I-800 Approval!!! April 19, 2012

Today we received word that our I-800 has officially been approved by the USCIS. Now we have to wait for the USCIS to send the approval to the National Visa Center who then "cables" the approval to the Chinese Consulate in Guangzhou, China. With modern technology (email) you would think that this would take a day or two. However, Holt tells us that it can take up to 2 weeks to receive the National Visa Center confirmation letter and another 2 weeks for the Consulate to receive the same (even though their "cable" is a simple email). We did read in the Rumor Queen blog that you can speed up the process by a week or so by emailing the NVC and requesting an electronic copy of their cable letter to the Consulate, so we immediately did the same. BTW, Rumor Queen is well known in China adoption circles as a woman who has a lot of contacts, time and talent in making projections on when parents will receive their referrals, current trends etc. She was a lifeline to many parents through this extended wait--in fact her blog first posted that parents with a Log In Date (LID) (date your dossier was logged in Beijing) of 8-31-06 would receive their referrals around the end of March which led to a mini celebration in our bedroom-No not that kind of celebration-when we read her blog at 4:00 a.m. on March 27th when I was up early that morning. (her blog is http://chinaadopttalk.com/category/referral-rumors/ for those who are interested) Well, another hurdle overcome. Just a few more to go.........

China Visas April 9, 2012

While we're waiting for our I-800 to be approved, it is now time to request our Visas from China. While most people are aware that you need a passport to travel abroad, some aren't aware that you need a Visa before you enter certain countries ( I know we didn't really know about it until we adopted Sophia). Unlike Ethiopia where the Visa is a routine matter approved at the airport when you land, China requires pre-approval of your Visa and only grants them in person at their embassy in LA and DC or their consulates in a few cities across the US. Since the closest consulate is in Chicago, we have to hire a courier through Holt's travel agency to file all of the paperwork on our behalf. Since Sophia has both a US and a Chinese passport, there are a few more requirements for her Visa that includes sending her original Chinese passport (that contains our earliest picture of Sophia) so that the Chinese authorities can mark it cancelled even though it expired in 2008. Go figure. Here's hoping that her Chinese passport with her precious picture is well taken care of and makes it back to Hiawatha for a treasured keepsake. To process the Visa, we have to have additional passport photos from what we have in our passports so we had a fun filled afternoon getting more passport photos at the post office. Audrey was along for the ride and the post office was nice enough to snap a picture of her so she could feel like part of the process. With the Visa's in the mail, one more thing can be crossed off the "to-do" list!

I-800 The Paper Chase April 1, 2012

While I enjoyed the 1970's era movie, The Paper Chase, the adoption paper chase can be a bit daunting for the uninitiated. Even though this is our third time through, there are new wrinkles/requirements every time. The I-800 is one of them. While Sophia and Audrey were under the old I-600, the ever changing USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services which changed its name from INS and is now under Homeland Security), has revamped the entire process. Even though adoptive parents all receive provisional approval through the I-800A application several months before receiving their referral (the I-800A is a very extensive application that requires a detailed home study containing tax returns for the past 3 years, clean medical exams for both parents, clean criminal history verified through separate Local, State, Federal and International criminal history checks and State and Local fingerprints, a personal visit to the local USCIS office in KC along with their large filing and fingerprinting fee) our government still requires a separate I-800 once you receive your child referral. To make matters worse, while our child is waiting for us in China, we have to mail the I-800 to a Texas lockbox facility only for them to hold it two weeks and mail it to the USCIS office in Lee's Summit, MO where the officer takes another two weeks to review the same application they approved 7 months ago. Then, add another 10 business days for the officer to "cable" the approval letter to our Consulate in Guangzhou, China and you can understand the frustration. But, it is what it is, and if the end result is holding Isabella in our arms and making her a part of our forever family, it's all worth it in the end.....