Last Friday, October 22nd was the greatest day! Why, you ask? Because we got our I-171H or our "Golden Ticket" as it's referred to in the adoption community.
We weren't expecting to get it so quickly, we were very surprised! The government's website says that the Department of Homeland Security's average processing time for an I-171H is 2.5 months (from the time fingerprints are submitted). Our friends have waited an average of 4-7 weeks. So, you can imagine why we were blown away when it only took one week (7 days) for us to get our I-171H.
We figured that we would be waiting on our I-171H to be able to send off our Dossier but in all reality we're waiting on the Illinois' Secretary of State, All Blessings International, and Kentucky's Secretary of State. We hope to get our Dossier in the mail by next Friday but if not next week definitely the week of November 8th. Please pray with us that all of our documents come in next week!
What happens after our Dossier is in the mail?
Children's Hope International will bundle our notarized documents into one document and send it to the U.S. Department of State to be authenticated. A second authentication is required from the Ethiopia Embassy in Washington D.C. We will then be notified when we are on the waiting list for a referral and our documents are on their way to Ethiopia (all of this should take 2-3 weeks).
We're getting closer by the day! Hopefully, we'll celebrate the holidays with our family and friends, knowing that we're officially on the wait list.
Flourishing is on the other side
3 weeks ago
Yay! I am so happy that it is going so well for you guys! Take care!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alli! Where are y'all in the process? Hope everything is going well for y'all too. We've been hitting snags finalizing our Dossier but hopefully that will be resolved soon.
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