I-800a Discussion
When we did it, it was the I600a, and it was the worst part of the process for us — both times. I understand the procedures have changed a great deal, so I’d like to open up the comments today for people to talk about what it took (or is taking) for them to get the paperwork on the US side of things. Any hints or tips to make it easier for others? Pitfalls they should avoid? Timing to get the paperwork together? Timing to get it back, approved, once everything is sent in?
How about the post-referral paperwork? Any hints, tips, or pitfalls to avoid there?
January 26th, 2012 at 8:30 am
We have adopted twice, once i600, and once 1800. The i800 was much longer/harder than the i600. The hardest part for me was waiting for the approval. It took a ridiculous amount of time. I believe it was around 70 days for the i800a to be approved, and that was with no RFE. I really wish the process could be shortened, especially for those of us who adopted a child who was already identified. It would be nice in these cases if the i800a and i800 could be processed together. I understand why they can’t, because you don’t have the LOA at that point, but some how the process needs to be shorter.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:33 am
Thanks for asking these questions, RQ. I’ve been asking similar things on the SN forum because the I800 process seems to leave children waiting excessive amounts for adoption after they have been matched. I was trying to understand the whole process better (our three adoptions were under the I600 process). There has to be ways to streamline this because it seems that families are waiting nearly a year (if I understand this correctly) once matched. That’s unacceptable. I’d like to talk to at least my senator and perhaps the USCIS and DOS but need to get a better handle on the process. We should be starting a movement here to get this improved. Anyone know if there has been any formal process to provide negative feedback about the I800 to the powers that be? The Hague was supposed to improve the process for children, and I’m sure, in ways, the children have benefited, but not without paying a huge cost in terms of having to remain in orphanages for extended periods after their families find them.
January 26th, 2012 at 10:35 am
Our first adoption was I600 and the second adoption was I800. It has been a couple years since we completed our second adoption and our experience with our second adoption was a huge whirlwind. Our second daughter has a medical consideration (nothing life threatening) and we were home with her within a year of starting the very beginning of the paperwork. The biggest difference I noticed was requesting the Child Abuse checks from all the states/countries where you have lived.
I think the SW is suppose to do this. I made a form for our SW and mailed it to all the states where DH and I have lived (11) with the return address to the SW. I think that helped with that part of the process. One state required a month to process the request– I think it was CA– but not sure.
I think we just got lucky, because several people at our agency commented more than once regarding how quickly we moved through the process on both the China side and the US side.
January 26th, 2012 at 11:31 am
We just mailed off our i800a and it was received on Jan. 18. We received our referral on Jan. 23. I am on pins and needles about the 800a approval, so that we can do the regular 800. I hope this isn’t going to be a tremendous ordeal.
We let our 171h expire after the first time, because we saw how long the wait was liable to be. We began updating our hs in August 2011, and it wasn’t completely done until Jan. 5, 2012. I never dreamed it would take that long to update!! I guess it was because there had been so many changes in our lives between 2006 and 2011. Waiting for FBI fingerprint clearance took the longest for us, and then finding out at the last minute that we needed one more child abuse clearance from FL since our daughter is a college student there, and has a FL address.
hoping for speedy i800a approval!!!
January 26th, 2012 at 11:49 am
>The i800 was much longer/harder than the i600. The hardest part for me was waiting for the approval. It took a ridiculous amount of time.
I think the approval time may be the way they are handling paperwork now rather than the i800 vs the i600 because when we extended our I171h 2 years ago it was the same – a ridiculous amount of time. Since it was an extension and we had no changes it should have been a relatively quick process – yet it took them 4 months to approve it AND that was with our agency dogging them part of the time because we had gotten referral.
January 26th, 2012 at 1:34 pm
What do people find to be the estimated time between referral and travel for a NSN referral under the I-800? Some people think 11-15 weeks. My agency said 4-6 months. Would love to hear real life experience!
January 26th, 2012 at 1:49 pm
ione,
Wow..it used to be about 4-8 weeks under the I600.
January 26th, 2012 at 2:19 pm
We have one more free i600, which will be due in July. THEN, if it takes another 18 months for adoption, we will have to switch to the i800. That is so unfair to anyone who’s been keeping up their paperwork! I dont understand why the USCIS can’t just filter through the few of us who will still be waiting. It’s not as if there will be thousands upon thousands of us with paperwork to update. I suppose USCIS is afraid that their workers will not know how to process a i600 paperwork by then. That’s the only reason I can think of, for them not continuing after the fourth i800. LAME.
January 26th, 2012 at 2:19 pm
*** meant to say i600 at the end, not i800.
January 26th, 2012 at 2:45 pm
MyDaughtersMom: We are in the same situation only our final I-600 extension begins in March. Our LID is 12/2007. It’s not going to happen.
However, as much as I would like to see USCIS allow us to stay non-Hague indefinitely (and I would support any effort to request this), I can understand why at some point they feel the need to put a stop to this.
Hague is about putting extra protections in place for children. You either believe this is appropriate or not. China and US are both signatories to Hague – whether we agree or not – and the I-800 is part of that. To continue to accept non-Hague cases years after the point when Hague went into effect is in a way to say that some of the children are not going to be given the extra safeguards that are afforded the majority of other children from the same program – why? Because some of us are waiting years and years for these children?
I can see the argument that all the children in China’s program should be given the same standards and safeguards – whether we like it or not and whether we agree that the I-800 process gives those extra protections or not.
The unfortunate part is how long we have been waiting or have been allowed to wait, not that USCIS is closing the door on an easier paperwork process for some of us.
January 26th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Our first adoption was through the I-600 process. We were matched with our son’s file years after we were LID, so the time between LOI and Family Day was less than three months.
We just started a second adoption (SN), and partly due to how long the I-800 process can be, we want to wait until we are logged in before we get matched. Even then, we could have a 4-6 month wait until travel. That in itself seems so long to me.
January 26th, 2012 at 3:52 pm
If you are DTC before your referral then the wait is not bad. Two out of our three adoptions were I-800 and both times we were already logged in before our referral. With one we received our referral in May 2008 and traveled in October 2008 and the other adoption we received our referral in late September 2010 and traveled in February 2011. If you are matched with a child before you have started any paperwork then I would guess it would take a year to travel… not the way that I would want to go.
The officers have improved and are really willing to work with clients. Leave your options open with regards to the child you are approved for in your home study to eliminate a revision. I heard of one case that was declined because the home study approved the parents for a 3-6 year old child and they accepted a referral for a 28 month old child. The officers stick to strict guidelines and any ammendment can increase your wait time.
January 26th, 2012 at 4:38 pm
I spoke with a nice lady at the USCIS today to ask about our I800a since we just applied for it and already have our referral. She said that things were moving fairly quickly with the I800a. They have up to 90 days to approve, but it’s been more like 60 lately, and sometimes even less. She said the i800 gets approved much faster.
Here’s my question: How long is it usually between the regular i800 application and travel? We have to wait for both the i800a approval, AND the i800. After waiting 6 years to see our baby’s face, to wait for months more is going to be terrible!! I just want to GO!!!
January 26th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
we got our referral on november 28, 2011 and received our I800 approval today, january 26, 2012 …..after 2 months. we were told to travel 12-16 weeks after a referral. i will let you know a more accurate travel date when we hear from our agency.
January 26th, 2012 at 6:24 pm
PreciousTeresa – to clarify on your 800 approval is that pre-approval? Or did you have a pre-approval at match and this is an additional approval before travel? We have our 800 preapproval still awaiting our match.
January 26th, 2012 at 7:12 pm
dear jeanedes – yes, we had a pre-approval at match and this the i800a approval. good luck with everything, it is worth the wait, the referral moment is magical!
January 26th, 2012 at 7:46 pm
PreciousTeresa- thanks! Will be interested to hear when you travel. We were told 11-15 wks from match to travel with an 800.
January 26th, 2012 at 8:53 pm
I did not think the I800 was terrible. I definitely worried over the wait while the papers were being processed and I definitely think the paperwork can be processed at different times depending on your officer and other factors out of our hands that make the process a bit different for each of us. My Hague HS was done quickly – but if you have a slow SW- get on it asap! Make sure your SW is experienced in writing Hague approved HS’s. If an agency was recently Hague approved- the SW may not have as much experience. I was one of the first Hague HS’s my SW wrote- but luckily my agency- is super experienced and willing to spell everything out for their clients and my SW whom is not affiliated with them.
Here is my timeline…
LID 5/29/06
Referral Call – 12/20/10
I800 Approved- 1/12/11
Cabled – 1/25/11
Art 5 – 2/14/11
TA- 2/28/11
Leaving- 3/16 ( I could have left a week earlier)
CA 3/28
Home 4/1/11
This was almost a yr ago- so things may have changed with the time and wait factors.
I wish you all the best of luck!