March 2016 Updates

I am sorry for the delay in the March update.  We were busy trying to get our taxes ready to file and working on adoption paperwork. 

Everything about this process seems to move about the speed of cold molasses while we wait.  One the other hand, time is moving along so quickly that it is hard to keep on top of our adoption funding progress and goals.

Here is an update on what has taken place the last few weeks.

On Monday, March 14, 2016, Paul, Jamison and I traveled to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service which is located near the KCI airport. This is otherwise known as “the fingerprinting appointment” or the technical term is biometrics appointment.  It was scheduled by the USCIS several weeks ago as part of our I 800A application.  Our fingerprints will be entered into their database and ran through the FBI database.  The goal of this is (once again) to make sure we have a clean background and no criminal history and prevent child trafficking.  The purpose of the I 800A application to determine our suitability to adopt a child.

While we’ve been waiting for our I 800A to be processed, we’ve been working on our dossier documents.  This seems like it takes forever to get all of this done.  Here is a list of all the documents we have to have for our dossier.  Most of these have to be notarized, and not only notarized but the notary commission cannot expire for 12-18 months.  We also have to be sure the date on the document is the same as the notary signature date.  The officials reviewing our documents are apparently very attentive to this particular detail.

Thankfully, since we are not divorced, single or dead it makes ours a tiny bit easier to complete.

The following documents are required for the dossier and must be notarized, verified and authenticated:

_____1. Birth Certificate(s)

_____2. Marriage Certificate

_____3. Financial Statement

_____4. Medical Form(s)

_____5. Police Clearance Report(s)

_____6. Letter of Employment(s)

_____7. I-800A, Approval Notice

_____8. Adoption Application Letter

_____9. Home study Report

_____10. Affidavit of Single Status (*Single applicants only. Forms are enclosed)

The following documents are required for your dossier and DO NOT need to be verified and authenticated:

_____11. Notarized Reference Letters (3)

_____12. Copies of Signed Passports

_____13. Passport Photos (Two (2) per applicant)

_____14. Six (6) Family Photos

_____15. Statement from Guardian (*Single applicants only)

_____16. Medical letter from a doctor (if required)

_____17. Psychological Evaluation (if required)

_____18. Divorce Decree (*Single applicants only, if required):

_____19. Death Certificate (*Single applicants only, if required):

Once we get our I 800A approval letter, we will take it to be notarized and then our dossier will go to the Kansas Secretary of State’s office for authentication.  This means they will verify all of the notaries and make sure they are all legit.

After our dossier is done at the Secretary of State’s office, it will come back to us where we turn around and send it to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago via a courier service.  We have to use a courier service because the Consulate does not accept mailed in documents.  They have to be hand delivered.  So we have to pay a courier service to deliver it for us and then return to pick it up a few days later ….that is unless we want to make a leisurely drive to Chicago and back.  So I guess a courier service will be cheaper and work better than us trying to do it ourselves at this point.