USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services)

When you adopt internationally you deal with two separate governments and all the paperwork that each one requires. Some of the paperwork is the same between the two, some isn't. We have everything finished to satisfy the Chinese government. It has been approved at the State level, by the State Department and the Chinese Embassy.

As far as the US paperwork, you have to get a "permission slip" from the US government to adopt a foreigner and bring them into the US. The USCIS won't grant this "permission slip" (I-171H) until you have been cleared by the FBI (fingerprints) and the USCIS has reviewed the home study, all your vital documents (birth certificates, marriage licenses, divorce decrees), physician letters etc. If everything is A-Okay with them they will send you the 171H.

1. You need the 171H to get the US consulate appointment in China.
2. You need the appointment to get your child's passport and citizenship papers.
3. You need the passport so they can get on the plane.
4. They need to get on the plane so they can come home AND become US citizens as soon as the plane lands on American soil.

A long time ago there was a misspelling on Jeff's original birth certificate. His mom took it back to the county clerk in MI and had it corrected. But for some reason the USCIS thinks it should have been done by "court order". I mean please..... it was 1959. They didn't have computers like they do now. The county clerk wrote a line through his name and re-wrote it the correct way and issued a new birth certificate. The USCIS is being sticky on this and will only recognize the original misspelled birth certificate. They are sending us a 171H with Jeff's name spelled wrong!

That might not sound like that big of a deal, except the US Consulate in China won't let you take a child out of the country unless the name on the 171H matches your name on every other piece of paper in the dossier. (Believe me it happens. I just met a woman who was in Russia to adopt and was sent home because of a typo. It took her 3 months before she got everything corrected and was able to go back to Russia.)

Thank-goodness we have a politically tied social worker. I've been to her house and she has pictures of her and her family with presidents, senators and a lot of other people. We have been on the phone with the USCIS, SC Department of Heath and are waiting for a call back from our congressman's office. The USCIS reports to the congressional level. Nobody else tells them what to do. The only way to "encourage" the USCIS to spell Jeff's name right will be if our congressman Bob Inglis steps in.

I had heard it was a good idea to let your senator know you are adopting internationally. If there are problems in the foreign country then you have someone who is aware of you and what you are doing. I didn't think we would need to resort to it before we even left the US!!

Well it has been an interesting journey!!! I'm sure we will get what we need, it is just how many hoops do we and other people have to jump through before we have that little golden piece of paper, the I-171H, in our hands (with Jeff's name spelled right).