I got the mail last night and yippeee! the I -171H form had arrived! I proceeded to change my plans around for the day to get a couple last minute things around and then to head down to Indy after the kid's soccer camp to get everything certified. While the kids were at camp, Bella and I made stops, getting passport photos, the bank to get one more form notarized, ect... Each stop Bella would say "is this where I am going to get my baby brother?" I had made my first mistake, telling her that we were going to be working on some things so that we could get our baby. I kept trying to explain that it would be a long time until we got our baby. A couple stops later she asked how long we had been in the car and if it had been a long time yet? Too sweet! I think she kind of gets it now but I'm still not sure.
Mistake # 2 Man I am so frustrated! I think everyone who is completing this process says this at some time or another (or maybe several). I am such an idiot! They called me up to the desk at the State Dept after waiting to get everything certified. She said that they did everything (which is great)except 3 documents. Our birth certificates and marriage license. These weren't notarized in IN and so they have to be cert. in the same state that they were notarized in-- DUH! So I have been sitting on these for months and could have already had that done! We could have mailed everything off this afternoon-- arrrrgh. okay enough I just need to get this taken care of asap and we will be good to go. I feel like I am always saying there is one more thing.. will there be one more thing after this?
On a brighter note-- we stopped by the Children's Museum for a couple hours after we got done. The kids had a great time and they were so good at the State Dept. (much to the secretary's surprise-- she wasn't excited to see all of us or all of our papers!)! Then we zoomed to VBS which was a blast!
laura
8 comments:
don't feel bad, i did the same thing...i even posted a warning about it on my blog.
i remember even thinking it was weird that our state would certify something from another state! luckily, i had my "oh, no" moment just shortly before we received our CIS approval. so, we were waiting on our birth certificates too and it made me crazy knowing that we would have been done if i would have thought about it sooner!!
did you know that you can go ahead and send everything else in for them to check over? then, they will be able to look the dossier over and if there is anything done wrong, you can be correcting it while you are waiting for those last documents. we had to fix one tiny thing on one of our documents and we were able to save time since we fixed it before the birth certificates came back.
i am SO sorry that this happened to you...i can truly say i know how you feel :) hopefully, those states will be extra speedy and you won't lose much time!
best wishes!!
I'm feeling your pain...but on another brighter note, if you guys choose to drive over and personally come pick up your b.c. and marriage licenses, we could get together! Meet you at Mika's or Busy Corner???!!! :)
one more thing! i don't know if you already sent off the birth and marriage certificates yet...
i overnighted ours to save mail time and then sent a pre-paid overnight slip along with them so that they could rush it back. it probably saved us a week in mail time.
just a suggestion! it costs a little bit more money...but it was worth it to me!
thanks for the reminder!! We're waiting on our I-171H and your post reminded me that we have one birth certificate I need to send out of state!! I'll get it done today!
please email me, I have a question about this. :) Thanks!
janell@mtco.com
Sorry you have one more step in paperwork...but WOW, can we call you Supermom? The State Dept, Children's Museum and VBS in one day!?! Good Luck with getting your bc and marriage license paperwork completed. Hope to see you sometime this summer!
Tracy
I know how you feel. There is always just one more letter you need or one more piece of paper. ARRGGHH!! You will soon have it all together, and surrender it to Ethiopia!
Yay for the USCIS approval! :) That's great.
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