It's in the Mail!

Friday CIS called to say our approval was ready to be picked up.

This led to a bit of jumping around in my cubicle, followed by an afternoon of mad-crazy errand running. I left work to have one last form signed by our home study agency in Edmond. From there, it was off to west OKC to pick up Hubby at his office so we could have that final form notarized at a nearby bank. Then it was another trip to the Department of Homeland Security/CIS to pick up that wonderful approval form. Unfortunately my checkbook was at home, so southwest OKC was my next stop. After swinging my my in-law's office to make copies of everything, I finally mailed the paperwork and The Big Fat Check (dossier fee) to CHI. That amount of money deserves a formal name, hence the capitalization.

So, with any luck.... we'll be on the list Monday! Say it with me.... woo hoo!

A Bit Closer

Our social worker faxed our child abuse clearances to CIS this morning. Via email, CIS confirmed receipt. I asked them if I could come pick up our I-171H when it is ready to avoid the mail delay... surprisingly, they said yes! Wonders never cease. They'll call me as soon as it is ready, which should be sometime next week. I'm trying to leave my afternoons flexible so I can pick it up and bring it to the post office the second it's ready.

Closer to "The List"

A rep from the Citizenship and Immigration office called early this evening. My initial reaction was, "Oh no - we have to redo our fingerprints!"

However, it turns out she was processing our application and was about to issue approval (!!!!) when she realized we were missing one form from our home study agency. She was kind enough to call and ask us to fax it to her in the morning instead of going through the usual mail notification process. I think she could tell I was a bit excited - I acted like she was my new best friend. I would have invited her over for a sleepover, complete with a round of Girl Talk, if I thought it would move things along.

The missing form is our DHS child abuse clearance. I'll call our home study agency on my way to work tomorrow and beg/plead for them to fax it asap. Wow. I'm so pleasantly surprised our fingerprints have already cleared! I've seen several bloggers have to redo theirs. I'll never complain about the gritless-Orange Glo again.

The most recent addition I've seen to the list was about #253. However, due to a couple of referrals and some families changing to other countries (due to issues I'll blog about another time), that family has moved up about 15 places in the last month (that is certainly not usual). That family was added to the list weeks ago, and I don't know how many have been added after them.

Once we receive our I-171H, we'll overnight it to CHI with the biggest check we've ever written, other than for our cars or the down payment on our house. Money well spent. :)