I realize that I am somewhat overdue on a summary of our adventures concerning the aforementioned I-600A and all of its lovely companions (ie, copies of birth/marriage records, homestudy, agency/SW licenses, review & recommendation letter, and let us not forget the $670 fee for the form and the additional $85/each fee for fingerprints.)
On Friday morning, my sister dropped me off at the Metro station near school. I traveled six stops on the Metro, got off, walked six blocks to the US Embassy, was permitted to enter after surrendering my cell phone and identity card, and submitted the I-600A form and payment to our contact behind a very private glass window. She then informed me that they would be unable to mail the form for me, so I needed to quickly find a DHL or Fed Ex to get it to the USCIS office in Lima, Peru by Monday.
The guards told me there was a ChileExpress office about three blocks away. Unfortunately, I headed three blocks in the wrong direction and then was unable to find a crossing point to the other side of the highway until three blocks after that. (Remember, we are talking long city blocks here!) Crossing the highway, I walked for another six blocks or so with no success whatsoever in finding the ChileExpress office.
I was beginning to get very hot, tired, hungry and frustrated, so I stopped for a quick sandwich and called the secretary at school for the address to ChileExpress. Address in hand and sandwich in my tummy, I quickly walked three busy blocks in what I assumed what the right direction - only to discover that the numbers were going the wrong way! So I reversed directions and headed six or seven blocks back, finally finding the ChileExpress office ... only to be told that no, there was no way they could get my package to Lima by Monday! They kindly gave me directions to DHL, supposedly (you guessed it) about three blocks down a different street.
Over three blocks later, still no sign of DHL. By this point, I had been on my feet for over two hours and I realized there was no way I was going to make it back in time to pick up Owen from pre-school. Almost in tears I called the school once again, this time for the address to DHL. After a couple of calls back and forth, I got the address (and confirmed that my husband would handle picking up Owen!) I quickly walked a few blocks to DHL, patiently sat and waited my turn at the counter, and gladly turned over my envelope ... only to be told once again that no, there was no way they could get my package to Lima by Monday either!
By this point my composure was near the breaking point and the clerk took pity on me. Calling over an older gentleman, she asked him for a suggestion of who could help me and he kindly pointed me a couple of doors down to a small hole-in-the-wall courier office. Supposedly they could get packages in when/where others couldn't! Thankfully, he was right. Thirty dollars later, my package was winging its way to Lima and I was even able to track it online to make sure it arrived safely on Monday. Thank you, Lord!
I wish I could say that was the end of the saga. But you see, we were still lacking the fingerprint cards because the embassy could not schedule us for those until Monday. Also, our homestudy had not yet arrived from Germany nor our review & recommendation letter from the agency in the States. So on Monday, Pedro and I followed the same routine (this time with Owen in tow) to get fingerprinted at the embassy and supposedly to have the prints mailed out by the embassy contact via DHL. Only, after taking the prints she informed me that she could not mail it for me and we would have to do the mailing again ourselves!
Fine, I now knew of an office that could save the day ... if I could only find it again! We walked back to the Metro, Pedro heading one way with Owen to pick up the girls and me heading the other way to the stop I remembered as being the one closest to the courier service. I walked and walked and do you think I found it? In the end, I realized I had walked all the way on the wrong street - the one ChileExpress was on, not the one the courier service was on! At that point, rush hour traffic was setting in and I made the decision to wait and mail the package the next day. Thankfully, my husband offered to do it for me (and except for that one small issue of me giving him the wrong Metro stop, he did get it mailed ...!!)
Tomorrow we head to the courier service one more time. Today both our review & recommendation letter and the homestudy from Germany arrived. God is good! We will be utterly relieved to have all of these out of our hands and into the hands of USCIS for, we hope, our approval to adopt the twins. One more step in the right direction!
On Friday morning, my sister dropped me off at the Metro station near school. I traveled six stops on the Metro, got off, walked six blocks to the US Embassy, was permitted to enter after surrendering my cell phone and identity card, and submitted the I-600A form and payment to our contact behind a very private glass window. She then informed me that they would be unable to mail the form for me, so I needed to quickly find a DHL or Fed Ex to get it to the USCIS office in Lima, Peru by Monday.
The guards told me there was a ChileExpress office about three blocks away. Unfortunately, I headed three blocks in the wrong direction and then was unable to find a crossing point to the other side of the highway until three blocks after that. (Remember, we are talking long city blocks here!) Crossing the highway, I walked for another six blocks or so with no success whatsoever in finding the ChileExpress office.
I was beginning to get very hot, tired, hungry and frustrated, so I stopped for a quick sandwich and called the secretary at school for the address to ChileExpress. Address in hand and sandwich in my tummy, I quickly walked three busy blocks in what I assumed what the right direction - only to discover that the numbers were going the wrong way! So I reversed directions and headed six or seven blocks back, finally finding the ChileExpress office ... only to be told that no, there was no way they could get my package to Lima by Monday! They kindly gave me directions to DHL, supposedly (you guessed it) about three blocks down a different street.
Over three blocks later, still no sign of DHL. By this point, I had been on my feet for over two hours and I realized there was no way I was going to make it back in time to pick up Owen from pre-school. Almost in tears I called the school once again, this time for the address to DHL. After a couple of calls back and forth, I got the address (and confirmed that my husband would handle picking up Owen!) I quickly walked a few blocks to DHL, patiently sat and waited my turn at the counter, and gladly turned over my envelope ... only to be told once again that no, there was no way they could get my package to Lima by Monday either!
By this point my composure was near the breaking point and the clerk took pity on me. Calling over an older gentleman, she asked him for a suggestion of who could help me and he kindly pointed me a couple of doors down to a small hole-in-the-wall courier office. Supposedly they could get packages in when/where others couldn't! Thankfully, he was right. Thirty dollars later, my package was winging its way to Lima and I was even able to track it online to make sure it arrived safely on Monday. Thank you, Lord!
I wish I could say that was the end of the saga. But you see, we were still lacking the fingerprint cards because the embassy could not schedule us for those until Monday. Also, our homestudy had not yet arrived from Germany nor our review & recommendation letter from the agency in the States. So on Monday, Pedro and I followed the same routine (this time with Owen in tow) to get fingerprinted at the embassy and supposedly to have the prints mailed out by the embassy contact via DHL. Only, after taking the prints she informed me that she could not mail it for me and we would have to do the mailing again ourselves!
Fine, I now knew of an office that could save the day ... if I could only find it again! We walked back to the Metro, Pedro heading one way with Owen to pick up the girls and me heading the other way to the stop I remembered as being the one closest to the courier service. I walked and walked and do you think I found it? In the end, I realized I had walked all the way on the wrong street - the one ChileExpress was on, not the one the courier service was on! At that point, rush hour traffic was setting in and I made the decision to wait and mail the package the next day. Thankfully, my husband offered to do it for me (and except for that one small issue of me giving him the wrong Metro stop, he did get it mailed ...!!)
Tomorrow we head to the courier service one more time. Today both our review & recommendation letter and the homestudy from Germany arrived. God is good! We will be utterly relieved to have all of these out of our hands and into the hands of USCIS for, we hope, our approval to adopt the twins. One more step in the right direction!
1 comment:
How very frustrating! Many have said they have been gaining weight during the adoption process but it doesn't sound like you'll have that problem!!!
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