Please Continue to Visit Us on Our Family Blog

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Orphan First

"Adjudicate Orphan Status First is a pilot program offered by DHS-CIS which allows CIS
to conduct an orphan investigation BEFORE a child has been legally adopted. The
advantage of this program for parents adopting from Haiti is that the investigation can
take place while the family’s case is in IBESR or court, saving much time at the end of
the adoption process."

As you may or may not remember, when Pedro and I went to Haiti last September to file our I-600 at the US Embassy in Port-au-Prince, we also filed the required documentation to participate in the program described above.

Recently, another adoptive family helped us draft an e-mail to inquire about our status with the Orphan First program and we were delighted to receive this response from the Department of Homeland Security/USCIS/US Embassy:
Please be informed that we have made a favorable determination of the orphan status of your child. We are now awaiting the adoption documents.
Every baby step is a step in the right direction! Thank you, Lord.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

:)

Erin

Unknown said...

Steph,
What does this help with? Is it to speed the process of getting visas or citizenship?

Documental Adopción, proyecto de título 2009 said...

Hola Stephanie! Qué lindo lo que haces, no sólo adoptar, sino que adoptar niños que provienen de países en conflicto, como los pequeñitos de Haití. Nosotros somos estudiantes de Santiago, de Comunicación Audiovisual, y nos encontramos realizando nuestro proyecto de título, que es un documental sobre la adopción. Nos interesó mucho tu historia. Ojalá podamos estar en contacto.
saludos y suerte!
Daniela.

Ragan said...

Oh Steph, I'm so excited to hear about your recent good news! :)