Pearl's baby picture

  

Pearl with a smile

  

Homestudy is Finished!

The completion of our paperwork is so much more frustrating this time around than it was the first time. I am not sure why, but we are just having more glitches with our documents and are constantly having to correct and re-do them, costing us time and aggravation. I think the other aspect that makes this time more difficult is the fact that we have had Pearl's pictures since December of 2005 (and they are very old pictures). We will probably not get to meet her until this coming Fall. That is a very long time to carry around old pictures of a daughter you haven't met.

We have been told that once our paperwork is submitted to China that we can request (with no guarantee) updated photos of Pearl. That is another reason I am in such a hurry to get things done.

Our homestudy is now finished. At this point, one original version is submitted to the BCIS (Immigration) and another original version becomes part of our dossier to China. All of our other documents are also finished. I will be sending them to our agency next week, after I receive the homestudy.

Once BCIS receives our homestudy, they will schedule us to be fingerprinted. After that, it should only take 2 or 3 weeks to issue the 171-h, the last document that must go into our dossier. In the mean time, our other documents will be traveling to Sacramento and Los Angeles to be certified and authenticated. When everything is ready, it is sent to China, translated, and then logged in. The log-in date is usually about a month after the dossier is sent. That date starts the clock ticking. After approximately 75-110 days, China will send us an invitation to travel to pick up our daughter. Once we receive this letter, we schedule a consulate appointment with the US in Guangzhou. Once we have this appointment, we book our plane tickets and pack!!!!!!!