Are Dual Citizenship Record Requests Slowing Down in 2025?

Before You Apostille: Why U.S. Bureaucratic Delays Could Derail Your Citizenship Claim

When you’ve been waiting 297 business days, and the guy at USCIS says, ‘Have you tried checking the website?’

Most Americans think authoritarianism announces itself with boots on the ground, sirens, fire, and viral clips of violence. But sometimes, it arrives quietly: in delays, in silence, in the passive refusal of a bureaucrat to hit "reply."

This may be the real impact of widespread bureaucratic dismissals.

Last week, I got an update from Portaleitaly, the firm helping me navigate my jure sanguinis claim for Italian citizenship. They’re waiting on a routine records search from the Philadelphia Archives—a simple request to confirm whether or not my ancestor ever naturalized as a U.S. citizen. It’s an inquiry that typically turns around in a few weeks.

But they’ve heard nothing. No update. No denial. No confirmation. Just the sound of nothing.

The stakes? Without that confirmation—or lack thereof—we can’t proceed to the next step: requesting the official C-file from USCIS. And without that, the case could stall.

I asked about this when I first hired the team. I asked if they had seen any slowdowns. This was just before the change in Administration. They said no, everything was working great.

Now, crickets.

I may be jaded, but the geo-political risk thinker in me goes, “This isn’t a glitch.”

It’s likely a trend.

(For free subscribers - If you’re pursuing dual citizenship, building an escape plan, or watching for signs that the exits are quietly closing—this is the pattern you can’t afford to miss. The rest of this post unpacks what’s happening inside USCIS and NARA, which countries are at risk, and what I may have to do if the U.S. won’t release the records. For paid subscribers.)