More Fingerprints

After weeks of wondering what had become of our packet sent to USCIS, we received notices for our fingerprint appointments! According to our social worker, it is safe to assume that we are approved (pending clearance of the fingerprints) for our renewal of our Favorable Determination with Citizenship/Immigration. This will save us about $600 and a whole lot of paperwork! The appointments are set for the 11th of August, at a location about 20 minutes away. Once the prints are processed, we should receive a new letter of approval and then all we need to do is wait. When our referral comes through, we'll be good to go!

Paperwork Update

We got word today that our dossier just made it back from being authenticated in Washington DC. It will now be sent to AGCI's contact in Ethiopia. She will look after it until we are matched with (and accept) a referral. At that point I would assume it would probably move into the court system there.

Two weeks ago we sent in a request to USCIS (Citizenship and Immigration) to have our approval extended and also to be approved to adopt from Ethiopia rather than Vietnam. We were extremely fortunate when we did our Vietnam dossier to be able to hand-deliver our CIS application and have our digital fingerprints done on a walk-in basis. Since then, the policies here in Washington have changed and we had to do it all by mail, requesting that they set a time for our fingerprints to be taken*. Last time we were approved in two weeks. This time we are at the mercy of the system. I know I'm just spoiled though, because most other states don't have the availability of walking in to take care of this part of the process. There is a good chance that it may take a few months this time around. Fortunately we technically don't need to have our CIS approval in hand until we have a child referred to us, but it would sure be nice to have everything in order.

That's all I have to report right now, which is actually good since we have plenty on our plate for the time being....

*These fingerprints are different than the ones required for our dossier. I don't know why the different government agencies have to each have their own fingerprint process, but hey, that's government for you!

2 Weeks Later

We are number:


Now, before you all get excited about how quickly the list seems to be moving, keep in mind that the Ethiopian government officially shuts down over the next two months, due to a national holiday of sorts. That means things are going to slow way down. Its still going to be at least four months, but likely six months or more before we reach the top. BUT in this house, we are never ones to scoff at progress!