the papers with an index and a covering letter. The plastic sheets make it easy to flip through and reference.
Those plastic sheets are very easy to find for 8.5” by 11” paper, but many of my documents are legal size. I go to all the office supply stores looking for legal page protectors and the only place that has them is Staples. They come in packages of 50 for $20. I only need about 20, so this is very annoying. The binder for it costs $15 and with tax they cost $40!
I hate legal size paper and all the drama that comes along with it…
Ouch! That is expensive. I also need to do some filing but files for my cabinet are so darn expensive. Grrr office supplies!