[Ladyofmoonlight]

Hey all,

I'm getting impatient waiting to hear from the USCIS office! I was wondering if anyone else out there went through the Charlotte NC USCIS office. If you did, would you mind sharing your experience with me? Were they fast? Slow? Nice? Rude?

Thanks!
-Megan

[ocracoke]

Megan,

I went through the Charlotte office but it has been a while. I mailed my application in late November 2005. I got a letter in December stating that it had been received and my fingerprint appointment was February 15th. I had my appointment on that date and I received my approval on March 18th. Timelines could have changed a lot since that time frame. I did not have many other dealings with them. I found the staff to be very nice while I was there getting fingerprinted. I did make a mistake on my application so after receiving my approval I made a request for a correction and heard nothing for a week. I made a second request and asked for confirmation that the problem had been corrected by phone, email or letter and I received confirmation by all 3.

Samantha

[Ladyofmoonlight]

Samantha,

Thank you so much! We submitted ours this past November and I just received an email this morning (in response to a question I'd sent in) telling me to expect fingerprinting in February, so I guess the timeframe is the same. Arg, I wish I'd sent the form in sooner! I'd heard you shouldn't submit for USCIS until your HS was complete, but halfway through our HS the agency told me I should send it in ASAP, and should have done it already. I feel so dumb now! But, it's in, and in line.

Thanks again,
Megan

[bluedaisy]

Megan, last year at this time, I was also wishing I'd sent ours in sooner... Samantha and I were waiting at the same time and had a whole long thread about Charlotte USCIS!

I was on a similar timeframe to Samantha's. The longest wait is for the fingerprinting appointment, and then the approval comes quickly afterwards.

I remember ours arrived on March 15 because it was the same day we got our referral! (Our son has been with us 8 months as of today.)

Some agencies let you submit your dossier while you are waiting for the I171H, and our agency did. So we had approval in plenty of time to travel.

By the way, do you live in NC? We have a group of people in NC who have kids from Ethiopia (or who are in the process). PM me your email address if you'd like to join us.

[Ladyofmoonlight]

Bluedaisy - Thanks for the response. Our agency allows us to send in our other documents first, but there's a 7+ month wait for a referal (increasing in time, perhaps up to a year), so unfortunately it won't be happening on the same day as approval. Because of the long wait you can see why I wish I'd sent this in sooner! It's the difference between having our son home this year or next, really (even if it's only a month off). Oh, impatient me! We were ready to be parents a year ago!

Yes, we live in NC, in Raleigh. I'll PM you with my email addy

Thanks,
Megan