paper work... and more paper work...

We are well into the home study process and we are working diligently on the Dossier as well. There have been some unexpected cost to the tune of nearly $500 in medical fees, fingerprint fees, hague training that was $50 more than expected, etc... but overall, things are going a expected. For the home study, we have to complete 12 hours of hague training, provide 4 reference letters, have a very thorough medical exam with blood work and other analysis for both of us, a letter of certification for the health of Casey, Conner, Braeton, and Hannah, copies of birth and marriage certificates, CPS checks, FBI background check with digital fingerprints, county background checks from every county we have ever lived in, financial statements, 3 years of tax returns, autobiography from birth to current times, and pictures. A number of these documents need to be notarized as well. This is just for the home study :-) The Dossier is an entirely different animal. Much of the same documentation but from a different office and requiring different types of certification. As an example, a marriage certificate for the home study needs to be a copy of an existing marriage certificate. The Dossier requires it to be an "authentic copy" from the source provider(vital records department of Indiana). Once it is authenticated, it must be notarized and certified by the Chinese Consolate as well. USCIS approval for the I800A immigration form is required for the Dossier as well. It ends up that the FBI fingerprinting stations that are used for county checks are not certified by the USCIS and therefore we have to get yet another set of FBI fingerprints from a different location. If any of these documents are older than 6 months at the time we complete the Dossier, they have to be redone. Needless to say, this is a lot to keep up with. Even with all of the paper chasing, the process is so rewarding. With every milestone, we know we are one step closer to bringing Jia home! Keep an eye out for additional updates this week! I will post a detailed list of the requirements and costs for the home study and dossier for reference.