[teachermom]

We are still trying to decide on an agency, but I have all these questions running through my mind. I'm a person that likes to understand all the steps.

When we adopted our daughter from Korea, our timeline looked like this:

info seminaar- April 22
mailed in I-600A- end of April
all paperwork into agency- May 8
June 3-15- three homestudy visits
June 14- fingerprinted by USCIS
June 29 - referral
After we had the referral our agency sent the homestudy any other papers in with our I-600.
Sept. 8- approved through USCIS
Sept. 23- passport from Korea
Oct. 5- Gotcha Day, home at 5 months

I know this was fast , and that our adoption from Vietnam won't be this quick. I also realize that we have to complete a dossier and that papers have to be authenicated and that this takes time.

My question is in what order does things happen?? Do you have to I-600 approved before receiving a referral? This is the part I really don't understand, because we had to have our referral to submitt the I-600 for our Korean adoption. But, I know with many of the Vietnam agencies, they are saying travel 6-8 weeks after referral is travel.....how is that enough time to get I-600 approval (I know this is called something with a 7 and and H)

I guess that I'm worrying that we would get a referral and then our USCIS department in Ohio would hold something up and we wouldn't get to travel on time. Maybe there is a different order of events for Vietnam than Korea.

Thanks ahead of time for taking the time to answer,

Sarah

[duaneamyjo]

Sarah, You are right. It is different for Vietnam. You have to have your I-171H (USCIS approval) before you can get on a referral waiting list. This approval is your big go-ahead to get things really going! For Vietnam dossiers are only good for 6 months so if your referral wait list is long your agency will ask you to wait to start your dossier until you are near the top of the list. If you get paperwork done too soon it may have to be redone. Sometimes USCIS fingerprints have to be redone too because they expire after 1 year while the I-171H is good for 18 months. It will all become more clear as you go through the steps. Just take it one thing at a time! Hopes this helps!