It is finished... sort of...

Well, we had our USCIS appointment at 8:30 this morning. We met with a woman at one of the windows in the lobby, who took our packet of paperwork and cash. She then took everything back to the officers, and we waited in the lobby while they looked things over. She also gave the kids each a sucker and a "Linda Liberty" coloring page. It was so cute! They were just starting to get bored when we were called back for our "interview".

It wasn't really an interview, but they did have to put us under oath. One officer told us that she was in charge of adoptions for the Des Moines office, and she had approved our I-600s. The other officer works on the I-485, and she asked our address, names, birthdates, when and where they entered the US, and got a couple final signatures on a couple documents. She said everything was in order - i.e. the non-existent I-94 cards were not even an issue!!!

Then she said we had a few options for the kids' Certificates of Citizenship. She said it would take about 10 days to get it all entered into their computer system and finalized, then we can either attend a kids' Citizenship ceremony on October 30th (not just for adoptive parents, but any kids who also would receive their citizenship certificates), or come to pick them up when they're ready, or have them mailed to us. We started debating about whether to do the ceremony or not, and then mentioned that we probably wouldn't because we're planning to do a readoption and get their names changed, etc.

Then the officers mentioned that we should maybe wait until that's done to get or citizenship certificates, so we don't have to re-order them in their new names. Well I had to frown over that at first, because we'll always have their adoption decrees and that should suffice to show their name change, but as we talked more through the steps we'd have to go through to get their SSNs, passports, etc, she convinced us.

So, even though all our paperwork is in order, and it is done, Elijah and Josephine are not officially U.S. Citizens yet - but we are happy with the results of today's meeting. USCIS "stayed" our files, typed up a little form requesting that we provide "copy of legal name change" for each child. She gave us a due date of 10 days after we plan to finalize their readoption, and then said once she receives that, she'll proceed with entering everything into their system and will mail us their citizenship certificates, we'll sign them, and then everything will be official - their new names, their citizenship, everything!