I-171H

WE GOT OUR NEW I-171H YESTERDAY!!!

That’s one less thing for me to stress about.

 

Okay…I’m calmer

I have put the candy bag down and stepped away from the Twizzlers.

Yesterday, after the drama (everything seems really dramatic to me right now) of the still-absent I-171h renewal and the comments my agency made about how quickly we might have our referral, I was pretty stressed.

This morning I called my home study agency (they are SO AWESOME, those ladies) and conveyed my stress to them. They told me to call them if we get our referral and still don’t have the renewed I-171h. They will call the USCIS and say “HEY, WHERE THE HELL IS IT??!!” and the USCIS will expedite it. They say there have been close calls before and it all worked out okay. Our travel will not be delayed.

Apparently the USCIS is backed up right now and is slower than normal, maybe because of Christmas. (The first time around I had to contact a senator to help us get the doc in a timely manner…and trust me when I say I’m pretty Type B. The wait was bad enough to aggravate me and, honestly, that’s hard to do.)

For the non-adoptive peeps out there, the I-171h is the piece of paper that authorizes us to bring FD back with us from China and make her a U.S. citizen. They won’t let her into the country without it, so it’s pretty important. Out of the entire paper chasing process, dealing with the USCIS has been the absolute worst part. We didn’t have this much hassle with the U.S. Immigration service when James was applying for his green card.

Now I just have to call my agency and apprise them of our situation.

I feel better today. But I won’t feel relieved until we have that renewed I-171h in hand.

EDIT: The agency today said “their best guess” is that we won’t be in the next batch. So…meh.

 

Don’t mind me….

I’m just going to go ahead and freak out here for a second.

%*^*%$*(&^*&^%$(&^& USCIS!!!!

There was a message on my recorder when I got home from work tonight, in response to some concerns that I had over our still missing I-171h renewal. The agency rep says she expects the 9/29ers to have their referral in this next batch, coming at the end of December or early January.

I listened to the message three times. That’s what she said.

The newsletter they just put out has the prediction at end of Jan/early Feb…but that’’s NOT what she said on the message (Maybe she mispoke? Maybe?)

So that’s the good news (maybe).

The bad news is that we need the I-171H to be valid at the time of match or shortly thereafter. If it’s not…it delays our trip.

I cannot tell you all the bad things I wish on the USCIS right now. I’m so nervous I just chain munched almost an entire pound of Twizzlers before I even knew I was doing it.

Tomorrow I have to make a bunch of phone calls. ^&*%(*&*^%($&*&$&#*^(&*%*&$^%^#$@!~!~!!!

(I told I was going to go crazy)

 

Argh.

I am going to have a spitting/crying FIT to rival a two year old’s tantrum if our renewed I-171H is not here by Monday.

Why? Because our current 171 expires Wednesday! I don’t know what it means if the old one expires before the new arrives and I would prefer not to find out.

THE USCIS IS KILLING ME OVER HERE! Just like they did the first time. Grrr. Except now there is a chance we could have our referral before Christmas, so they are EXTRA KILLING ME!

Let the craziness begin.

Saturday Update: I’m much calmer today, really. I stalked the mailman today and the renewed I-171h still didn’t come. But it’s cool. I’m cool. COOL. Really. Seriously, what are the chances we’ll have the referral this month anyway? Not huge.