The Next Hurdle - USCIS

This one I'm super frustrated with right now but I will still try and make it a positive post.

If you're in a hurry you will want to get your paperwork in to USCIS ASAP.  Hum...what other acronyms can I think of??  As with everything else, check with Elliana before you actually send it in!  Your completed homestudy is part of what you send to them, but you can send in everything else while you wait for that to be completed and then send it in on it's own.  You can get the information on what to send and where to send it on their website. 

Be aware you will have to send in a check.  We sent in a personal check for the entire amount and it was just fine.  We paid $670 + $80 + $80 for a total of $830.  It was $670 for the filing fee and then an $80 fingerprinting fee for each person living in your home over the age of 19.  Check the website for exact information since fees tend to go up without notice and it will slow things down if you send in the wrong amount.

One thing we were unclear on was if we had to send in copies of our passports.  Since we'd gotten them ordered when we were doing our homestudy we sent them as well, but have also been told by other people (not USCIS though) that it wasn't necessary.  Since I believe we were the only ones to send them in, I would say it's a safe bet to not worry about it.  HOWEVER, you will need copies of your passports for the dossier so if you haven't already done it, get those on their way!  By advised that you have to send in an original birth certificate with your paperwork.  They do send it back when they send your passport but if you need to be ordering a copy before you get passports, then do that right away.

Once you send everything in you wait for a conformation letter saying they got your paperwork.  Then you wait some more for another letter (one for each person getting fingerprinted actually) with your fingerprint appointment.  Again, if you are in a hurry I would do everything you can to keep that appointment when it comes.  If you have to change it you do it in writing and they send you another appointment in the mail, thereby taking more time.  Once you get to your appointment they fingerprint you just as you did for the homestudy and it's out of your hands.

Since this is a journal of sorts for our adventure with this whole thing I hope you will indulge me in sharing our experience as well.  We sent in our paperwork the end of September.  We had our homestudy done by then so we just sent everything in at once.  After arriving home from a little trip to see my grandma we found our paperwork had been sent back.  They had just barely redone the form you fill out and we'd filled out the old one.  We sent our newly redone form and the rest of the paperwork back in the 4th of October.  Eventually we got our fingerprint appointments for the 8th of November, the day the kids flew back to Ukraine.  We found out later that we'd actually been pre-approved on the 17th of October, pending our fingerprints.

We made an appointment for the 9th with another office in town (different than the place we got fingerprinted) to speak to someone in order to hurry things along.  We got down there and were told they no longer handle adoptions and to call the number at the bottom of our confirmation letter.  It was a waste of time, but luckily it was only the waste of about an hour, including travel time.  Once we got home and called the number we found that they should have our fingerprint information the next day and she would send out our coveted I-171H form that day.  We called her the next day and sure enough, she was sending out our paper.

Here is the catch though.  She asked if we wanted an emailed copy since we were in a hurry.  We told her no and are very much regretting it right now.  That paper is the ONLY thing we're waiting on to send this stuff over to Ukraine (our dossier is now finished except for that paper) and we were told we probably could have used the emailed copy.  Because it didn't come in the mail today we can't get our paperwork submitted into the SDA (Ukraine's adoption place) this next Tuesday and we have to wait until the following Tuesday, which is cutting it too close for comfort.  If it's not in that day then we have to wait until February to submit it as the SDA doesn't accept new adoption petitions from December 1st through January 31st.  There is no guarantee that the emailed copy would have been accepted, but still.  I wish we could have tried.  Ah well, it is what it is. :^)

Next up, the dossier....