Houston Chinese Consulate Documents Are Back

Our documents are back from Houston. They took exactly a week.

We go for our fingerprinting on Friday. That almost did not go smoothly. Bill and I received our appointments for the fingerprinting but Bill Sr and Gayle did not. They have to be fingerprinted as well because they are in our household and over the age of 18. I had to get a Congressman's office involved. I had a contact phone number from our agency. He worked his magic and voila we got their appointments as well. We just found out that we now need the Bill Sr and Gayles birth certicates for homeland security. We have Gayle's now but Bill Sr. I had to order express service from NY. Cost us $75! I should have it next week. We need send that into Homeland Security by June 8th or we have to start the process all over again. Let's all hope that we get the birth certificate from NY.

Our homestudy is almost done. We should have a factual check back to us by Monday then off to CCAI for approval on Wednesday. Once that is done we send that off to Homeland Security and then we wait for the elusive I-171H to arrive. This document (along with the home study) needs to be notarized, county certified, state sealed, consulate authenticated. Then we get to send everything off to CCAI (our agency) for critical review and off to China. Then the wait begins.

I shouldn't be reading any websites. It is getting discouraging. The wait will be long. I have seen anywhere from 12 to 18 months to as high as 24 months. I am prepared for a 12-15 month wait. I'm not sure on the 24 month wait. The next few months will give an indication on how quickly China is matching children.

Jen

NY Consulate Documents Back!

Breathing a sign of relief. We got our two documents back from NY in record time. Things seem to be moving. Our homestudy is done. It should be typed up for review by Friday.

Fingerprinting is next!

Jen

Documents off to the Consulates

Our last documents that we have done are now off to the Houston Consulate. All that is left is the homestudy and getting the I-171H from Homeland Security. Homestudy will be complete on Saturday. I have been told it takes a week to write then we get a copy in draft format to check. Once the homestudy is complete the agency sends it to Homeland Security and they will issue the I-171H (we still need to get fingerprinted for this as well, we are waiting for an appt). Once we get those two documents back (homestudy and I-171H), I need to get them notarized, county certified, state sealed and then off to Houston Chinese Consulate. Then we are done.

We are shooting for our documents to go to China in late July. Please pray that all goes well there.

Jen