It Worked!

The I-600A dance must have worked!

I was completely engrossed in a Nora Roberts made-for-TV-chick-flick this afternoon and I got a phone call. The caller ID came up as "unknown" and the person calling asked for Jason, which instantly let me know this was a salesperson and not a friend. I had already tuned the caller out but heard something along the lines of "This is John Doe calling from the Office of Immigration Services in Missouri..." What? Who? Suddenly my heart is pounding and I'm scrambling to turn the volume down on my afternoon drama.

Two and a half weeks ago I sent our second I-600A to Lewisville, TX, the designated mailing center that everyone must submit the form to and included a handwritten note on my cutest frog stationery letting them know that our first application was lost (at that point I was still thinking it was lost and didn't realize it was on its way back to us, see post below) and that we had lost 8 weeks of processing time and if they could see it in their hearts to expedite the process we would appreciate it. Hey, doesn't hurt to ask.

In the past the forms are mailed to the Lewisville, TX office, which is contracted out to a company to handle the applications and it is NOT a government office, and from there the applications are mailed to their respective local government USCIS office with our office being in San Antonio, TX. Some offices in the states are very efficient and turnaround time for 171H approval is very quick. Other offices, like the San Antonio office take several weeks up to months to receive 171H approval. On April 1st of this year that all changed. I-600A's are still sent to Lewisville, TX and then they are sent to one centralized government office for processing and no longer go to regional offices. I was told that office was in Washington DC so I was surprised to get a phone call from Missouri.

The gentleman on the line asked where my fingerprints were as they have received and approved Randy's fingerprints that were included in the packet but didn't have mine. I explained to him that Randy works overseas and we had his fingerprints done at the Embassy and I had returned home to the states to complete the adoption paperwork and was planning on doing mine here in the states. In hindsight, I probably should have just done my prints in Abu Dhabi when Randy did his, but you know what they say about hindsight.

I gave him the story of the first lost application and how we had lost over 2 months wait because the application was seemingly lost but it wasn't actually lost at all, just returned to us because we didn't send enough money but actually we did send the right amount (and at this point I'm sure he was probably poking his eyeballs out with whatever sharp object he could get his hands on) and he said, "Well then your fingerprint appointment notice will go out in tomorrow's mail and you should have it within a few days and you'll need to get yourself to the processing center and have your fingerprints completed." Woo hoo!!

He goes on to say, and I swear I'm not making this up, "I don't mean to sound sexist, but women usually have a lot of problems getting their fingerprints to read because they do so much cleaning and use so much Ajax. So tell your husband that you are not to do any cleaning and keep a lot of lotion on your hands so you can get good prints." I laughed and said, "Alright, I'll tell him, 'Hey government orders, I can't clean' and I'll make sure to use plenty of lotion."

I could tell he was ready to wrap up our conversation but I took advantage of USCIS actually calling ME and asked if he had approved our home study since it was such an obstacle with Artem's adoption. He told me he had already looked at our home study but had not reviewed the rest of our file since he was waiting on my fingerprints.

So it sounds like I just need to get my fingerprints completed and we are closer to having that coveted 171H in our hands. But as we all know that would take all the fun out of international adoption, so I'm not letting my guard down just yet.