Just heard from our agency (via email on the Friday before a 3 day weekend) that Ukraine now requires a home study to be less than 6 months old at the time we submit our dossier (11/11). Ours will not be less than six months old, so we must update between now and submission.
What does this include? Paying for our social worker to do an update. Re-doing child abuse clearances, criminal checks, medical evaluations, finances, and references. Sounds like a whole new home study to me!
I'm hoping that we can "piggy-back" on some of the info required for the dossier - like medicals and criminal checks. Also hoping that our references can just change the dates on their letters and still count as references.
Cliff seems to think this new requirement could be fallout from the Russian adoption issue earlier this year. Maybe, but we both agree it doesn't really matter. We have to do it, so we do it.
6/1/2010 UPDATE:
Talked to our agency today. Turns out the update is specific to the state in which the adoptive parents reside. Their email gave the requirements for the state where the agency is - which is not our state. So now I have to find out what our state requires for a "complete" update. Sounds like I need to contact our social worker. . . .Stay tuned. . . .
Friday, May 28, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
I-171H. . . .check (almost)
So we received our approval of our I-600A form yesterday. YEA! This was much faster than I expected.
BUT some of the information is incorrect. The form allows us to bring home 2 children of either gender who are 0-3 years old with no special needs. I know. You're looking at 2 children of either gender and thinking that is the problem. Actually, our agency told us to do it that way. We don't HAVE to adopt 2 children. But if we changed our minds in-country and DID want to adopt 2 children, this gives us pre-approval and less paperwork/travel time. Same with gender. So we did that part on purpose. These approvals provide options once we are there.
No, the problem is with the age and special needs designations. The I-171H approval form must match our home study, and our home study specifically states the age as 3-7 and the special needs category as "correctable." Without these designations on our approval form, we will not be able to bring our child home without significant in-country difficulty.
So, I am in the process of fixing this. After communicating with our agency, I called USCIS and (amazingly) got through to the officer handling our case. She is very nice and indicated that it should not be a problem. She needs to pull our file and compare our home study to the approval letter to confirm the discrepancy. And it should be fixed with little issue.
We'll see. . . .I won't breathe a sigh of relief on this until I see the corrected letter. Fortunately we have plenty of time to get it fixed, so it won't slow us down at all.
BUT some of the information is incorrect. The form allows us to bring home 2 children of either gender who are 0-3 years old with no special needs. I know. You're looking at 2 children of either gender and thinking that is the problem. Actually, our agency told us to do it that way. We don't HAVE to adopt 2 children. But if we changed our minds in-country and DID want to adopt 2 children, this gives us pre-approval and less paperwork/travel time. Same with gender. So we did that part on purpose. These approvals provide options once we are there.
No, the problem is with the age and special needs designations. The I-171H approval form must match our home study, and our home study specifically states the age as 3-7 and the special needs category as "correctable." Without these designations on our approval form, we will not be able to bring our child home without significant in-country difficulty.
So, I am in the process of fixing this. After communicating with our agency, I called USCIS and (amazingly) got through to the officer handling our case. She is very nice and indicated that it should not be a problem. She needs to pull our file and compare our home study to the approval letter to confirm the discrepancy. And it should be fixed with little issue.
We'll see. . . .I won't breathe a sigh of relief on this until I see the corrected letter. Fortunately we have plenty of time to get it fixed, so it won't slow us down at all.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Fingerprints . . . .check!
This morning Cliff and I drove in to the USCIS office and had our fingerprints (a.k.a. "biometrics") done for our I600-A. This will kick off our background checks and result in approval of our application. Amazingly, we were finished in less than 45 min.
One more thing to check off the list!
One more thing to check off the list!
Monday, May 10, 2010
Passing Time
To pass the time, I started a craft project. My girls both have hand made Christmas stockings. Emma's was a gift, and I made one for Vivian. When we started our adoption journey, I decided to go ahead and start one for our new child. I have been working off and on since the first of January. I knew with everything else going on in our household, it would take me a while to get it finished. This is where I am so far.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
USCIS Confirmation and Appointment
So, today we got our confirmation of receipt of our I600-A application AND our letters containing our appointment times for our biometrics (fingerprints). YEA!
Our biometrics appointments are set for May 12th at 8:00 AM. I'm still confirming with Cliff that he can do that date and time. He is supposed to be out of town but mentioned that he may be in the office instead.
So until I hear differently, that's the plan.
Our biometrics appointments are set for May 12th at 8:00 AM. I'm still confirming with Cliff that he can do that date and time. He is supposed to be out of town but mentioned that he may be in the office instead.
So until I hear differently, that's the plan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
