Hurry up and wait............

I contacted our case worker at the adoption agency to find out what's next, and this is what she said:

“At this point we are waiting for your I-800A application to be approved. NBC is currently estimating that it will take about 12 weeks to process each I-800A application. Since your application was sent to USCIS on 7/22/08, and if everything continues to go smoothly you are about halfway through the immigration process. After you receive your approval we will send it out for authentication which takes about 2 to 4 weeks to complete. As soon as your approval is received back from authentication your dossier will be sent to China.”

(patience)

We had our.....

fingerprints taken this morning!!! We had to go to Immigration's Philadelphia fingerprint location, which we found to be a very organized operation. They got us in and out in less than 45 minutes and the people were very friendly. You anticipate the worst when having to do something like this (I thought it would be a worse expereince that going to the DMV) so having an expereince like we did makes the process that much better.

We wait now, with fingers crossed, for our approval from NBC who will determine whether or not we are eligible and suitable prospective adoptive parents.

While away on vacation.....

we received our fingerprint "Invitation" (I-797C, Notice of Action) from the National Benefits Center (NBC). Our appointment is for 9:00am on Friday, September 12th, at their Philadelphia location.