I spoke with our agency today. Our fingerprint letter is not due until the middle of January. We will go to Denver for the fingerprinting which will generate the I600 which can take 90 days. That will put us into April to receive our I-600. There are several steps following the I-600 which usually takes approximately 6 weeks all together and that's a rough estimate. Therefore, May is now our goal in bringing her home.
The other 2 times that we did our fingerprints and others in process did receive the I-600 in a much shorter time. Our first two times, we received our I-600 3 weeks after fingerprints. However, I cannot use our previous experience (or that of others in process) due to the change in process of routing paperwork through Texas. No one, not even the agency, can predict how long it will take but the agency says "Expect 90 days for processing". So, May it is...hopefully.
This summer, we were expecting a four months processing time from referral to travel call. When we signed in September, we were told that it has lengthened to 6 months due to hold ups in Korea. With May as our new timeline, we looking at 8 months from referral to travel call. This would match a few others who were a few referrals ahead of us. Our reasons for delay are very different then theirs but we all are looking at a 8 month wait to bring our kids home.
The bumping around has not been easy and I'm done trying to explain to the boys "when" she'll be here. "By Christmas"...."Before the end of school"....."By Mother's Day"..... at this point I'm done guessing because truly it's a guessing game at this point. Delay after delay....changes is process......Korean hold ups......one after another have been presenting themselves along the way and I can't say that it's not going to happen again and again in the next few months.
We probably have 5 more months to wait. Seriously........???!!!!!!!! But, it is what it is.
Here is a description of the steps once our fingerprints for the I600 are done:
NVC - Once USCIS has approved your I-600, USCIS sends all of your information to the National Visa Center (NVC) in New Hampshire. The NVC sends the information to the US embassy in Korea. NVC In is when the NVC receives your paperwork; NVC Out is when they send it off to Korea. How long it takes a family from I-600 approval to NVC In varies as some USCIS offices batch their I-600 approvals and only send them to the NVC periodically (instead of as soon as the I-600 is approved). Also impacting the timeline is that some USCIS offices email the information and some send the information by regular mail.
EP - EP stands for Emigration Permit. South Korea has two types of travel permits. One is similar to a US passport and allows a Korean to come in and out of Korea. The second type of "travel permit" is permission to emigrate. In the later case, a travel permit is granted to the person (i.e. your child) by South Korea giving your child permission to leave Korea for the purpose of emigrating to the United States. EP is not the actual travel certificate, rather it is permission to process the application for the travel certificate. You may or may not hear that your child has EP.
P3 - The US embassy sends a packet of information to the Korean agency. This packet is referred to as P3. The Korean agency submits to the completed packet the US embassy for the travel visa. The packet includes things like the adoptive parents' I600, I864, birth/marriage/divorce certificates of adoptive parents, etc.
VI - After P3 has been sent back, a "Visa Interview" (VI) is scheduled. I say "Visa Interview" in quotes because no actual interview takes place; the Korean agency does not take the kids down to the embassy to be interviewed
"Two different lives, Shaped to make yours one....... One became your guiding star, The other became your sun...... The first gave you life, And the second taught you how to live it........ The first gave you a need for love, And the second was there to give it." --MOTHER'S BRIDGE
7 comments:
I'm sorry. I know how hard it is. I am hoping your gal is home before her birthday! It's possible, right?
I really didn't think the rest of you would have to wait so long. :(
I'm sorry. I'm hoping things move faster then expected.
Karen, we just made the switch from the China program to the Korean program with our agency. We were about to file the I-800 when we decided to go with Korea. Now we are waiting on the I-600 paperwork to arrive. Question for you... Did your agency allow you to request a girl? We have a biological son and have told him for a year now that he would be getting a sister someday. Our agency informed us with the Korea program, they don't allow you to choose gender. Our hearts are set on a girl since we've been praying and preparing for over two years and I think it would be difficult for an adopted son to come into a family with a biological son. does this make any sense. I know God has it all planned out and I don't know why I worry, but I noticed in your blog (which is wonderful by the way) that you were able to choose.
Hootsmom,
Yes, we are able to indicated gender with our agency. I don't believe that Holt does ???? Our agency works through Eastern. I don't know if it's a decision each agency can make or if it's an Eastern policy. If you're interested in a waiting child, you can work outside your state with a different agency. Atleast that's how I've understood it to work.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
I'm sorry too. It's really hard to be positive when government officials have your baby's papers and all the control in their hands. I hear ya.
Well . . . at least we know what to expect for worst case scenario. Hoping and PRAYING for BEST CASE SCENARIO!!!
I think in the back of my mind, I've been thinking worse-case timing would be April and May...but will still hold on hope it will be sooner for both of us. And thanks for your super detailed 'next steps' in the process...I learned some new things from what you outlined, so thank you.
Thanks so much for the informative post. We were told to expect to pick up our baby boy in May also. I have been trying to figure out the next steps and figure out what the NVC's and P3's were and now I know. Thanks very much. AND, tommorow is January 2nd. Let's get things rolling Korea!
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