I-800a and Fingerprints

The next step after finishing the homestudy is to file an I-800a application with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).  This form is used to request permission to bring a child into the United States.  

I mailed my application on Friday, February 8th and received a confirmation text and email on Wednesday, February 13th..."Your USCIS application/petition has been received and routed to the National Benefit Center for processing."  

Then, I had to wait to receive a letter in the mail notifying me of my fingerprint appointment....this makes the FOURTH time I have been fingerprinted for this adoption!  This letter finally arrived on Thursday, March 7th and instructed me to appear in Jacksonville at 10:00 AM on Monday, March 11th.  

So, I left my house this morning at 6:30 AM to drive the three and a half hours to Jacksonville.  I arrived right at 10:00 AM.  When I got there, I was instructed to fill out a form and place the form along with my fingerprint appointment letter in a basket on the desk.  

Before you read any further, you should know that the fingerprint appointment letter is REQUIRED in order to be fingerprinted.  Should you arrive without your letter, they will not do your fingerprints.  

So anyway, I filled out the form and placed the form and my fingerprint appointment letter in the box and sat down.  I barely took my eyes off the box.  The woman in charge came out a bit later and pulled all the papers from the box.  She called a man up who had forgotten to put his address on his form, she called a woman up who had forgotten to put her social security number on her form, and with each time, she was handing paperwork back to these people to correct.  When she got to mine, she announced that she did not have my fingerprint appointment letter.  I cannot tell you the amount of panic that set in in my stomach....I told her that I had placed it in the box.  She matter of factly stated that she did not have it and then stood there and looked at me.  I repeated that I had put it in the box and time kind of stood still for a moment.  I was thinking that I had driven all this way and they had lost my letter in less than five minutes.  Well, about that time, the first man (the one who forgot to put his address on the form) returned his corrected paperwork and with it, returned my fingerprint appointment letter.  She had given it to him by mistake....good grief! 

After that mishap, things went fairly smoothly.  They did my fingerprints and I was back in my car on my way home within a few minutes.  Now to pray for a quick approval!