And there was much rejoicing.
We got our USCIS paper today!!!!!! We got it notarized, faxed to Ellie, approved and up to the capitol to apostille. So close. So close and then it's out of our hands. :^)
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The Last Step - The Dossier
Once you've got your USCIS approval (and sometimes before) then you get to start working on your dossier. There is a checklist of 13 documents you need to gather/fill out/get copied. We got the information on it last week Wednesday and finished ours up on Monday so it really isn't too bad. Granted, we did work on it full time until we were done but again, after the homestudy this honestly seemed easy.
Once you have everything gathered/filled out you need to take them to get notarized. We had almost all of our documents ready and took them in at one time. The fewer notaries you have the better, but don't stress too much about it. There are a couple of things that you need to get notarized copies of and for those we took in the originals and had the notary make the copy. We actually had quite a few questions throughout the process and called Ellie 4 or 5 times while we were sitting there with the notary. :^)
As we got things notarized we faxed them to Ellie for the "Okay." Once she had reviewed them she told us they were ready for the next step. At this point she also takes each document she's okay-ed and sends them off to her translator since everything has to be in Ukrainian.
Once everything is ready and notarized, you take it to the State Capitol building to get it apostilled. Never heard of that? Neither had I. I've been told that it's basically a notary for international documents. What they do is check the notary you have on each document and then attach their official paper to it. It costs $15 per document, unless you're in a hurry. Then it's $40/document to have it the next business day and $65/document to have it within 2 hours. That's a little pricey when you have 22 documents to get done (there are some you need 2 or 3 copies of.) We dropped off ours on Monday night and had the Wednesday morning so unless you REALLY need them right away I'd stick with the $15/document. Keep in mind government offices are closed on Fridays.
Once you have everything back from the capitol you have to make 2 copies of everything, one for Ellie and one for your records. Then it's time to Fed Ex everything off. Normally you'll send it to Ellie and then she'll keep her copy and send the rest off to Ukraine. In our case, since we were trying to get our stuff there (minus that darn USCIS paper) in a hurry, we bypassed her and sent it straight to Ukraine. Once we get our I-171H we'll get a notarized copy of that, take it to get apostilled, copy it, and then send Ellie our copies of everything.
The problem is that you can't really start working on this early. The USCIS paper is good for 18 months, but the dossier is only good for 6 months. That means you have to be fairly close to going over there before you can start on everything. Check with Ellie before you start on it. That being said, here is the list. Just know that it only gives you an idea of what you need to do. Most of these documents you'll get from her.
Once you have everything gathered/filled out you need to take them to get notarized. We had almost all of our documents ready and took them in at one time. The fewer notaries you have the better, but don't stress too much about it. There are a couple of things that you need to get notarized copies of and for those we took in the originals and had the notary make the copy. We actually had quite a few questions throughout the process and called Ellie 4 or 5 times while we were sitting there with the notary. :^)
As we got things notarized we faxed them to Ellie for the "Okay." Once she had reviewed them she told us they were ready for the next step. At this point she also takes each document she's okay-ed and sends them off to her translator since everything has to be in Ukrainian.
Once everything is ready and notarized, you take it to the State Capitol building to get it apostilled. Never heard of that? Neither had I. I've been told that it's basically a notary for international documents. What they do is check the notary you have on each document and then attach their official paper to it. It costs $15 per document, unless you're in a hurry. Then it's $40/document to have it the next business day and $65/document to have it within 2 hours. That's a little pricey when you have 22 documents to get done (there are some you need 2 or 3 copies of.) We dropped off ours on Monday night and had the Wednesday morning so unless you REALLY need them right away I'd stick with the $15/document. Keep in mind government offices are closed on Fridays.
Once you have everything back from the capitol you have to make 2 copies of everything, one for Ellie and one for your records. Then it's time to Fed Ex everything off. Normally you'll send it to Ellie and then she'll keep her copy and send the rest off to Ukraine. In our case, since we were trying to get our stuff there (minus that darn USCIS paper) in a hurry, we bypassed her and sent it straight to Ukraine. Once we get our I-171H we'll get a notarized copy of that, take it to get apostilled, copy it, and then send Ellie our copies of everything.
The problem is that you can't really start working on this early. The USCIS paper is good for 18 months, but the dossier is only good for 6 months. That means you have to be fairly close to going over there before you can start on everything. Check with Ellie before you start on it. That being said, here is the list. Just know that it only gives you an idea of what you need to do. Most of these documents you'll get from her.
- Homestudy
- I-171H form
- Proof of income
- No criminal records
- Marriage licence (You need the licence, not the certificate like the checklist says. This we got from the county in which we originally got our licence. You need 2 copies. Only cost $5/each.)
- Medical statement forms (If you're in a hurry and it's a few days before you can get in to the dr. then go ahead and get your blood drawn ahead of time so the results are back by the time you go in for the physical. You need an HIV test and a syphilis test. We made sure the dr. had a notary there as well as had them fax the paper to Ellie to make sure it was filled out correctly before we left the office.)
- Letter of obligation form
- Petition for adoption form and addition/specific child form if you're wanting to specify a particular child.
- Power of attorney forms
- Assessor's paper (again, we got this from the county)
- Copies of our passports
- Permission for Interpol clearance
- Post-placement agreement (notarized only, not apostilled)
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