I800 Approval! What's Next?

I did it. I risked it.

At one point in time my agency had told me not to contact our officer or anyone at USCIS for fear that "making waves" could slip our case to the bottom of the pile. Why on earth would I take that risk after everything we've been through, all the delays, the mishaps? Good question! But the new friends I'm making on a Facebook adoption group have said it doesn't hurt. Some have said that by sending a simple email has actually sped up their processes. If you need to know how to do this for your adoption, leave me a comment below and I'll send you the email address and you'll need your SIM#.

Well, it paid off! I received a reply email from our USCIS Officer and we are I800 Approved! The original Approval will be mailed to me for my records. I don't have to do anything with this original, but now that it has been processed and logged, it now goes to the National Visa Center (NVC) where Hu Jing's visa will begin it's process.

Those of you who haven't adopted must be shaking your heads at all the hoops we've had to go through to bring Hu Jing home. My mom doesn't get it, neither do my best friends (unless they are adopting too).

Nothing has gone according to schedule for us. NOTHING. AT. ALL. But we can still pray that it does from this point forward. Here's what it looks like from here on out IF all goes according to schedule...

• NVC Cable sent - should hopefully be sent this week (maybe next) from the National Visa Center (NVC) to the Consulate in Guangzhou
• NVC Letter received by us - 2-3 weeks later
• NVC Letter sent from our agency to China - within days of us receiving it and sending it to our agency
• Article 5 - a standard 2 weeks after NVC Letter is hand-delivered to the Consulate in Guangzhou (this is the only thing that is standard, folks - it gets dropped off on one day and then must be picked up exactly 2 weeks later. No earlier, no later.)
• Travel Approval (TA) - 2-3 weeks after Article 5 is picked up at Consulate and delivered to CCCWA (Chinese adoption authorities)
• Travel to China - 3-4 weeks after we receive approval

I know that's still clear as mud unless you're already up on the China adoption process. But hopefully it helps give you an idea of what's left. None of it is within our control nor do we have anything to do other than wait for the NVC Letter and then overnight it to our agency when it arrives (hopefully they will email me a PDF so that I can just forward the email to my agency immediately). I'll keep you updated as we check each bullet point off the list.

Now we wait for news of the NVC Cable. Continued prayers for smooth sailing ahead would be appreciated.