[CashCrew]

Do any of you know if the Memphis USCIS office will expedite a 171-H if we already have a referral? We don't have one in mind, heck we haven't even chosen an agency and that's a whole other story in itself, but I was just curious. We're in TN if that matters. I know the Memphis USCIS does other states as well.

[AFain]

I don't know if they will as far as if you already have a referral. We had a very long wait from Memphis and tried to get them to expedite our 171h last fall because there was some danger of the laws changing, but they would not. Unfortunately they don't have a reputation of being the fastest office, but I have heard some better time frames lately, approximately a 5 to 6 week wait.

Good luck!

[CashCrew]

Is this wait from submission of $$ and paperwork or from fingerprints?

[Pipercub]

If you do have a referral, include a picture and a nice note that this is your child and anything they can do to rush your paperwork would be so very greatly appreciated. It can't hurt for the person to at least see a face. I've heard of people adopting a waiting child from China that did this and it seemed like their local USCIS actually did process things quickly for them. Sometimes seeing the face behind the paperwork can pull some heartstrings.

[ilona_tn]

Kelly,
We received our I171-H from the Memphis CIS in 11 days. We submitted our paperwork on 2/28/06 and received it in the mail on 3/11/06.

This is what we did..... We each had our own appointment (make it for the same time) made on the uscis website (Infopass). We brought ALL the required paperwork, including the homestudy, with us. We were hoping to be fingerprinted the same day. I was told not to go on Monday because they do not do fingerprinting on that day. We did all this and did, in fact, get fingerprinted the same day.

Good luck to you!
Ilona

[CashCrew]

Did you go directly to the Memphis office or did you go to the Nashville office? Can you make an appt at the Nashville office through infopass? Had you filed already or did you take your paperwork with you when you went to the appointment? This sounds like GREAT news...thank you!

[ShellyfromTN]

We mailed our application to Memphis on May 13, 2006. We received our fingerprint receipt soon after, but we were waiting on our home study. I was fingerprinted on May 30 and my husband was fingerprinted on June 7 (he had to wait because when I went he had a blister on his finger from golfing and they wouldn't fingerprint him). We received our I171-H on July 14.

I think if you go to the office to file you would have to go to Memphis. I'm not 100% sure though.

Good Luck!!

Shelly

Edited to say: You'll see in my signature we mailed our I600-A on April 25. Well that's a long story, but the post office lost first application which was sent via certified mail. We ended up stopping payment on our checks and re-mailing it on May 13.

[CashCrew]

LOL Shelly that is something that would happen to me!! My husband would have a blister from golfing and we would have to postpone....and I would be ready to choke him! hee hee Thanks for the feedback. I guess 5 weeks isn't too terribly bad, especially since our HS was supposed to take that long and took less than a week. So if I went to the memphis office to be fingerprinted I would have to have the forms and money with me that day? So it's too late for me since I already mailed the money and application? Or could I call and void that and get an appointment to go straight in?

[Becca B.]

Hey Kelly-
I just wanted you to know that we got our July 3rd and it look a little more than 5 weeks. I have heard several people recently where it took 5-6 weeks which was much better that it had been..my understanding that it was taking 3 months.
That is from fingerprinting BTW.
I don't think you can schedule an appt via Infopass. If Memphis wasn't 12 hours away it would help wouldn't it!! We could get to Canada before we could get to Memphis LOL!!

Hang in there!! Just be careful accepting a referral before I-171h. For some its OK and they can handle it, but I know I couldn't. The only way I could do it if we had the opportunity to adopt a biological sibling. Just know what you can handle and weight it all out before making that decision.

Good luck to you!!
Have you gotten your fingerprint letter yet??

Becky

[CashCrew]

Thanks so much Becky! I hear ya on the drive!!! I actually talked dh into driving down there and making it a little "mini vacation", but since I've already mailed everything in I wonder if it will even be worth it. We haven't gotten our fingerprinting appts yet. We aren't planning on accepting a referral yet because it really WOULD put me insane like you said. HA HA I just wondered if we had one of those offices that would expedite if we did. Sounds like we have one of the difficult ones. We cannot even get our acts together and choose an agency, so once referral time comes I'm sure we'll be even worse about that! HA