Tuesday, February 14, 2012

General Update

Where we are:
  1. Little Guy turns 28 months tomorrow.  We would really like to meet him before prom.
  2. We have not yet been submitted to immigration, to begin the next step in this adoption.  We had been waiting on a clearance from Montana, which took far, far too long in my adopting parent’s (so, you know, totally rational) opinion.  It was received on Thursday, and today we found out they were missing a document that was not listed on the instructions.  So we turned it around in an hour and it's on its way to the agency.  Once it is received, we can be submitted. 
  3. 2 months ago today we were preliminarily approved to pursue this adoption.   This gives us 4 more months to be submitted, fingerprinted and approved by immigration, authenticate everything in Olympia, authenticate everything at the Chinese Embassy, and get everything to China.  Immigration alone took almost 3 months last time.  In the past two months, we’ve had our homestudy update, and that is it.  Seems like a piddly amount to have completed when the clock is counting down
  4.  Little Guy has a doctor’s appointment—here in the US!  Seattle Children’s is notoriously difficult to get into, so on the advice of a friend that waited for months to get her little guy seen by a specialist, I called and booked him an appointment in September—the docs were already booking into August.  Really, really hoping he’s here by then.  During the call, the scheduler asked for the name and birth dates of the parents.  So I launched into a big explanation about Chinese adoption and that we really don’t have information on birth relatives, and she gently interrupted me and said, “No, I mean you.  You’re the mom.”  Oh.  Huh.  And then, of course, I got all teary (and I absolutely realize that I’m not the mom.  But maybe someday will be).  Is anyone else sick of random crying jags at inappropriate times? She was really nice about the weirdness of the moment, and then proceeded to inform me that now I’ll get pregnant, you know, since I’ve stopped worrying about things.   Worry-free, that's me! IIIII'm breezy! (name that 90's sitcom)
  5. We have finished our dossier, and have the Montana and California docs authenticated and ready to send.  We are ready to roll with the next step. 
Question:  Has anyone out there just shown up at US.CIS (once their info has been received, of course) and asked to be fingerprinted on the spot?  I’m willing to give it a shot, but not sure if there’s a point.  Just wanting to speed this process along. 



9 comments:

  1. We went to immigration without an appt and it took a while (3 hours) to get in but was worth it as our appt was another month out. We got our approval before our original appt would have happened. I would try it. Maybe your new case manager can put some urgency into things.
    Funny about the worry-free comment--people crack me up. And the quote is, of course, from Friends.
    -Shannon

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  2. Arrrrgh! We are right there with you. Think you should go for the fingerprint thing- bring his picture if you're allowed, that will clinch it!
    Amy xx

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  3. We went to USCIS but they wouldn't see us. It may depend on the day. I might try it, though, as you never know. Good luck!
    -A

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  4. Yes, I did show up to the USCIS office, on the spot, and it was totally empty. I explained that my appt. was not for another month, but that I was free that day and thought I'd pop in. They took me and fingerprinted me right then and there. I called my husband and told him to get his butt over to the office so they could do the same to him, and they fingerprinted him on the spot, too. Easy-peasy!

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  5. Several people in my agency have shown up and asked to be fingerprinted without an appt. About 90% of the time, it works. Just try it. The worst they can say is no. It's not like they will go Soup Nazi on you "No prints for you! Banned one year." :)

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  6. "Is anyone else sick of random crying jags at inappropriate times?" Um, yes.

    And about USCIS, we showed up early and they took us after a short wait.

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  7. I found your blog through another, and laughed out loud at the breezy comment. Loved that show. Your adoption sounds really intersting, good luck with the paper chase.

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  8. We tried showing up at USCIS but got turned away, it was so annoying. Of course, we were lucky that the office was local anyway, vs. having driven somewhere with the hopes of getting in.
    Good luck good luck good luck!

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  9. Oh the waiting--you have the patience of a saint. I really hope you get to meet him before graduation too.

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