Our I-171H Arrived Today!

The I-171H is the piece of paper from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) that says we are approved to bring adopted child(ren) into the US. Essentially, it is the only approval required by the US government as pertaining to adoption. (I believe it also implies that we have met all state requirements for our State of residence as well. Regardless, the homestudy states that State requirements have been met.)

With this piece of paper our dossier is ready for authentication and certification. (Or at least it will be once we get a couple passport photos taken.) One (certification I think) is the process of the state essentially stating that the notary was a valid notary and they believe that the notary process was properly performed. The other (authentication) is the process of ensuring the certification is valid. Essentially it means we have to get it rubber stamped in triplicate, and we have one set of stamps down with two to go.

Receiving the I-171H clears one of the three major waiting hurdles for putting together the dossier. The "nice" thing is that the remaining two (authentication and certification) are pretty much involve handling the whole package rather than coordinating all the pieces.