What is this I-600A we keep talking about???

Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition

The I-600A is the first form you will fill out with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). This form is completed before an orphan is located or has been identified for an adoption by you. Do NOT confuse this form with the I-600 form which is the Petition to Classify Orphan as Immediate Relative.

Guidelines Per the I-600A Form Eligibility
You must be a U.S. Citizen. In the case of a married couple one of the spouses must
be a U.S. Citizen.The prospective parent is 25 years of age or older; or one of the partners within a marriage is 25 years of age or older.

Documents Needed to Show Proof

The following must be sent with the completed I-600A form:
A birth certificate to show proof of citizenship. If unable to obtain a birth certificate; a copy of the baptismal certificate under the seal of the church showing place of birth.
The baptism must have taken place within two months of the birth. If this is not possible, affidavits of two U.S. citizens who have knowledge of the applicants birth in the United States. Naturalization papers or a valid U.S. passport will also work.

Proof of marriage and the proof of ended previous marriages. Photocopies of divorce decrees, death certificates, and the marriage license will fill this requirement.

Completed home study with a recommendation by the state agency. Be sure to use a social worker or agency that understands the guidelines needed to be met with international adoptions. Different information is needed with an international adoption than with a domestic adoption.

Fingerprints of all adults over the age of 18 who reside in the home. After filing of the form; the INS will notify the petitioners with the time and place to be fingerprinted. Do not miss this appointment - it could mean a denial of your petition.

Payment of the petition and fingerprinting fee per person. One check can be used for the entire sum (filing fee and fingerprint fee) made payable to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Check with your adoption agency or the USCIS for updated fee amounts. File the I-600A with your local USCIS District or Sub-Office. See the USCIS page for locations. Scroll down to the I-600A where you can also find a printable I-600A form. You can NOT file electronically.

The text above was taken from here.

If you want to see what this form looks like, you can click here.

Dan and I were able to file the I-600A on 12/29/06. Fingerprinting was done on 1/2/07. The USCIS is waiting for a copy of our homestudy, so they can proceed forward with the paperwork and issue us our I-171H.

Eventful Day

After Dan posted last night, we talked a bit about how we wanted to deal with today. I said that should we not hear from anyone at the agency by 2:00pm, then I would call them for a status report.

This morning we got up and Dan headed upstairs to do some year end paperwork for his office and our home. I was putting dishes away when the phone rang around 10:30am. Lisa (our local social worker) was on the phone asking how quickly she could come out and start our home study! I took the dates she had available (Friday or Saturday evening, or Monday), her phone number and asked Dan what worked for him. We agreed to have Lisa come out tomorrow (Friday) evening to start our home study! For the rest of the morning/afternoon Dan and I have been working furiously around the house to straighten up, put things away, and generally get the house in order. Dan has spent much of the day in his office, and I've worked steadily on getting the dining room, living room, kitchen, and our bed/bathroom tidy. My mom is coming over tomorrow afternoon to help with a final spruce (hopefully including a vacuum and mop since those two tasks are two things that still bother my back).

The other exciting event for today is that we turned in our I-600A paperwork, which is our petition to adopt an orphan. I chose to drive the documentation and the money order down to the Department of Homeland Security myself, and in doing so, we were able to get about three weeks ahead of anyone who chose to mail their paperwork into the office! From what I have been reading, many people send their I-600A in, and sometimes it's a month or more until they get an invitation for FBI fingerprinting. But not for us! We go for our FBI fingerprinting (and background check) on Tuesday, January 2, at 9:00am. Once that is done, the government will begin processing us in the system, but they will have to wait for final approval from our social worker in order to issue us the I-171H (which is our document that we give to Vietnam, and the document that will tell us how many children we are allowed to adopt). The woman I worked with at the DHS office was wonderful. She said she is running about three weeks out on paperwork, but depending on our circumstances (for instance if the agency had a referral for us very quickly) she might be able to expedite our paperwork if necessary. I don't think this will be necessary, but one can hope, can't she?

So, in 24 hours we'll be meeting with Lisa in our home. She said she will be here about three hours, and once we've met with her we might actually know a little bit more about the process, timelines, etc. One of us will update after our meeting.