I got all of our apostilles photocopied and then bundled everything up to overnight to our fellow Ukrainian adoptive family who is using the same facilitator. They should have all of our documents by 10:30 tomorrow morning, and they are traveling this weekend!
I called the USCIS this afternoon to see if our prints were in the system or not. The representative I spoke with first gave me the "canned answer" that it usually takes 48 hours for the prints to get into the system. I pressed a little harder and explained my time dilemma. She finally looked in the system and located our prints. I asked when an agent would be assigned to our case and she told me that the cases were assigned in the order they were received. Seems fair, but I'm quite frankly looking to jump the line here! She explains I should call back in a week, I explain that will be too late. We go back and forth, she remained professional yet firm, I remained calm yet teetering on the edge of hysteria. I realized after about 10 minutes that I wasn't going to be able to persuade her to have my case assigned to an agent. I got off the phone upset, but amazed at the fact that I didn't completely fall apart. I had already decided that I would call back on Friday and hope to get a different agent who might be willing to expedite our application. About an hour or so later my cell phone rang. It was the USCIS agent I had spoken with earlier. She said that after checking to see about the deadline I had told her about she went ahead and pulled our application and we should have "something" in 7-10 days! I, of course, start gushing "Thank You's" in about 15 different ways. I was so thrilled with her phone call I didn't get any really important details. Like, was she our case agent or had she given it to someone else? Seven to ten calendar days or business days? The "something" we should receive is the I171H approval letter or just an acceptance letter? I basically think I got great news, but as I didn't get the details I'm not all that positive I got great news! *sigh* The USCIS is closed tomorrow, but I will call back on Friday to try to get some of my answers.
So, if I could amend my earlier prayer request, please pray that she meant that we should have our I171H in 7-10 calendar days and that perhaps I can pay a little bit better attention to detail!
:) S~
She is just a "receptionist" type person, not your agent. You will be assigned an agent and when you call back on Friday you need to ask for your agent's name and also ask to please speak with that person. If they tell you that person is not available, ask to leave him/her a voicemail. Be sure to get your agent's name and then email the address on your receipt, with your SIM number and your agent's name and a brief statement that the Ukraine deadline is Dec 1 and you have to get this done ASAP ... ask that it be forwareded to your agent. We got an email back from our agent within 24 yours.
ReplyDeleteThat's great!! Our case worker was really good answering email if you can get that. Also, they don't do this... but you can beg, plead, pray, the case worker can scan you a copy to save a day since you only need to notarize/apostile a copy.
ReplyDeleteI called back today and spoke with the same person I spoke to on Wednesday. She actually is our agent and she pulled our application and processed it and then forwarded it to her supervisor for approval. We should have our I171H by the end of next week. At this point if I have to hop on a plane myself to hand deliver it to N., I will! Here's hoping it doesn't come down to that, though! :) Gosh, it sure would be nice if a certain family in VA got their travel dates for Thanksgiving week and I could just give our I171H to them to hand deliver! :)
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