Baby Steps

I received this text/email message this morning at 1:15am from the lockbox of the USCIS in Texas:

Dear Applicant/Petitioner:

Your USCIS application/petition has been received and routed to the National Benefit Center for processing. Within 7-10 days by standard mail you will receive your official Receipt Notice (Form I-797) with your Receipt Number SIM1111500005. If you have any questions please contact the Hague Unit at (877) 424-8374 or NBC.HAGUE@DHS.GOV

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE

Yeah I know not much progress, but in this waiting game every little baby step counts!

Here is a basic breakdown of the rest of the steps involved in getting our final Travel Approval to be able to go get our baby girl:

When you get your LOA, you sent off your I800 application to USCIS, and they process it. It takes a few weeks for the officer assigned to your case to actually GET it and review the documents, but then they approve you. ---->The notice today was the "proof" they received our I800 application at USCIS

Once you are approved they will print a letter and mail it to you, then they forward your approval to the National Visa Center.

After about 4-5 days you'll get the 800 approval in the mail.

About that same time frame the National Visa Center will "cable" your paperwork to the Consulate in Guangzhou and issue a paper letter saying you've been cabled.

About 4-5 days later you will get that letter from the National Visa Center in the mail. AS SOON AS YOU GET THIS PAPER scan it in and email it to (YOUR AGENCY REP) who will email it to Lily who will print it out...

That letter along with your DS230 and copy of LOA will be taken, by (YOUR AGENCY REP IN CHINA), into the Consulate for (YOUR CHILD's) paperwork to be looked at (and matched up with a copy of your Dossier that the Consulate has). This will "pre-issue" his/her Visa.

The Consulate will issue the Article 5 letter 2 weeks exactly AFTER the paperwork is taken into the Consulate (and they only accept the papers on Mondays and Thursdays).

The Article 5 letter basically means that the United States says that all the paperwork is in order for this child to be issued a visa and there is nothing "lagging" with it.

Once the Article 5 letter is completed, it is sent with the signed LOA back to the CCAA, who then starts the process for the Travel Approval. This step has them contacting the province to verify all is in order with the child's paperwork and the child is ready.

Once they get this notification that the child is ready, they will then issue Travel Approval.-WHEW



Still hoping to spend our 15th Wedding Anniversary (April 27th) in an airplane with 4 kids for 20 hours! I know sounds SO romantic doesn't it??!