Adoption Finalization & US Citizenship

It sounds like other Haitian adoptive families in USCIS' "Category 1", are starting to get appointments from their local USCIS offices. These appointments are to go over the paperwork, fill out some more, and process the kids' US Citizenship!

We haven't heard from our local USCIS office, but probably because USCIS had originally put us into "Category 2". We sent copies (and translations) of our Haitian adoption decrees, which is what they said they needed to re-classify us. Then they asked for a couple more papers, which we were thankfully able to get from our Haitian lawyer, got translated, and sent in. We haven't heard back, but are hoping they've approved us for "Category 1" and have forwarded our paperwork on to the Iowa office. (I haven't heard of other Iowa families being contacted though - most were in other states.)

This appointment with USCIS will be no small task though. I've heard from other families that USCIS is apparently wanting all of these completed by September 30th. They're scheduling the appointments with little (less than 2 weeks') notice, and are not flexible with the scheduling at all.

That'll be interesting, considering that there are numerous documents that we need to have filled out and bring with us, along with the hefty fees for some of them. Both of us have to attend, and both kids. We'll make it work, but the difficult part is going to be the medical forms. The medical forms have to be filled out by a "Civil Surgeon" (basically a USCIS-approved physician), and he has to examine both kids and their medical information that we'll have to get from our regular pediatrician. They have to make sure they're healthy (i.e. don't have TB or STDs), and that they've had the required immunizations. I believe we're still shy one or two immunization, and then we can make appointments for the Civil Surgeon and get those papers filled out.

I don't quite know how all of this is going to all happen by September 30th (if that's Iowa's goal for completion as well), but we're ready to jump through just about any hoop that stands in the way of getting this all finalized. It's been almost 8 months of question marks, and I'm ready to change them to happy exclamation points. I'm ready for my kids to officially become US Citizens. Then we'll proceed with Iowa recognizing the Haitian adoption, getting them US birth certificates, changing their names, etc. We're praying that ALL will be accomplished by year's end.