Diego Zanatta

Review of Consulate General of Italy - N...

I used the Consulate's services to renew my passpo...

I used the Consulate's services to renew my passport.
Although the instructions on the website are not always direct and well organized, I was able to find everything with no need to contact them.
Having prepared long in advance, I was able to get an appointment at a convenient time. The reservation process itself is kind of lengthy and requires several steps, but if you follow the instructions carefully there are no hick-ups (at least for me).
The wait on the day of my appointment was longer than I expected, but all in all not terrible (maybe one hour in total). Personnel were nice and accommodating, processing time was one week but they offered to hold the application for a couple of weeks and have the new passport validity start the day after my current passport expired - allowing me to travel to Canada for work with my old passport up to a couple of days before it expired.

Only "bad" experience was with the photo.
There is a photo booth inside the consulate, which is fairly new and offers the possibility to pick among 3 or 4 shots before printing (Cost: $5).
Unfortunately, the position of the seat in the booth was such that my face appeared too big and would not fit in the required form field. I had to retake the photo 3 times, with the last time basically pushing myself to the back of the booth so make sure I was far enough from the camera.
Not sure if there is a way to show on the screen a field in which the face needs to fall within, but this would be the way to make the experience perfect!