Our Case is at the National Visa Center
I received confirmation back from USCIS today that they indeed forwarded our case to the National Visa Center on May 21. They have no idea how long normal processing takes at this center. I envision some poor guy in a room with an avalanche of paper double-checking other branches of the government's work before processing various visa requests. UGH! What's totally sad is that the NVC doesn't even know they have our file according to the email I received yesterday.
My hope is that 'very serious Nick' will receive my email update this afternoon and think, "ah ha, I'll give my buddy Sam a call and see if he can locate this visa request and zip it right through". Of course, I have no confidence that there really is a 'Sam' and certainly no confidence that anything will be 'zipping' right through. In fact, nothing seems 'zippy' at all about this branch of the government. Yes, I understand that the Hague might be really throwing a wrench into the works but to not have a process for being able to prioritize Visas seems odd. Even the FBI will process your fingerprints expeditiously if you write For International Adoption (I did mine in pink of course) on the envelope.
On a more positive note, today I started packing Mia's bag. She has cuddly pink blankies, a couple of teething toys ('cause you no she's going to get ALL her teeth on the flight to Chicago, right?), a cloth book, a variety of OTC and perscription medication just in case she picks up any illnesses while we're gone, some cute onsie skirt outfits for hanging out at the apartment, and the patriotic Embassy and homecoming outfits with the matching stars and stripes sandals and hat. Nathan and I debated about the right outfit for the 'Leaving the Orphanage' outfit. I had picked out the sweetest little dress in vibrant colors but am wondering if a pants outfit might be better. For all of y'all that are unfamilar with the conventions for dressing children in Russia, it's a bit different from ours. They expect that you'll cover your children up from head to toe. So, in the 95+ degree days, we still had Sasha in a hat, jeans jacket, long pants and shoes and socks. We've actually heard of a couple of cases where adoptive parents were turned into the police for child abuse for not dressing their children properly. This is NOT the kind of blog entry I want to be writing in the future. So .. we'll do our best to cover her up while we're in public to avoid any unpleasantness. I even bought her a very fashionable little coat that she can wear over her sleeveless outfits if we need to go in public. I'm a little at a loss on the shoes bit. Apparently they also believe that shoes that look like tennis shoes aren't good for the child's feet. I have sandals but do people wear sandals with tights?? Ah ... it's hard to be fashionable and 'safe' . So ... pants might be best for the 'leaving the orphanage' outfit. I'll have to keep thinking about that.
I think we've decided to see if we can 'spring' her from the orphanage the Monday that we get back from St. Petersburg. Nathan wasn't there for Sasha's orphanage departure so I thought this would be a great family photo op time not to mention that, bless her heart, she's spent enough time at her baby home.
VISA UPDATE: So, Nick just called and I was able to get some less-serious comments out of him. He said, "oh, it's good to hear that you're in a good mood". "Why? Am I going to be in a bad mood after talking with you," I asked. UGH ... this wasn't going to be good. Apparently our file, not just an email or a cable but an entire folder full of paper (can you believe this??) is sitting vacationing at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala. And, get this, the 'case' that USCIS forwarded to the National Visa Center went by MAIL - not email, not electronically - SNAIL MAIL! Lord, what's up with this?? Who uses actual paper anymore? Is our government trying to subsidize the paper industry? Thus the reason why they haven't processed our case yet. The little man that I had originally imagined buried in a mound of paper is EXACTLY like that.
Bottom line, is there some miracle that is possible that will sort all this out?? He admitted that this isn't the first time he's seen this and that, if we talk to others who are adopting, that we should encourage them to get their Congresspeople involved at the beginning of their change of country to make sure that the file goes to the right place. Nick said it wouldn't be a miracle (easy for him to say since he hasn't been working on this since March 6!) and that he thought it would be sorted out before the end of next week. His assistant Sue was leaving another message for USCIS this afternoon (because they only answer their phone on Tuesday and Thursday) to see if they still have our information so they can cable our change of country approval to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow (as opposed to snail mailing information to the NVC). Apparently, they would cable this approval directly to Moscow and then the Moscow Embassy can contact the Guatemalan Embassy so they can get our file sent over to them. He told me that he thought I was handling all this really well but, hey, what else can I do?
Hope our Visa has a nice tan before it heads to Moscow and hope it arrives before the team in Moscow decides that we have to postpone our court date.
My hope is that 'very serious Nick' will receive my email update this afternoon and think, "ah ha, I'll give my buddy Sam a call and see if he can locate this visa request and zip it right through". Of course, I have no confidence that there really is a 'Sam' and certainly no confidence that anything will be 'zipping' right through. In fact, nothing seems 'zippy' at all about this branch of the government. Yes, I understand that the Hague might be really throwing a wrench into the works but to not have a process for being able to prioritize Visas seems odd. Even the FBI will process your fingerprints expeditiously if you write For International Adoption (I did mine in pink of course) on the envelope.
On a more positive note, today I started packing Mia's bag. She has cuddly pink blankies, a couple of teething toys ('cause you no she's going to get ALL her teeth on the flight to Chicago, right?), a cloth book, a variety of OTC and perscription medication just in case she picks up any illnesses while we're gone, some cute onsie skirt outfits for hanging out at the apartment, and the patriotic Embassy and homecoming outfits with the matching stars and stripes sandals and hat. Nathan and I debated about the right outfit for the 'Leaving the Orphanage' outfit. I had picked out the sweetest little dress in vibrant colors but am wondering if a pants outfit might be better. For all of y'all that are unfamilar with the conventions for dressing children in Russia, it's a bit different from ours. They expect that you'll cover your children up from head to toe. So, in the 95+ degree days, we still had Sasha in a hat, jeans jacket, long pants and shoes and socks. We've actually heard of a couple of cases where adoptive parents were turned into the police for child abuse for not dressing their children properly. This is NOT the kind of blog entry I want to be writing in the future. So .. we'll do our best to cover her up while we're in public to avoid any unpleasantness. I even bought her a very fashionable little coat that she can wear over her sleeveless outfits if we need to go in public. I'm a little at a loss on the shoes bit. Apparently they also believe that shoes that look like tennis shoes aren't good for the child's feet. I have sandals but do people wear sandals with tights?? Ah ... it's hard to be fashionable and 'safe' . So ... pants might be best for the 'leaving the orphanage' outfit. I'll have to keep thinking about that.
I think we've decided to see if we can 'spring' her from the orphanage the Monday that we get back from St. Petersburg. Nathan wasn't there for Sasha's orphanage departure so I thought this would be a great family photo op time not to mention that, bless her heart, she's spent enough time at her baby home.
VISA UPDATE: So, Nick just called and I was able to get some less-serious comments out of him. He said, "oh, it's good to hear that you're in a good mood". "Why? Am I going to be in a bad mood after talking with you," I asked. UGH ... this wasn't going to be good. Apparently our file, not just an email or a cable but an entire folder full of paper (can you believe this??) is sitting vacationing at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala. And, get this, the 'case' that USCIS forwarded to the National Visa Center went by MAIL - not email, not electronically - SNAIL MAIL! Lord, what's up with this?? Who uses actual paper anymore? Is our government trying to subsidize the paper industry? Thus the reason why they haven't processed our case yet. The little man that I had originally imagined buried in a mound of paper is EXACTLY like that.
Bottom line, is there some miracle that is possible that will sort all this out?? He admitted that this isn't the first time he's seen this and that, if we talk to others who are adopting, that we should encourage them to get their Congresspeople involved at the beginning of their change of country to make sure that the file goes to the right place. Nick said it wouldn't be a miracle (easy for him to say since he hasn't been working on this since March 6!) and that he thought it would be sorted out before the end of next week. His assistant Sue was leaving another message for USCIS this afternoon (because they only answer their phone on Tuesday and Thursday) to see if they still have our information so they can cable our change of country approval to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow (as opposed to snail mailing information to the NVC). Apparently, they would cable this approval directly to Moscow and then the Moscow Embassy can contact the Guatemalan Embassy so they can get our file sent over to them. He told me that he thought I was handling all this really well but, hey, what else can I do?
Hope our Visa has a nice tan before it heads to Moscow and hope it arrives before the team in Moscow decides that we have to postpone our court date.
posted by Tamara at 4:34 PM
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