Almost there!

We just completed the last bits of paperwork and Fedex'd it to Kate.  It included our IHNFA application in both English and Spanish, our USCIS approval letter with notarized paperwork, notarized Power of Attorney letter, which gives our attorney permission to present our dossier in Honduras, and a letter to be sent to the U.S. Department of State requesting that Dave's birth certificate be apostilled.  We needed this letter because he was born in Panama and has an international birth certificate.  I emailed Kate a picture of Dave and myself which will be attached to our IHNFA application....I guess because the 40 pictures we have to submit aren't enough.

So now we sit and wait to see if we need to do anything else for the apostilles.  Once that is completed, Kate will put our dossier together, send us a CD of it, mail it to Gladney for review, then they will send it to us so that we have it in hand when we go to the Consulate.  I don't think this process should take too long but the entire East Coast is essentially paralyzed right now due to hurricane Irene, which we will experience tomorrow, so who knows what that means for shipping.  Hopefully there won't be too much of a hold up.  Dave is on vacation next week and it would be fabulous if we could get down to NYC so that we could get our Consulate letter then, but I am not expecting everything to be ready for us next week.

As far as tomorrow's weather is concerned, hopefully Irene will be downgraded to a tropical storm, we don't lose power and our region experiences little damage.

WE GOT IT, WE GOT IT!!!!!

 Wow Wow Wow!!!


"USCIS would like to congratulate you on your Form I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition, approval and for completing the first step in the adoption immigration process."


That's right.....we received our USCIS approval letter today!!  I can't believe how quickly it was completed!  I can't believe this!  Our dossier should be completed with the apostille process early next week.

I hope others get their approvals quickly...hopefully the have sped things up for everyone!

Here is our timeline:

7/25 - USCIS received I-600A
8/6 - received fingerprint appointment card for 8/22
8/12 - went in early for fingerprints
8/26 - APPROVAL!

I am just in shock right now.....31 days!! I was expecting a much longer wait!

Waiting for approval

Our dossier has been apostilled!  The only documents left are our State Police criminal clearance letters, which should be done within the next few days.  We have to just sit and wait right now for THE letter to arrive.  The one that all international adoptive parents wait for impatiently...and Dave and I are no different!  We just want our USCIS approval letter in our hands to make this official!  I can't believe that we are finally to this point!  It seemed like we never would be here because we were so overwhelmed with the paperwork that seemed never ending.  Now it is done!  I'm sure Honduras will request additional information though because it seems like they have with most, if not all families with dossiers in country, so we don't expect to be any different.   

Let's keep our fingers crossed that our USCIS approval letter will arrive sooner than the quoted 75 day timeframe!

Dossier nearly completed!

I called USCIS this morning to check on the name issue, and the woman said that my name is correct on the important document, but she would also note that I called to make sure my middle name is right on everything.  She also said that we have not been assigned an agent yet, but I didn't think we would because we just had our biometrics done on Friday.  We can call anytime to check on the status of our application, so I'll give it a few weeks and call back for an update.  Thank goodness that the name issue was not a huge deal!

Dave mailed the final parts of our dossier off to Kate (dossier service) yesterday!!  I only have two more things to do and that is email 3 additional pictures to Kate that are required for our dossier, and also email her our IHNFA application questions.  These two things will be taken care of today.  She will then review and make sure we have done everything...dotted every single 'I' and crossed every 'T' and then our entire dossier will be sent to the State Capitol for it to be apostilled!  My friend Katie, who is adopting from Russia has already had some of her documents apostilled and she said that it took about 2 days be completed.  Then we sit and wait for our USCIS approval letter.  Finally, after working on our dossier for 5 months, it is nearly complete!  That is until things expire while they are in Honduras and we have to redo several documents AGAIN in between the two trips...... 

USCIS fingerprints done!

We went in early to our local Department of Homeland Security office to see if they would do our biometrics (fancy word for fingerprints) earlier than our appointment date of August 22nd.  They did!  The woman who did our fingerprints said that it won't make the adoption process move any faster, even though so many adoptive parents think it will.  The frustrating thing is that she said she will have our clearances TOMORROW, but because everything is now centralized, we need to wait for that office to process everything.  Ugh.....so basically, our clearances could sit there for the next 2.5 months before we get our approval letter.  Let's hope that we get our letter of approval before then!

I mentioned the middle name issue, and I was told to write a letter to USCIS and the woman who did our prints gave me some contact info to follow up with.  She made the changes to my file and had her boss sign off on it, so basically I need to make sure everything has been corrected.  If my approval comes up under my incorrect name, it will be a pain to fix. 

So, I will make those phone calls, write that letter and then cross my fingers that everything regarding my name will be fine.  We hope that our I-600A approval letter will be in our hands very soon!!!!

USCIS appointment

We received our appointment card from USCIS to get our fingerprints done for them.  The date is August 22nd, but we are going to try to go in tomorrow and see if they will do it early.  The thing that may be an issue is that my card has my birth middle name (Kristin), not my current one (I moved my maiden name to my middle) and dropping Kristin altogether.  Well, when we received the letter from USCIS stating that they are processing our I-600A petition, my name was correct on that.  Now it is incorrect on the appointment card, so someone messed up somewhere.  I just hope that this isn't a pain in the rear to get it fixed.  I plan on bringing my passport and birth certificate with me tomorrow and hope that they can make the correction right there.

On another note, the only thing left to get for our dossier is our bank letter, which states that our accounts are in good standing, as well the balance.  I just have to mail that letter, our updated medical forms, email a few more pictures to Kate (dossier service), our IHNFA application.  Then our dossier will be sent off to be apostilled while we wait for our USCIS approval to adopt a child.  Then we go to the Honduran Consulate and then everything is off to Honduras!  It seems like a lot written out, but it's nothing!

IHNFA stands for Instituto Hondureño de la Niñez y la Familia.  It's sort of like Social Services here in the States.  It's a social welfare agency charged by the Honduran government with overseeing local and international adoptions.

Let's hope there are no problems with the name issue tomorrow!

Fingerprints!

It appears that our dossier is close to being done!  We should have all the remaining documents completed within the next 2 weeks!

We got a second set of prints for our State Police letters because the current ones expire too close to when everything will be headed to Honduras.  This time I got a few pictures of us being printed at the County Jail:

 Not many people smile at the fact they were fingerprinted:

It would probably be okay, but I'm not taking any chances!  Speaking of fingerprints, we are now waiting for our appointment date from USCIS, and hope we will get that soon.  We have been told it will take between 50-75 days to receive their approval, but I've recently heard of a few people who have received theirs in less than a month and half!  Hopefully that will be the case with us.  Once we are approved through USCIS, we head to the Honduran Consulate in New York City, get their "stamp of approval", and then our dossier will finally be off to Honduras! It's exciting to think that this will be happening very shortly!