[guatwait]

My husband and I have been waiting over 60 days for preapproval. On Wed. I thought we had finally received it, but instead had an email stating they needed to further investigate. It said they were conducting an I-604 investigation. The email asked us not to reply and said they did not have to tell us any info. as to why it is being investigated. Has anyone ever experienced this? If so, how long did it take? We are scared to death! This is our first child, and we are so in love with her and want her home ASAP!

[KMatthews]

I don't have any advice on this but wanted to tell you I'm so sorry and I hope this can be resolved ASAP!!! and they give you your PA.

[GuateRose]

Don't have any info for you, but praying for a speedy investigation.
GuateRose

[mildredjohn]

Is regarding with adoptions in Cambodia but with this you can figure it out what is the investigation about. I hope your situation can be solved soon.

_____________________________________________
As a result of circumstances encountered regarding adoptions in Cambodia, an Adoptions Task Force was created in January 2002. One of the many recommendations and findings of the task force was the need to provide changes to the adjudication process that allow for the determination of a child’s status as an orphan under the Immigration and Nationality Act (the Act) prior to a United States citizen adopting or obtaining legal custody of a child. If a prospective adoptive parent (PAP) opts to participate in the pilot program, then the Request for and Report on Overseas Orphan Investigation (Form I-604) into the child’s status as an “orphan” will be completed prior to final adjudication of the Form I-600. This program should prevent situations (such as were encountered in Cambodia) where a PAP has traveled overseas, completed an adoption in the foreign-sending country, and then been unable to return to the United States with that child because the Form I-604 investigation revealed that the child did not meet the Act’s definition of “orphan.” The pilot program involves the following five countries: Haiti, Honduras, Philippines, Poland, and Sierra Leone. Updates will be forwarded as countries are added or removed from this list.





Processing

• The PAP(s) submit a Form I-600A to the Bureau of Citizenship & Immigration Services (the Bureau) which is adjudicated under established procedure.
• If the Form I-600A is approved, the Bureau will send the PAP a letter explaining the special “adjudicate orphan status first” pilot program along with the Form I-600A approval notice (Form I-171H/I-797C). This letter will include instructions outlining the terms of the pilot program and, if returned to the Bureau, indicate that the PAP wishes to participate (please refer to the attachments).1
• The PAP may opt to participate in the pilot program at the time the Form I-600 is filed, in either a field office in the United States or at a United States Embassy or consulate abroad, so long as no adoption or legal custody arrangement has taken place. The Form I-600 should be accompanied by all supporting information required at 8 CFR 204.3(d), except for the final adoption decree or custody decision.
• When the Form I-600 is received identifying an orphan from one of the pilot countries, the designated person will input the required information into the orphan first spreadsheet (as explained further on) and forward to a cc:mailbox designated for the collection of quality assurance data regardless of whether the PAP(s) are participating in the pilot program.
• The Form I-600 will be reviewed for prima facie eligibility. If documents submitted clearly indicate that the child is not an orphan on statutory grounds because, for example, the child has two parents and it is a private relinquishment, or the child is over the statutory age of eligibility at the time the petition is filed, a Form I-604 investigation should not be requested. Rather, the normal procedures for adjudication, including a request for further evidence if appropriate, or denial, should be followed.
• If the supporting documents establish that the identified child is prima facie eligible as an orphan, the officer should prepare the Form I-604 and all supporting original documents will be forwarded to the National Visa Center (NVC), clearly identifying the case as a participant in the Adjudicate Orphan Status First Pilot Program. The NVC will then forward the Form I-604 package by express mail to the overseas BCIS or State Department (DOS) office having jurisdiction over the Form I-604 investigation. A duplicate of the Form I-604 and supporting documents which have been sent to the NVC should be retained in the Form I-600 file which remains at the field office.

• The receiving office will give these cases the same high priority as other cases involving the immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. Cases which under the current process would be approved after a verification that the documentation is authentic and is in order, would

• continue to be approved after a similar review of the documentation. Cases which currently would lead to follow up questions regarding documentation would, under the new process, also require the same processing steps.

.

• If the Form I-604 investigation leads to an assessment that the child is an orphan as those terms are defined in the Act and 8 CFR 204.3, the overseas post will return the Form I-604 package directly to the sending domestic field office. The field office will issue a request for evidence (RFE) notifying the PAPs of the findings and instructing them to finalize the adoption/custody arrangement and submit documentation of such action. Following submission of the final adoption decree, the Form I-600 will be adjudicated as all others. In instances where a PAP wishes to travel abroad in order to adopt the child or is required by local laws to be physically present in the sending country, the BCIS stateside office will forward the unadjudicated Form I-600 packet to the overseas post having jurisdiction. If the overseas post determines that the Form I-600 is not clearly approvable the procedures for possible denial remain the same (i.e. DOS forwards to BCIS office overseas for appropriate action).
• If the Form I-604 investigation indicates that the identified child is not, or may not be, an orphan as defined in the Act and 8 CFR Section 204.3, and a field investigation, if appropriate, has been conducted without resolving the problem favorably, the overseas post will return the Form I-604 package directly to the sending domestic Field Office. The field office will then prepare a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID), if appropriate.2 This NOID shall inform the PAP that the child is not eligible for immigration as an orphan, and provide a summary of the results of the Form I-604 investigation and any additional evidence considered.
• If, at some point in this process, such as in the response to the NOID, new evidence submitted by the PAP or obtained through a field investigation supports an assessment that the child would be eligible for immigration as an orphan, the process followed would be that followed for a favorable assessment: a cover letter and a Request for Further Evidence (Form I-72) requesting a copy of the adoption decree or custody decision for completion of the evidence that is required for adjudication of the Form I-600 Petition. Should the PAP be required to be physically present by the local laws of the sending country, the BCIS stateside office will forward the unadjudicated Form I-600 packet to the overseas post having jurisdiction.

• Procedures for the adjudication of a Form I-600 filed at an overseas post remain the same, in that the Form I-604 must be completed prior to the approval or denial of the Form I-600. However, in order to qualify for the pilot program the PAP may not have already adopted the

• child identified in the Form I-600. If the overseas post determines that the Form I-600 is not clearly approvable the procedures for possible denial remain the same (i.e. DOS forwards to BCIS office overseas for appropriate action).

• If a Denial is issued and overturned on appeal, the process would be the same as the process described when a favorable determination of orphanhood is found.
• For all pilot countries, whether the PAP participated in the pilot program or not, any decision of denial that is issued by the Service should be forwarded to Joseph D. Cuddihy, Senior Management Counsel to the Director of the Office of International Affairs, via cc:mail, for analysis of the success of the program.

Orphan Adoption Quality Assurance Data Collection


As part of the Quality Assurance of the ”Adjudicate Orphan First” pilot program, a data collection capability will be implemented. It is intended to help determine the success and progress of the pilot program and to compare the timeliness and validity of the pilot program with the current process. In order to gather the necessary data needed for program evaluation, all BCIS field offices, and the five overseas posts identified will conduct data entry using an Excel spreadsheet which will be distributed for this purpose (please refer to the attachments).

There are six fields to be completed in the spreadsheet for domestic offices and five fields in the spreadsheet for overseas posts (see appendix A). Additionally, the spreadsheet will indicate the reporting FCO/overseas post and an individual case number. Each field must be annotated with the pertinent date of the action.

The following steps outline how, when, and where the data will be recorded and transmitted.

• All Form I-600’s that identify a country participating in the pilot program (Haiti, Honduras, Philippines, Poland, Sierra Leone, for orphan adoption) will require tracking and data entry under the pilot program whether or not the PAP has opted to participate in the program (or withdraws from participation).
• Upon receipt of the Form I-600 (or when the file comes under the control of the adjudicating officer) a case tracking number/identifier will be assigned to each individual filing under the pilot program (or identifying a country covered under the pilot), if one was not assigned previously by a forwarding office.

The tracking number naming format is as follows: It has 4 alphanumeric parts separated by a hyphen. It starts with a two letter sending country code; [HT (Haiti), HD (Honduras), PO (Poland), SA (Sierra Leone), PI (Philippines)]. The last part is a sequential number assigned to
pilot cases in each office, starting with 001, for each of the five sending countries. A column follows in which a “Y” for yes or an “N” for no will be entered in order to indicate whether the petitioner has chosen to participate in the pilot program. If, at some point in the process the petitioner decides to withdraw from participation this may be noted in the “comments” column on the spreadsheet.

• There will only be one QA tracking sheet per office, therefore, in instances where offices have more than one officer assigned to adjudicate orphan petitions, it is suggested that it be accessed on a shared computer drive, enabling access by more than one officer.

• Where a field office has only one officer adjudicating orphan petitions, that officer should also serve in the capacity as point of contact (POC) to headquarters. Where there is more than one officer assigned to adjudicating orphan petitions, a single POC should be established (with a back up POC assigned).

• All tracking information for a particular site is captured on one single spreadsheet. Every time an action is taken on a case, the appropriate field in the spreadsheet should be filled and the file should be re-saved under its initial name. As time passes, the spreadsheet expands, containing data related to all cases filed at that particular field office. Do not keep more than one version of the spreadsheet (except for back-up purposes) as at any time the existing version should be the most complete and up-to-date version.

<UL type=DISC>The updated QA Excel tracking sheet shall be transmitted to HQ once per month, on or about 1st, for analysis to a dedicated cc:mailbox designated as ORPHAN QA, or for Department of State POCs e-mail to

[jroandco]

I have not experienced this, but I did research it online to try to help. I did not read all of it. There is a lot. Here are a few links that might help. I hope this gets resolved favorably and quickly for you.

As I tried to do this quickly for you, please forgive me if something is not pertinent.

jessica

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/87532.pdf

Section 8CFR204.3

www.jcics.org/orphanmemoBCIS.DOC

[spidermanteache]

We were in the investigation section waiting for Preapproval from Sept. 2003-March 2004. There were many of us that were put into the investigation section at that time. They will not tell you the details of the investigation. It is very frustrating. I will tell you that some investigations are pulled at random and others are pulled because of something in the file that has caused a red flag. After we looked through all of our returned paperwork I concluded that we were put into the investigations section because of a possible faudulant birthmother's cedula. Our attorney had to provide a new copy and then eventually we were approved. I will say that I did get my congressman involved and I don't know if it helped or not, but we were shortly released.

Best of luck. I know how frustrating it is.

[praying4rlittl1]

In Haiti, an I604 is routinely done before they will issue the I600 approval (there is no pre-approval step). During the investigation, they made sure that our son truly qualified for adoption under US rules. The article that was posted is the best explanation of what they are doing. Why they are doing it I have no idea. Maybe they are trying to avoid the scenario of the parents that were refused Visas at the Embassy. Once you receive an approved I604, our own government won't refuse your Visa. Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions ok?

[ashlind]

We waited for pre-approval for over 7 months. We, too, were put into investigation and I was just devastated. All the E wanted to do was interview the birthmom. It took FIVE attempts to have this happen. There was always a problem with the interview taking place: no cedula, didn't bring an interpreter, and even having a baby on the day of the 4th attempt. After this fourth try the E wanted to close our case. I contacted my congressman's office and they were in communication with the E immediately. They talked them out of closing our case and asked for just 1 more try at the interview. My agency director flew to GC to make sure that this interview would happen. It did and we had preapproval a week later!
Good luck to you. I would suggest getting your congressman involved. They should be able to find out the reason for the investigation.