Well, I am a little disappointed that I haven't seen our home study rough draft yet, though I am told it is coming. Maybe this week. I do know however that our home study agency is working on getting us a copy of their license and a letter that states that their license is non-expiring. For those of you that do not know, this is a document that is needed for a Ukraine dossier and probably most dossiers when you adopt internationally.
I am toying around with the idea of sending in our I-600A without our home study. Since some of you said that you got to get your fingerprints done before hand, I wonder if this would be true for California? When we adopted from Russia, we had to wait until we had our home study, but at this point, doing something feels better than doing nothing, even if it doesn't get us any further along.
Forever Changed
16 years ago
6 comments:
We got fingerprinted pre-homestudy. And that wait was a long one this past two times.
We did our fingerprints before the homestudy was finished too. It depends on the country requirements. Some countries specifically say you must have a completed homestudy first. I have no idea why, but that's how it was explained to us. So, go ahead and send in the form. What can it hurt??
Christine, have you decided whether to use a facilitation team or an agency? They should be able to advise you...or so I understand! I haven't started yet, so don't listen to me!
The USCIS is now a part of Homeland Security (I have another name for it but this is a public board :) which is federal and not state. Here is a link to the local office locater which is where the I600A is handled.
https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=offices.type&OfficeLocator.office_type=LO
You can file now, but you can't get the I171H until the HS is done. What you will need to do is probably but the local office to get your fingerprints done while you HS is in process. I've read where it can take 3 weeks to get the background check back. Unfortunately, that's probably because the USCIS was sitting on it. The FBI puts a priority on these and they are usually completed in 24-72 hours if there are no complications. For the most part, most USCIS offices are claiming a 3 month process to complete the I171H.
I had some detailed experience with the USCIS and would be happy to convey my experiences and resolutions (too long for a blog comment). You can email me at goldhound @ nvbell dot net. I did go into some detail on our blog.
Getting the HS correct and obtaining the I171H were the most difficult part of the paperwork process.
Good Luck :)
We sent in everything before we had a copy of our homestudy. Then when we did finally get the homestudy we sent it right in, got the letter for the appointment two days later (coincidence?), had the fingerprint appointment one week later and got approval a week after that. (two weeks from the time we sent in the homestudy). We live in Kansas, so it may be different (less busy) than California. We have done this for all of our adoptions however, and have never had a problem... although this was, by far, the quickest! ;)
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