Home Study Finalized

Our social worker, Ashley, let us know today that she is finalizing the home study update and getting it in the mail to us today. Once received, I'll forward one copy to USCIS.

Only thing left after that is to get our fingerprints done, which we have appointments for.

Official Acknowledgment of Receipt

Yesterday we received this acknowledgment of receipt of our recent update package by the Department of Homeland Security. This letter basically says what I've been saying lately..that DHS is awaiting our updated home study from our agency and then they will proceed. Additionally, we each received fingerprint appointments. This is different than in the past in three ways: 1) We each got actual appointment days/times. Previously, the instruction was "show up any Wednesday between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. and you're good to go." No more.
2) We have appointments on DIFFERENT days. Sigh.3) We have to go to St. Louis rather than Kansas City. No idea why the change, but there it is. Progress...progress...progress.....

Sent from my HTC Tilt™ 2, a Windows® phone from AT&T

Delivery Confirmation of Adoption Update Packet

Wheeeeeew! I feel better. I still don't have the updated I-171h form in my hands, but I can now at least rest easy that the packet made it to Lewisville, TX before our deadline. It was signed for at USCIS, according to the USPS website, and then forwarded on to Dallas (not sure why). Additionally, the $830 check was cashed on June 4, 2010. When our social worker returns from Ethiopia, she'll update the home study and send that to USCIS. In the meantime we should receive a fingerprint appointment, and THEN we'll get the updated I-171h.

Scary immigration letter

Correspondence crossed in the mail. Explainable, but nerve-wracking all the same...

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Hey check it out! I can update my blog from my phone. How cool is this?! Have I mentioned I think advanced technology is the bomb-diggety?

Third Home Study Update, Update

Whew! Well....that was close. Our current I-171h expires June 7, 2010. It's June 2! Last night I successfully got all the necessary information put together in a nice little package and overnighted it at lunch to an address in Texas. This is different than the last time, when we sent everything to the appropriate USCIS field office, which in our case is the Kansas City office. We will still have to go there to be fingerprinted I assume.

Anyway, the Texas location will forward all our information to Kansas City. I hope. It is truly a leap of faith that everything will work out....faith in our government. So far we've not had any problems. Fingers crossed.

I may have mentioned this, but all this is to update our I-171h form, the form that says we are eligible to adopt, and our fingerprints, which tell the authorities we are not any sort of criminals. In order to get the updated I-171h, we had to fill out a new and improved I-600A and attach all of the following:

• photocopies of our birth certificates

• photocopy of our marriage certificate

• original home study update (from November 2008)

• photocopy of previous home study (from 18 months earlier, in April 2007)

• a check for $830 ($670 I-600A filing fee and $80 each for fingerprinting)

• photocopy of current I-171H and current fingerprint expiration letter

• cover letter explaining we are submitting a "grandfathered" filing of the I-600A in order to update our I-171H

The updated home study will be sent to USCIS by our agency, CHI, once they get one more background check that they were still waiting on. Our social worker is in Ethiopia currently so this won't happen until she returns, in about two weeks.