Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The Phillips Go to Washington


Not really, but it sure feels like it!!!!

After months (7 to be exact) of putting paperwork together, we finally sent our packet off to Washington. It took much longer than I expected and here's why...

Our home study went along, uneventfully. It finished in a normal amount of time and we were ready to process our immigration paperwork. That is supposed to come back in 6-8 weeks, then, my understanding was we could go the next day, get our fingerprints and be ready to send off the dossier.

Um, I was wrong. It did only take 6 weeks for the immigration ppw to come back, but then our fingerprinting appt. was set for us, 3 WEEKS IN ADVANCE! So, there's another 3 weeks of waiting. We went and had it done, at which time we found out the results would be mailed.... 2 weeks later I get a notice saying my fingerprints were bad (apparently user error on the part of the operator, not me) and i have to wait, yet another 3 weeks to get them taken again!!!! I called our social worker, in tears, and she said to just try to go down there one day and see if they would take me. 2 weeks later, I go down, take them and get them back two weeks later. All in all I wasted about 2 months on fingerprinting.

But, the Tuesday before Christmas, they showed up (an early Christmas gift from God!?!?) :) I had the whole next day open with nothing scheduled (which has probably never happened) and Deda was spending the day with Mc. I was able to spend the whole day getting paperwork in place, stamped by various government entities, copies made, cashier's checks cut, etc, etc.

I mailed it out at 4:15 the Wednesday before Christmas! It was mailed to a courier in Arlington, VA. He will walk it thru the US State Department and the Chinese Embassy. I expect to get it back by the end of the week. Then I have to add several pictures to it, a few other things and we'll be ready to submit!!!!!

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