And Out

I couldn't wait.
I called the NVC after East Coast business hours to find out we were logged out of the NVC today! Moving right along...
However, C and I have a few already planned trips for a wedding and business coming up in the first half of October which means we are not quite so flexible on the "Leave at a drop of a hat to go pick up your son call." So, unless our paperwork miraculously flies through getting the visa application packet out from the embassy to the agency in Korea and back in the next week, we won't be able to travel until after October 17th. Currently, C does not have a business trip scheduled for the 20-24th, but that could change which means we will be delayed by a whole week. I am so hoping that nothing comes up for him that week. 4 weeks from our Immigration letter arrival would be October 13th- that business trip is already scheduled, so we are out of luck there. 5 weeks is the 20th- 24th.

NVC In

After finally getting a real person on the phone and not just a busy signal (5 attempts), the recording which promptly kicked me out when I tried to transfer to an operator (1 attempt) and staying on hold for 5 minutes (final attempt), I spoke with a very helpful man who verified our information, gave me our case number and said we had been logged in to the National Visa Center as of yesterday. Yea!

I'll call again later in the week to see if we have been logged out. I hope everything continues to move along smoothly now.

Immigration Approval

It came today! Walked to the mailbox in mid-afternoon and was thrilled to see a manila envelope from the Dept. of Homeland Security in our box. So, the recent trend for quicker immigration approvals of those we know has continued. :) We were approved last Thursday, 9 days after getting fingerprinted.

Called our agency to let them know our good news. Was told he will most probably be ready to come home 4-5 weeks from today! Since I heard it directly, I am no longer considering that to be a rumor. Things may still happen to slow it down, but I certainly hope not!

Next steps that will happen in the US: get logged in and out of the National Visa Center, information is forwarded to US Embassy in Seoul.
All other steps happen in Korea! Woo-hoo!

Department of Homeland Security

I stay in touch frequently with our friends C & K and S & L, who are both a few weeks ahead of us in regards to the paperwork process to bring their daughters home. It has been helping me to know the general time frames of when each of their families completed each of the steps so far.

In regards to our next step, which is the fingerprint invitation from the Department of Homeland Security, C & K did not know when their I600 was actually mailed off, but received their fingerprint invitation two weeks to the day after receiving their daughter's legal paperwork. On the other hand, S & L had to wait a bit longer for their 1600 to be sent off, but they knew it was mailed out on a Monday, and they received their fingerprint invitation that Friday.

So, since today happens to be two weeks to the day after we received J's Legals AND the Friday after our I600 was mailed on a Monday, needless to say I was quite anxious all day!

I think I checked the mail 5 times today.

Really.

Typically our mail gets to our box at about 2pm each day. I started checking at noon, when C and I drove by on the way to lunch and to pick up the crib at Babies-R-Us which finally arrived from the warehouse. Empty.
Checked again on the way back to the house to pick up the trailer since the crib would not fit in the back of my car. Empty.
We didn't head back out right away, so we checked again at about 2:30 on our way back to Babies-R-Us. Empty. At that point C was getting frustrated with me and started reminding me that just because C & K and S & L got things on certain days doesn't mean that we will. So he didn't let me stop and check it when we got back with the crib.
But then I had to go get get gas as my car was near empty, so I checked again on my way to the gas station. That was try #4, at about 4 pm. Still empty. I figured we just didn't get any mail today at all.

We worked in the the backyard for awhile (we are landscaping it ourselves.) Then C went in to to start the grill for our late dinner. We realized we were out of milk, so I ran to the store quickly to pick some up while our chicken was grilling. I figured I would stop just one more time (at this point it is about 7:30 at night) just to check.

Voila- we had mail and in it was our invitation to go get fingerprinted!
What drama!

Anyway, now that we have it, we will need to drive up to Aurora to go get our fingerprints done, so that our I600 can be officially processed. I heard it is a very quick appointment, so we will be spending more time driving in the car then at the appointment! Unfortunately, the office will be closed tomorrow, as it is closed all Saturdays before holidays and Monday is Labor Day. So we will have to wait until Tuesday to go up. Bummer.

Immigration Application Off

Just got word that our State approval letter was received by AAC and our I600 immigration application sent to the Denver USCIS office as of yesterday. The invitation to be fingerprinted should be arriving in our mail sometime this week or next.

It feels good to check off yet another step on the way to bringing J home.