I got my USCIS email and text today...
Dear Applicant/Petitioner:
Your USCIS application/petition has been received and routed to the National Benefit Center for processing. Within 7 - 10 days by standard mail you will receive your official Receipt Notice (Form I-797) with your Receipt Number SIMXXXXXXXXXX. If you have any questions please contact the Hague Unit at (877) 424-8374 or NBC.HAGUE@DHS.GOV
PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE
It is always encouraging when you finally receive that email/text. We have waited once for biometric fingerprinting for Jason and I and our two boys: Kai and Jordan. But, because these 2 adoptions officially started Thanksgiving Day 2010, a lot has changed. Tyanna will be turning 18 next month, so she too has to be fingerprinted.
Apparently, even though ALL the language from USCIS in essence says that you do not have to have your 17 year old biometrically fingerprinted as long as your paperwork gets to China before your child's 18th birthday, this is not true (and they will tell you this on the phone and via email). All adult family members and others residing in the home, must be fingerprinted if they will turn 18 prior to your adopted child coming home.
All I800A documents arriving in the Lock Box wait 14 days. After the wait, your officer gets the paperwork. Fortunately, we did get a good officer. She will be looking for our I800A paperwork to match it up with our LOA and all of our I800 paperwork so that she can send our approval letter to the National Visa Center.
Once our paperwork gets to the NVC, our information will be entered into their computer system. Within 1-3 business days, the NVC will "cable" (email) our file to the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China. This becomes our approval for our visa petition. NVC will then mail me a letter stating that my petition has been forwarded to the Embassy. If I can remember to ask them to email me that letter so that I can pass it along to my agency, then things will speed up even more. So much to learn, but I am so grateful to my adoption "friend" Courtney who put together the website http://www.china-adoption-online.com She is brilliant and makes adoption look easy.
This wait begins May 5th and ends on May 19th. In theory, we should then be cabled the third week of May. Wonder what it will actually look like.
Due to our current delays, our trip will be late June or early July to pick up our littlest princess. I think it would be pretty amazing to get Amaris on June 23rd or 26th... two significant dates in our life... we received a phone call saying that we were chosen to be Amaris' family on June 23, 2011... on June 23, 2010 (a year earlier) we received a phone call that my mom would be meeting Jesus and the rest of her family soon. She left earth to enter heaven June 26th. It was an incredible day... very sad, but also so full of excitement that she could be in His arms... and celebrate her 44th wedding anniversary with my dad, my sister Kimberly and an unborn brother.
Courtney put together the timeline below... right now it seems to be 4-5 weeks to travel once our paperwork is cabled.
