If you haven't figured it out already, today we received the long awaited, much anticipated I-171H in the mail! This is our CIS immigration approval form. After five long weeks of daily stalking the mailbox it is finally here, woohoo!!!
Today we ran around like crazy getting documents notarized and then authenticated at the Secretary of State. We had to come back home and scan the documents and assemble our completed dossier. Finally, we rushed out of the house to make it to FedEx just a minute before they closed. Our dossier should be in Texas by 10:30 tomorrow morning! I'm just praying that our dossier is done correctly. This marks the end of our great paperchase and the beginning of our waiting for a referral, though we are not yet officially on the waiting list.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
Not an update
Sorry for the lack of posts lately! You will be glad to know you haven't missed anything, but stay tuned...
Hopefully I'll have more to post tomorrow :)
Hopefully I'll have more to post tomorrow :)
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Almost Waiting
We have been fingerprinted a total of 3 times now! Well, actually I've been printed 4 times because one of the cards came back unreadable after 5 weeks of waiting for clearance. This time (Monday) at the USCIS office we were fingerprinted digitally, which was really quite fascinating and hopefully will result in better prints. Although several of my fingers had to be redone numerous times.
Besides getting our fingerprints on Monday we went to the Secretary of State to have 14 of our documents authenticated. Authenticated means that the Secretary of State acknowledges that the notary who notarized the document is indeed a notary with an active commission. Wouldn't you know it, 4 of the documents had problems! The notaries had written their commission expiration wrong. All I can say is it's a good thing we did a trial run before we are in a hurry to get things done. We will go back to get the remaining documents authenticated once we receive the I-171H.
I don't have an accurate time estimate to receive the I-171H (immigration approval), but I'd like to say it should be around a month, give or take a bit. In the meantime we are busy tying up loose ends with our dossier. It's mostly complete. Besides the I-171H, we have to finish writing our letter to the Ethiopian officials stating why we want to adopt a child from Ethiopia. Every time I start this letter my mind goes blank and I have no idea where to even start. I have started writing this letter so many times. It is such an important thing and I don't want to mess it up. I've had since July to think about it and now it's really the last piece we need to finish.
Besides getting our fingerprints on Monday we went to the Secretary of State to have 14 of our documents authenticated. Authenticated means that the Secretary of State acknowledges that the notary who notarized the document is indeed a notary with an active commission. Wouldn't you know it, 4 of the documents had problems! The notaries had written their commission expiration wrong. All I can say is it's a good thing we did a trial run before we are in a hurry to get things done. We will go back to get the remaining documents authenticated once we receive the I-171H.
I don't have an accurate time estimate to receive the I-171H (immigration approval), but I'd like to say it should be around a month, give or take a bit. In the meantime we are busy tying up loose ends with our dossier. It's mostly complete. Besides the I-171H, we have to finish writing our letter to the Ethiopian officials stating why we want to adopt a child from Ethiopia. Every time I start this letter my mind goes blank and I have no idea where to even start. I have started writing this letter so many times. It is such an important thing and I don't want to mess it up. I've had since July to think about it and now it's really the last piece we need to finish.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Fingerprint Appointment
Wow that was quick. We just received our immigration fingerprinting appointment! It's only two weeks away! This may move faster than I thought...
Sunday, March 15, 2009
What's next?
I've been asked by several people what comes next. We are currently waiting on our immigration approval (the I-171H) which should take three months or so. Our homestudy had to be corrected and resubmitted to immigration last week so that set us back once again. We are now waiting to get our fingerprinting appointment with USCIS. Hopefully we won't have any more setbacks in obtaining our approval.
After we receive the I-171H we will take all of our dossier documents to the Secretary of State to be authenticated. Our completed dossier will then be rushed to Gladney and from there it will be sent on to the U.S. Dept of State to be authenticated and then to the Ethiopia Embassy for the final authentication. From the Embassy it will be forwarded to Ethiopia. Finally at this point we will be put on a waiting list for a referral of a child. Any questions?
After we receive the I-171H we will take all of our dossier documents to the Secretary of State to be authenticated. Our completed dossier will then be rushed to Gladney and from there it will be sent on to the U.S. Dept of State to be authenticated and then to the Ethiopia Embassy for the final authentication. From the Embassy it will be forwarded to Ethiopia. Finally at this point we will be put on a waiting list for a referral of a child. Any questions?
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Progress!
We are now officially Gladney approved! After what seems like forever, things are finally moving along. Homestudy done, I-600A complete, and Gladney approved!
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