[DeeDee]

Please, Please...Can anyone in the state of Alabama tell me how long it took DHR to send approval once the homestudy was submitted to them? Mine was sent in on Oct 24 and I have no word from them at all...............Also, after DHR approval, how long did it take for INS approval????

[BEBE]

HI DEE DEE,

WE ARE NOT IN AL. BUT KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR HOME STUDY ONCE IT IS SENT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES (DHS) IS WHAT IT IS CALLED HERE IN MS. THE REASON I SAY THIS IS BECAUSE OUR HOME STUDY WAS SENT IN TO DHS JULY 31 2002 AND I FINALLY CALLED INS TO SEE WHAT THE HOLD UP WAS AND I FOUND OUT THAT DHS HAD NEVER!! SENT OUR HOME STUDY TO INS (BECAUSE THEY HAD LOST IT) SO I FEEL THAT DHS WASTED 4 MONTHS FOR US BUT I AM SOOOOO GLAD THAT I CALLED INS TO CHECK ON OUR STATUS. WE HOPE TO HAVE OUR INS APPROVAL SOON. GOOD LUCK TO YOU ON YOUR ADOPTION JOURNEY!!!!

[Tylersdad]

DeeDee,

I hope you've gotten some good news by now. Did you get in contact with INS? I'll send you an email.

BeBe: We live in MS also (Brandon) and DHS sat on our dossier for a month. Their excuse to us was that they had a new girl in the office and she wasn't trained yet! Our agency screamed loud enough, I guess, because within a week it went to INS. If you're still waiting for INS approval after about three weeks, start calling there.

God bless,

Marc

[tbynum]

My homestudy was sent to Atlanta in Oct. and I still have not heard one word from my I171H. I have called and my agency has called and INS have not returned one call. I am getting nervous. I am waiting on my referral and want to have it in hand.
I am from Al. too. I am going to call twice a week and I may get the state rep. to call.

[becky]

The Atlanta office took about 6 weeks to process mine after my homestudy was sent. I hope that they are quicker now, my homestudy was sent in October and I received my 171 on December 12th of last year.

Good Luck!

Becky

[Bonnee]

I sent in my initial application in October and it took a month to get response just to be able to be fingerprinted. We live in Alabama (Montgomery) and we are going to B'ham on Tuesday for our fingerprints. I called and spoke with an actual human being (can you imagine) I was told that during October they shutdown and take an inventory of all the documents they have in process. This causes the delay in processing approvals. According to this person they were set to start processing approvals the first of November. I know that doesn't help - but it is nice to know what is causing the delay.