Paperwork Update

Okay this is not going to be gripping information, but I bears documenting so tune out if you need to. We got our I-800 “Provisional Acceptance”, to make an orphan a member of our family, letter from Homeland Security sometime during spring break…March 21 or something. Here it is below…hold on to your socks…

Try to restrain yourself people I know it’s thrilling paperwork. But it only gets better if you can handle it. We also got our Visa’s back on the same day…

 

Could you just scream, this is so cool….

Alright, enough lameness, it actually is pretty cool. But the best part is where our paperwork actually is in the process now. What the I-800 signifies is that Homeland Security Citizenship and Immigration, has turned over our information to the National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC will “cable” all our information to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China, where it will sit. The NVC will mail me a letter saying they have done this. However, I emailed them to see if they will email me a .pdf of the letter (makes the wait time a couple days shorter). When I receive the .pdf via email I forward it to my agency, Lifeline, immediately. They then forward it to their liaison (Lily or Rebecca) in China. The liaison will hand carry a copy of this .pdf, an application for Hope’s Visa, and our LOA to the U.S. Consulate in GZ, China. They are submitting for us what is called an Article 5. The cool phrases we now will use are Art 5 drop and Art 5 picked up. It takes exactly 2 weeks for the consulate to process our A5. Two weeks to the day our liaison will go back to pick up our A5 from the consulate. They then immediately hand deliver it to the CCCA. These are the people who will issue our travel approval (TA) and let us know when we get to come to China! When our A5 is dropped off a the CCCA then it is 2-3 weeks (roughly) for us to get TA. This TA will have our consulate date in it which determines when we travel. Normally from the receipt of your TA you travel within two weeks time. So we could be leaving in 7 weeks…sooner or later.

So things are now starting to move rapidly. Here is the prayer request. We are praying that we get TA well before May 16th and can book our travel. May 16th is the current date that China will almost double airline ticket prices because it will begin their high season for tourists. And let’s not forget what gas prices are doing to airline tickets shall we? So, we are getting down to crunch time now. Keep praying that God continues to prepare Hope for our arrival and that he is getting her heart ready to embrace ours. Keep praying that God is doing the same in all of our hearts here in the U.S. Williamson household as well, especially little Eden. More musings to follow.