We got our our kids on the bus this morning for school at 7:00, then hopped in the car to go sit in traffic on our way to Atlanta. We arrived at the Application Processing Center hoping for a walk in appointment to have our fingerprints taken at 8:20. I'm so glad it was a relatively mild morning as they made those of us without scheduled appointments wait outside for about 15 minutes before allowing us in the building. Once inside the process went fairly quickly and we had our paperwork filled out and prints taken less than an hour after we arrived! YAY! Now I get to call the USCIS everyday and pester the daylights out of them to get an agent assigned and get our I171H ASAP!
On the way back home we decided to make a quick stop for coffee. Thankfully (for us) we weren't the first car in line at the light as the car in front of us was hit by a minivan running a red. Everyone was okay, but we stayed to be witnesses and ended up being there for almost an hour. No coffee for us, but I'm really just thankful that there were no major injuries. We got back on the interstate and drove up to our exit to go home. No joke, at the top of the exit ramp a big car carrier had just rear ended the car in front of it! Yeesh!
Next I was off to Starbucks to meet our adoption agent to go over all of our paperwork. Everything looked good except perhaps one thing, but our agent is checking on that. Luckily the one thing that might not be okay is relatively easy to fix so it shouldn't be a problem. We now have all of the paperwork, excluding the I171H, that we need for our dossier. Tomorrow morning I will head back into Atlanta to have all of the notarizations apostilled. After that they get overnighted to a family traveling to Ukraine this weekend to be hand delivered to our facilitator. They can't be officially turned into the SDA without the I171H, but they can be translated and ready to go ahead of time!
And in closing...another letter from Olga!!! Actually, two, but one envelope had drawings for each of us and the other envelope had a letter and a fairly recent picture of Olga with a friend of hers. It just so happens the friend is a boy. If you have a teenage daughter living under your roof and you worry about her and teenage boys, try being on the other side of the world from her and worrying about teenage boys!
Thank you all so much for all of the thoughts and prayers as we are racing against the clock. The dossier submission deadline is three weeks from today! Keep those prayers coming!
S~
WOOHOO! Glad it was a success! And wow, 2 close calls in one day... yikes! Thank God for perfect timing.
ReplyDeleteWOOHOO indeed! The accident today is the second one I've witnessed where a car ran a red this year. Feeling very blessed to have not been in either accident today!
ReplyDeleteWhat did you need to take with you in order to have a walk in biometrics appointment? Just wondering because my husband is going through I-751 processing. We were on a working holiday in Australia when I got pregnant...now there is a possibly he will be in the states for his biometrics while I am on the other side of the world giving birth (we will be returning after baby is born)....so I was wondering myself if it was possible to walk in earlier than your scheduled date, and do you still need to wait for the letter with your scheduled date on it?
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I took identification (we took passports, although I think we could have used drivers licenses) and our letters from the USCIS with our original appointment date. I'm not sure if the I-751 is the same thing as the I-171H, though. We had the I-171H. From everything I have heard from other people going through this process they HAD to have the letter from the USCIS before walking in b/c it has a barcode on it they must scan. We live in GA and we have friends in VA that had no issues walking in early, but another blogger friend, who I believe is in MD was not allowed to walk in early.
ReplyDeleteHope this helps. Good luck in Australia and I hope all goes well with the birth of your baby!
S~