Sunday, April 19, 2009

Waiting on Final INS Review

Well, we are waiting on the final INS review. I received a voice mail at work last week from an INS agent that said she needed our A #s. Of course, I had no idea what she was talking about and she either gave me the incorrect number - or most likely, I transposed the number. I could not contact her and could not retrieve the number from my voicemail, so we went on a wild goose chase to get the phone number - which we never got by the way.

Tim and I both became frustrated because the 1-800 numbers that we called claimed that they did not have the phone number for the Greer office and did not even have an email for them. The info the representatives gave us was the info that we could find on line. Finally, I was given an email address to the Charleston office and emailed them while Tim mailed a letter to the Greer Office - where we had mailed our I-600A, etc. And...guess what they wanted...our alien number! OK - ummmm.... we don't have one because we are Naturalized USA Citizens! Then, on the 800 #, they asked Tim for the A# for our children....after he had explained that we are applying for adoption.

After all of this.....we find that all of our files have been transferred to the Charleston Office. I knew that DSS had sent their study/approval to Charleston, but everything on the USCIS site said to send everything for the I-600A to Greer!

The good news is that the INS has everything that they need and our request is awaiting final review. Whew........

Now we just have to do a couple more things and will be ready to submit to Cathy Harris, our advisor. The SDA in Ukraine has recently made some changes and Cathy has found out what they want. We have to get a certified Tax Assessment of our house and a certified Deed. Plus, the employment statements that we got are not good enough. They now want a copy of the 2008 W-2 forms that are signed by our employer and notarized. We should have all of this done and ready to submit to Cathy by the time we get our INS approval.

Keep the prayers coming that nothing else drastically changes. I heard a rumor that Ukraine may put a moratorium on adoptions, but it is unfounded. I think someone misread the info from an interview with a Ukrainian official concerning Ukraine joining the Hague Convention.

2 comments:

adopting2fromUkraine said...

Hi,

I've been looking at your blog now for a few weeks now checking on your progress. We have the majority of our dossier in Ukraine and are also waiting on our I-171h (I-600a approval) I've read some of the things that you've said about the moratorium on FRUA and Adopt from Ukraine Yahoo loop. Do you have any other sources?

Best wishes,
June

Tim & Rita said...

June,
I have not heard anything official and I have been searching. Our pastor & his wife have a good friend who drives and translates for adoptions in Ukraine. I am going to email her and see if she can check to see if he has heard anything.