We submitted our I-800A application to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services on 9/21/15 and were told that it would take 60-90 days to hear back. WELL, we heard back today! In the mail, we received our fingerprint appointment date, scheduled for 10/28/15. I've heard that some people have had success just walking in and shaving off a week or two from the waiting process. Others, however, have been grumbled at and turned away.
After a bit of discussion, Nathan and I decided to give it a go. We drove to downtown SLC, entered the building (which did not have a ramp for Lachlan's wheelchair, so we had to carry his chair up a flight of stairs) and headed to the office. I had butterflies, wondering what would happen. The security guards were intrigued by Lachlan's suction machine and kept Nathan's two pocket knives, but eventually let us through with smiles, directing us to where we needed to go.
Initially, I thought we were setting ourselves up for disaster because there were no less than 50 people in the waiting room. AY! But, my fears were dismissed when the guard explained that there was a citizenship ceremony that day and many families and friends were present to celebrate. Wow! What a beautiful thing to witness!
Thankfully, there was only 1 other person in the fingerprinting office. I started chatting with the receptionist right away as if she would not notice we were 10 days early for our appointment. But it wouldn't have mattered...she just stamped our documents and got us started with the proceedings! I was SHOCKED! She was very friendly (no grumbling as I had feared) and the entire process took no more than 30 minutes for both Nathan and I. AND, Lachlan was very well-behaved!
From here, we can expect to receive email approval in the next week or so and then our hard copy within a few weeks. After that, we'll notarize the approval, get it state authenticated and send it off to our adoption agency which will then send it to the Chinese Consulate in D.C. Right now, we're still on Steps 3 & 4 on our little timeline graphic, but we're getting closer to hopping to the big Step 7!
!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot tell you how encouraged I am by all of this. It means that our expected travel time frame of of May-ish is totally realistic. When we get to December, things get a little harder due to various staffers' holiday breaks, so the more we can get accomplished before then, the better!
We are not promised that this will be an easy journey (quite the opposite, actually), so our biggest prayer is that God will work on our hearts' trust and contentment. However, this went better than expected, so I want to shout gratitude from the rooftops!
We're trying our best, Conlan! We'll be together soon :)
