United States Citizenship & Immigration Biometrics Appointments Set - 1/5/2011

Another day of exciting mail for us!  It's been wonderful getting all of the Christmas cards, letters, postcards and other correspondence, but the most exciting letters all week have been from the United States of America - Citizenship and Immigration Services.  They have approved our paperwork, and are now requesting we have our fingerprints done in the Federal Building.  Okay, so this is the part where you, I, and everyone else says, hey didn't you/we already do this?

Yes and No.

We had the FBI approve our fingerprints and clearances, and we did the fingerprints in September.  Well, shouldn't they still be good?  Yes, but this is the part where our government has some duplication.  In the State of Washington, for all adoptions, domestic and international, they require a Federal background check.  Believe it or not, Washington is one of the few states that does that.  So, the Federal Government doesn't expect the state to have done this done already, and they require the paperwork to be done by a USCIS employee.  Thank you God they have an office in Spokane!  Some people have to drive and stay overnight, but we are thankful this is not us!

Anyhow, this makes it look like we have about 70 days left before we will have the blessing of the US Government and then, oh wow, it will be time to go through all of the authentication, certification, translation & more.  What a wonderful early Christmas present!