You may remember that we filed our I-600a the end of August. The check was cashed the first week of September.
Well considering next week we plan to drive down to go to the LaGonave Wesleyan hospital dedication we thought we would contact the US Embassy to ask about an appointment for our biometrics, fingerprints.
Our address on the forms is our residential address here in Haiti. We did add a note with our Florida mail service address as there was no place on the form for a second address.
We understand that generally then you get a receipt notice and appointment to the nearest USCIS location for biometrics and assumed then that our location would be the US Embassy here.
The return E-mail from the Embassy tells us that because we filed in the USA our appointment will be in the USA.
So we have an E-mail in to our agency and social worker to see how we can get this straightened out.
Our paperwork clearly states we live in Haiti so we are praying that the paperwork can be sent to Haiti from Texas and we can work with the Embassy here.
Please pray that someone can find the answers.
============
Looks like at this point we wait until 1 month passes to see if we receive any notification from the USCIS about our application. Will try to call to see if we can have them notify us electronically or if someone can talk to us about this issue.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
I-600a Appointment Needed
September 10th Cory mailed our official dossier and 4 copies to the agency.
So blessed to complete this part of the process before returning to Haiti so that we did not need to impose on family to finish up for us!
The dossier arrived and only a couple minor issues were identified on review. We confused the instructions about the pictures and therefore did not send as many as we should but the agency can make copies for us.
Also we included the same financial copies we sent in the spring and did not update. But this can be rectified by e-mail so no big deal.
Today if we do not hear from the US government in the mail about our I-600a appointment we will contact the Embassy in Haiti to see if it is at all possible to set the appointment before or after our trip to LaGonave as it would save us over 12 hours of travel not to have to make a separate trip.
We still feel that the Lord would have us adopt two Haitian children.
Taking into account the time that adoptions take in Haiti along with our ages it would be difficult to complete two separate adoptions so we continue to pray for siblings.
As of last week the creche did not have any sibling sets waiting for adoption and it could be a long time before they do. We know the Lord can open doors in His timing. We want to do His will. We do not want to rush before Him or drag our feet.
Prayers
So blessed to complete this part of the process before returning to Haiti so that we did not need to impose on family to finish up for us!
The dossier arrived and only a couple minor issues were identified on review. We confused the instructions about the pictures and therefore did not send as many as we should but the agency can make copies for us.
Also we included the same financial copies we sent in the spring and did not update. But this can be rectified by e-mail so no big deal.
Today if we do not hear from the US government in the mail about our I-600a appointment we will contact the Embassy in Haiti to see if it is at all possible to set the appointment before or after our trip to LaGonave as it would save us over 12 hours of travel not to have to make a separate trip.
We still feel that the Lord would have us adopt two Haitian children.
Taking into account the time that adoptions take in Haiti along with our ages it would be difficult to complete two separate adoptions so we continue to pray for siblings.
As of last week the creche did not have any sibling sets waiting for adoption and it could be a long time before they do. We know the Lord can open doors in His timing. We want to do His will. We do not want to rush before Him or drag our feet.
Prayers
- I-600a fingerprint approval at Embassy
- I-600a approval
- Siblings get to the creche to match with us or
- that the Lord change our hearts by clearly showing us His will.
- Creche staff-need a new nurse
- Haitian adoption law to be published-if it will improve things, His will.
- Haitian adoption process improvements
- Families and children stuck in the process to move forward.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Yes, Dossier Done
Thank you to everyone who prayed we could complete our dossier during our time in the USA.Just after 4 p.m. today our dossier returned from the Chicago Haitian Consulate with all the documents stamped with the legalization stamp.
Cory then copied those pages to add to the 4 sets of copied dossier papers.
Tuesday one original set and 4 complete sets of copied pages head off to our agency.
Wednesday we head back to Haiti.
So we started with the first full day in the USA and finished everything up on the last full day in the USA.
Thank you Lord for Your timing. Sorry for stressing a bit and not trusting.
Heard from our agency this week as we start to dialog about a referral matching with our child / children. At this time the creche does not have siblings waiting for a family. We continue to pray for the Lord's leading and timing. Choices
Next step will be getting an appointment at the embassy for our fingerprints for the I-600a.
Then we pray and wait.
Prayers:
- Thankful the dossier is done!
- Local police letters do not need additional processing.
- I-600a appointment and approval.
- For our referral children.
- For Haiti's new law / improving the adoption process.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Authentications Done! Translations-prayer request.
Praising the Lord that our last document arrived with its pretty gold authentication seal yesterday!
One more step done.
As soon as the letter arrived in the mail Cory quickly scanned the document and sent it on to the French translator. All the translated documents...but one arrived via E-mail at 11 p.m. last night !
So we just sent the one missing page to be translated and are praying that she checks her E-mail during the day today and can send it back right away.
We'd hoped to send off the dossier to the Haitian Consult in Chicago today for legalization...but need to wait for that last page.
We made the needed copies this week of the English documents. Will copy the French ones today.
Questions pop up during the process but thankfully our agency helped this afternoon with rapid responses.
Living overseas makes some of the questions a bit trickier for us so we also placed a call to the Haitian Consult in Chicago as we hope to send off the dossier documents today for legalization. Need to call again to find out the answer.
Many people and a few agencies reporting on line that the new adoption law has passed in Haiti and 'just' needs to be printed in the Le Monitour to become official. If it would not get printed its basically like an informal veto.
The new law lowers the age requirement as well as marriage length and removes the need for families with biological children to have the President sign a dispensation.
For us it would remove the need for a presidential signature and speed up the process. This stage in the past took from 3 months to over a year.
The new law also includes Article 11 "Priority is given to married heterosexual couples or cohabiting couples habitually residing in Haiti." but what it would look like remains to be seen.
Still trying to get as much paperwork done and organized as we can before returning home next week.
Prayers:
One more step done.
As soon as the letter arrived in the mail Cory quickly scanned the document and sent it on to the French translator. All the translated documents...but one arrived via E-mail at 11 p.m. last night !
So we just sent the one missing page to be translated and are praying that she checks her E-mail during the day today and can send it back right away.
We'd hoped to send off the dossier to the Haitian Consult in Chicago today for legalization...but need to wait for that last page.
We made the needed copies this week of the English documents. Will copy the French ones today.
Questions pop up during the process but thankfully our agency helped this afternoon with rapid responses.
Living overseas makes some of the questions a bit trickier for us so we also placed a call to the Haitian Consult in Chicago as we hope to send off the dossier documents today for legalization. Need to call again to find out the answer.
Many people and a few agencies reporting on line that the new adoption law has passed in Haiti and 'just' needs to be printed in the Le Monitour to become official. If it would not get printed its basically like an informal veto.
The new law lowers the age requirement as well as marriage length and removes the need for families with biological children to have the President sign a dispensation.
For us it would remove the need for a presidential signature and speed up the process. This stage in the past took from 3 months to over a year.
The new law also includes Article 11 "Priority is given to married heterosexual couples or cohabiting couples habitually residing in Haiti." but what it would look like remains to be seen.
Still trying to get as much paperwork done and organized as we can before returning home next week.
Prayers:
- Praising the Lord for finishing up w steps this week!
- That we can find the answer to our question today about our local police letters.
- That the last page gets translated and sent back to us before the post office closes today.
- That the dossier does not get delayed or lost in the mail system.
- That the Haitian Consulate rapidly legalized each of the documents for our dossier so we can send off the completed dossier and the 4 needed copies before we return to Haiti on Sept. 11
- That the law would be published and go into affect.
- For our children and their family to be drawn to or drawn closer to the Lord during this time.
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