It has been a month since I updated everyone last so I thought I would write a quick post to let you know what has been going on during that time.
As I stated in the last post we were submitted to PAIR on April 9th. What this actually means is that our I-600 packet was received at the Lock Box in Texas after being overnighted. This is where we send all of our immigration paperwork to be forwarded to the adoption unit (NBC) in Lee's Summit, MO. We were told to expect 10-14 business days for it to be received at NBC. This is obviously a very frustrating wait for us as I could literally take off driving and have the paperwork to the office in a couple hours. While we overnight EVERYTHING the U.S. government uses regular mail which seems to lengthen every step of the process. With this time-frame in mind we prepared ourselves to hear nothing until the last week in April. It is also worth noting that just because your packet is received at NBC does not mean your case is being reviewed because you still have to be assigned an officer and added to their stack of cases.
On April 30th I opened the mailbox to find an envelope from USCIS. I could have cried as soon as I saw that little pink paper packet through the opening. If everything is going fine in the PAIR process you receive an email when your case is forwarded to Embassy. Getting physical documents in the mail is a sign that there is something wrong with your application that needs correction to move forward. I opened it to find that we were issued RFE's (Request For Evidence) on 9 of our documents. At first I panicked as 9 is a big number to need corrected but after reading further I was relieved to see that at least it was a simple fix for the most part. 8 of our documents were issued rejected by USCIS because they have a line down the middle from the scanner/copier at the translation office being in poor condition. This is frustrating because you can still read the documents but is fairly easy to fix it just costs us time. Remember how we waited over a year for one piece of paper (Nati's regional clearance stating he is a candidate for intercountry adoption). That was the 9th document to be rejected. USCIS was requesting that we send the original document issued in Oromiffa. The problem being that the original document was issued in Amharic. This is always how the regional clearances are issued because they are for Federal MOWA's use. The third translation is a new requirement but is essentially useless as no one at USCIS or Federal MOWA uses these translations. After talking with our agency and some friends with similar RFE's in their cases I feel like all will be fine once we submit our documents again. We do not really have a timeline for this as we once again are waiting for documents to get here from Ethiopia. While we should be pros at waiting and hitting roadblocks by now it is still hard. Each day that passes makes it more likely that we will not be able to travel for court until the rainy season is over in Ethiopia. What is costing us weeks now could cost us months of waiting later.
So, here are some specific ways you can pray for our family....
1.) Pray that the documents will be received from Ethiopia and submitted to USCIS for review as quickly as possible. Pray that ALL of the documents will be accepted and that Nati's case will be forwarded on to the embassy without further delay.
2.) Pray that if it would be God's will we would be able to travel for court before rainy season and that if it is not He would give us His strength and comfort while we wait those additional months to be with our son.
3.) Pray that if we travel before rainy season God would provide financially for the airfare. While it would be super amazing to travel for court before rainy season closure we know that airfare often skyrockets in July. Last year the tickets, which are normally $2,000, went up to over $6,000 roundtrip in July. we know that if God allows us to travel at that time He will provide but trying to budget for it is a little bit stressful at the moment.
4.) As always please pray for Nati daily. Pray that he receives kisses and cuddles and love from his caregivers. Pray that his health will remain stable and that he will continue to grow. Pray that God would be preparing his heart for the transitions he will need to make in the coming months/year.
Thank you so much for praying us through this journey.
