USCIS

For those in the 'non adoption' world...that stands for United States Citizen and Immigration Services. I will NEVER complain about USCIS again! True, the long wait is due to the ridiculous amount of paperwork they keep shoving in our direction, but they have been so great to work with! I have my Officer on speed dial and he is always very very patient with me and my hundred questions! And today, we were able to walk in to the KC office and be fingerprinted immediately---NO appointment. (This is a big deal!)

Usually, you get an appointment date to be fingerprinted assigned to you. The wait is usually 3-4 weeks from the time your request the appointment. We were hoping to still get printed in August. Our current fingerprints expire on September 12. So Andy took the day off and we drove 2 hours to our local CIS office and prayed that they would just say, "Oh we have time to fingerprint you right now." And they did just that! Super friendly, super fast, super accommodating!! They shaved 3-4 weeks off of our wait time for Maire!! Praise God for small (and large) miracles!

Now if only may agency would take a cue from CIS and step up their game! 10-12 days for our file to make it to desk of our CIS Officer in Texas, then he gives us "provisional approval" and sends that to Visa Center, (then some other crap happens that I don't understand), but everyone promises me that Maire is at the end of the very long and windy road!

Would love to travel in September, but not expecting to. I know that the Hague Treaty is a good thing, but boy did it create a long wait in this already stressful world of adoption!