Paper Work

Now for the least exciting part of the process - the applications and forms. This process was actually much less intensive than we were expecting. The first step was the application to begin the process with AIAA. This one took less than 10 minutes to complete. They basically wanted to collect basic background information, and to ensure we were financially capable of completing the process. The bulk of the work was contained in the formal application and I-600. We had to provide documentation of all assets (401k, IRAs, stocks, cash savings, cars, lawn mowers, wood piles, etc.), marriage license, birth certificates, social security cards, former addresses, etc. The real pain was that we had to complete 5 copies of all forms (one for the U.S. agency, one for Korea, one for U.S. government, one for agency records, etc.) Really, it wasn't that bad. Other than this application we had to fulfill a few small requirements. We had to go into the city of Detroit to have a full set of fingerprints taken (for a federal criminal background check - which was clear for us). We also had to have a letter from our local police department (Birmingham) issued showing any and all criminal activity that might not have been picked up in the federal system. This was also clear. The home study didn't require any documentation - only a series of meetings in which the unique requirements of adopted children were described, and our intended parenting style probed. Our case worker talked more than we did throughout most of it.

After all of this was completed, we simply waited. And that's where we are today. Kari watches the mail frantically every day awaiting our I-600 approval. The last correspondence we received was from the Detroit office responsible for processing our I-600. This form states that processing time for I-600 forms is currently running around 3 months. We don't really believe it as our agency, and several other blogs we've been following have shown the actual processing time to be closer to 1 month. Let's hope that's the case ... we want to get our little Ryan home, where he belongs.