The Saga ... Continues!
So .. last week on May 20th, I received a note worthy of celebration - USCIS said they would be sending our case over to the National Visa Center by the end of the business day. On May 21st (because I have lost my faith that things will run smoothly through the system), I sent a note to the National Visa Center asking if they had received our paperwork and asking to let me know when our 171-H would be cabled to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. When I didn't hear back from them by yesterday, I sent them another note requesting a status update. They emailed back that they haven't received our visa and to contact USCIS. What?!?!?!?
This morning, I sent a follow up email to USCIS asking if there was a challenge with our file that needed to be addressed. Then I decided it was time to engage Congresswoman Bean's office. I faxed her our privacy agreement along with a two page bulleted list of all the actions that we've taken to try and resolve this matter ourselves - to no avail I might add. Our challenge is that we won't be able to travel for our court date if the U.S. Embassy in Moscow hasn't received our 171-H. Yesterday we got confirmation that our court date will be on June 11th. We're departing for Moscow on June 9th and I'll be returning with Baba on June 28th (yes, 19 days in Russia - woo hoo!). We don't have much time to get this resolved and I can't help but believe that asking to reschedule our court date when our judge has the piece of paper that our government issued but hasn't sent to itself won't bode well for us. We want to bring Mia home. She's spent enough of her life wearing blue onesies, having a boy hair cut, eating gruel (okay, it might not be gruel but it's gray, pasty and yicky looking), not having a dog or a big brother and having limited attention. It's time for her to start wearing all the adorable clothes that we've purchased for her and sleeping on her princess bedding (btw - in order for her to wear all her outfits I think we're going to need to have three wardrobe changes a day during the hot months to get through them all. The girl is totally set for her new charmed life).
I called Congresswoman Bean's office and spoke with her aid, Nick. Nick quickly told me that this kind of problem was not uncommon and that things had gotten worse with the implementation of the Hague. He described the million plus visas that went to the National Visa Center and how they didn't have any prioritization policies in place. I tried to joke with Nick by suggesting that we could just cable this document over to the U.S. Embassy if the NVC was too busy. He didn't think that was funny. Now, I must admit that I usually don't like people that don't think I'm funny but in Nick's case, if he can miraculously resolve this situation, I'll add him to my favorite people list despite his questionable sense of humor :). He said he would call back as soon as he was able to get a hold of USCIS. I think it's good that we're working this today since this is one of the days that USCIS answers the phone (they only take calls on Tuesday and Thursday). He thought that the problem probably was in the National Visa Center. He felt that they probably had the case but hadn't logged it yet. This seems odd since they usually answer their email promptly. Perhaps the folks that are answering email could start logging cases so that there would be less email and more completed paperwork. Perhaps they are in desparate need of a re-design of their processes which I would love to help with after all I want all my future adoptive parent friends to have the smoothest processes ever.
As I await for Nick's call, I can't help but wonder why this is so hard. Yes, I get that there is a tremendous volume of visa requests hitting the various government entities but beyond that, what's hard about this? I've been trying to resolve this since March 6th.
It can't be this hard.
This morning, I sent a follow up email to USCIS asking if there was a challenge with our file that needed to be addressed. Then I decided it was time to engage Congresswoman Bean's office. I faxed her our privacy agreement along with a two page bulleted list of all the actions that we've taken to try and resolve this matter ourselves - to no avail I might add. Our challenge is that we won't be able to travel for our court date if the U.S. Embassy in Moscow hasn't received our 171-H. Yesterday we got confirmation that our court date will be on June 11th. We're departing for Moscow on June 9th and I'll be returning with Baba on June 28th (yes, 19 days in Russia - woo hoo!). We don't have much time to get this resolved and I can't help but believe that asking to reschedule our court date when our judge has the piece of paper that our government issued but hasn't sent to itself won't bode well for us. We want to bring Mia home. She's spent enough of her life wearing blue onesies, having a boy hair cut, eating gruel (okay, it might not be gruel but it's gray, pasty and yicky looking), not having a dog or a big brother and having limited attention. It's time for her to start wearing all the adorable clothes that we've purchased for her and sleeping on her princess bedding (btw - in order for her to wear all her outfits I think we're going to need to have three wardrobe changes a day during the hot months to get through them all. The girl is totally set for her new charmed life).
I called Congresswoman Bean's office and spoke with her aid, Nick. Nick quickly told me that this kind of problem was not uncommon and that things had gotten worse with the implementation of the Hague. He described the million plus visas that went to the National Visa Center and how they didn't have any prioritization policies in place. I tried to joke with Nick by suggesting that we could just cable this document over to the U.S. Embassy if the NVC was too busy. He didn't think that was funny. Now, I must admit that I usually don't like people that don't think I'm funny but in Nick's case, if he can miraculously resolve this situation, I'll add him to my favorite people list despite his questionable sense of humor :). He said he would call back as soon as he was able to get a hold of USCIS. I think it's good that we're working this today since this is one of the days that USCIS answers the phone (they only take calls on Tuesday and Thursday). He thought that the problem probably was in the National Visa Center. He felt that they probably had the case but hadn't logged it yet. This seems odd since they usually answer their email promptly. Perhaps the folks that are answering email could start logging cases so that there would be less email and more completed paperwork. Perhaps they are in desparate need of a re-design of their processes which I would love to help with after all I want all my future adoptive parent friends to have the smoothest processes ever.
As I await for Nick's call, I can't help but wonder why this is so hard. Yes, I get that there is a tremendous volume of visa requests hitting the various government entities but beyond that, what's hard about this? I've been trying to resolve this since March 6th.
It can't be this hard.
posted by Tamara at 11:41 AM
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