Today we successfully got our fingerprints (we have to wait and see if we are on the "Most Wanted" list). The effort began yesterday, as Keith drove to Tacoma to get our home study because it hadn’t come in the mail in time (we needed it to do our immigration paperwork). Then we dropped Koen off at Grandma’s and headed to Ellensburg. We stayed with friends there and enjoyed a night of card playing and popcorn eating. Then this morning we got up early to be in Yakima at the USCIS (Immigration Service) office when it opened. We thought it opened at 9, but when we got there at 8:50, they were letting people in. Apparently they open at 8am. I’m glad we didn’t get up earlier though because we were number 4 – the 4th people they’d seen that morning. There was no wait! We planned to be there for several hours and brought reading material and everything, and were only there for 25 minutes! The staff it was rare to have so few people waiting.
This is Keith and our social worker at Faith International Adoptions - with pictures of many of the kids that have been adopted through the agency on the wall.
So, why Yakima? Not real sure, but we were told that if we went to Yakima ourselves and turned in our I600-A (an application to the US government to adopt a child) in person, and waited to see if there were any openings to get fingerprinted, that it would save us about 3 weeks out of the 8-10 week process for the approval. For more detailed info, see below.
After we were done, we decided to take advantage of the babysitting and headed to Ihop for breakfast. Then, back to Ellensburg and on home. Koen did well while we were gone. Grandma said that at one point this morning he was saying “mommy” and “papa” and roaming around looking for us, but wasn’t acting sad that he didn’t find us. Not sure if that’s good or bad.
So, now that this step is done, we have about a 7 week wait to get immigration approval, and then our dossier (packet of adoption paperwork, like a portfolio) will be complete (we have 2 more papers to finish up, but can do that now), and will be authenticated, translated, and sent to Vietnam (hopefully in early October?), and we begin the long wait for a referral (the assignment of our child, with picture and medical info).
When we met with our agency’s director several months ago, he was expecting that our wait wouldn’t be very long because they had opened a new orphanage in northern Vietnam that was sending our agency all of their children for adoption, and were moving things along quickly. Our director expected the waiting list at the agency to be very short by the time we joined it. However, we got a newsletter from the agency today that the families that got their children this month waited an average of 10-12 months for a girl, and 7-9 for a boy. I’m assuming that means there is still a pretty good size waiting list, and that ours will likely take at least 10 months from October, but we’ll see. I guess I should expect a long wait, so I might be pleasantly surprised if it’s shorter. Another problem with a 10-12 month wait though, is that it means we will travel in the summer, when the weather is very hot and humid (I’ve read it can feel like 119F!!!) Oh well, God knows!
At the door there is a guard who will take a form of photo ID (take passports) and your cell phones and anything else you’re carrying and you’ll go through security (like at the airport). You can’t take backpacks in, but a purse was fine. You can’t have a cell phone on in the building (also like flying). The guard gives you a number and there is a waiting room with about 40 chairs and a few toys for kids (best to get babysitting). We only had to wait a minute really and we went to turn in our forms, completed home study, copies of birth and marriage certificates, and paid the bill (prices went up recently). Then we turned in a form to the fingerprinting counter on the other side of the room, waited maybe 5 minutes while Martha Stewart played on a TV screen in the room, and were called back to be printed.
Fingerprinting isn’t messy like it used to be. It’s all digital. The staff will do a print of each thumb, and then the other 4 fingers on your hand together, then each finger individually, rolling them side to side. When done, they give you a receipt (that I’m told is important to keep). It probably took 5 minutes total. I’ve heard that staff at the USCIS offices are usually stern and impersonal, but Washington’s were very nice and friendly. It was really all quite painless! But, again, the staff told us that it is usually much busier, especially in the mornings.
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