[tmd80]

My husband and I have just recently started the adoption process and are still quite aways from even getting a referral. However, I noticed that the Chicago CIS office that we will be dealing with is just now getting around to processing I-600 forms dated August 30, 2006. Does this mean that when we do actually accept a referral, it will be nearly 5 full months before we are able to travel to Korea? Looking at other CIS office, they are almost all nearly 2 months further along than Chicago! Why does it seem that dealing with Chicago for ANYTHING is an aggravating experience?

[Amymomamie]

Congrats on starting the process....can't tell you why the dates on the USCIS website don't match up but they don't. You can see in my signature line what our timeframe was...so I guess from the time we submitted our I600A yes, it was 5-1/2 months until we received the 171H approval. Now it was almost an additional 2 months for the 171D approval (which means the visa was approved and cabled to Korea) and I honestly think it could have been a shorter wait. More like a month rather than two months. It's just that it didn't dawn on me that it would be ok to check our status with USICS earlier than we did. I think once you receive your 171H, you can contact USCIS after 30 days if you haven't received the 171D but not any sooner than 30 days.

There are some situations where a referral is received very close to the time or prior to the time the I600A is submitted and in that case the 171H is usually not approved and ingored all together and only a 171D is approved. Basically the 171H is kinda antiquated and not really necessary any more but if time allows between the submission of the I600A and acceptance of referral, USCIS will process the 171H and the 171D. Make sense? Maybe not...I feel like I'm babbling.

I guess my point is talk to your SW who can give you a better idea of real time processing and don't look too much into the USCIS dates because they kinda don't make sense. Hope that helped a little and didn't confuse you more.
and I emailed them regarding the 171D because I was thinking it was taking too long for the final approval. Seems that lit a fire somewhere and we received our approval shortly thereafter.

Do you mind me asking what agency you are using?

Amy

[specialk4b]

Hi tmd!

Yeah, don't worry about what the website says. It seems to be very out-of-date most of the time.

You may want to post a query on this forum: http://forums.adoption.com/immigration-naturalization/ or on one of the busier country forums to get recent experience with the Chicago office.

[racytracy]

Not to be alarmist, but in my experience the dates on that site weren't too off. Our travel WAS affected by the slow speed at which the Chicago USCIS office was processing paperwork--Korea was waiting on them.

Yes, it sucks. But it's part of the adoption thing that's beyond your control. Cook County lost my husband's fingerprints for 3 months, as well!

Now I'm waiting for my son's birth certificate--we finalized at the end of JULY! I just hope to get a SS number by tax time... For children birthed in Cook County, the wait for a BC is 8 weeks. HA!

Good luck!
Tracy

[tmd80]

Thanks so much for the input. We are so excited about adopting and just wish we could push the process along quicker. We are hoping that the new regulations don't slow things down considerably and our agency is taking steps to speed things along on their end as much as possible. Of course, nobody seems to be quite sure what the new regulations will mean for our wait times. However, our SW indicated that these new regulations may just be on a trial period of 6 months, after which time, if the program doesn't seem to have much impact, the South Koreans may open the regulations up again. It is quite a financial strain on the country to care for all fo those little children so the less time they are responsible for them, the better for teh Korean citizens. And the idea that a culture would completely change in short-time due to some financial incentives seems somewhat farstrectched. Perhaps things won't be quite as bad as many have been led to believe. We are certainly hoping so. After three years of trying to conceive and 4 miscarriages, we are just so excited at the prospect of being parents. The wait will not doubt be worth every second!

BTW, we are using Lifelink as our agency.

[Amymomamie]

I just have to say again that if you look at our timeline yes, it did take uf 5-1/2 months to get 171H approval and another 2 months to get 171D approval so take that into consideration when you read the USCIS website processing dates.

What do I mean? Well when you look at the info posted there their site indicates the current processing date for the I600 as Aug 30. Our I600 was sent in mid-Oct and has been approved as of Jan 5 so I'm not sure how the dates on the website are that accurate.

We also used Lifelink and if you'd like to email me you can via pm or at amy_mo_mamie@yahoo.com.

Good luck!

Amy

[mmcool]

Originally Posted by tmd80

However, our SW indicated that these new regulations may just be on a trial period of 6 months, after which time, if the program doesn't seem to have much impact, the South Koreans may open the regulations up again.

That is the first I have heard about that. I was under the impression that the changes were a permanent step toward the ending of international adoption. Very interesting.

I agree about the changing of the culture -- it takes a long time to make lasting changes. It has always been my thought that they need to institute a better education piece to increase the efficacy of their efforts. My hope is that whatever they do is done with the children in the forefront of their minds. Their well-being is what matters most.

Melissa