So she says she is ready for us to have the baby. Of course Martin's first reaction is immediately ok what do we need to do. Mine is more guarded, she has told you this a million times and then she changes her mind. You haven't heard from her in a year. We have gotten our hopes up so many times and then nothing happens. So over the next few days we have many conversations over the phone with her. Every time she reassures us that she is serious and she is ready to do this.
The situation is a little different this time around because now me and Martin are married and I am a US citizen so i can petition for her as my stepdaughter and the waiting is just processing the paperwork and having the visa approved. (or at least this is what i believed) So of course i get started on it. I read everything i can find. I call and talk to someone with immigration services.
First step is to file a petition called an I-130. This is the petition for the visa which is sent to USCIS for approval along with $420 to process it. Basically you just send proof that you are a US citizen and you have the right to petition for the person. So I send out application and all necessary paperwork and then we wait. Application mailed July 2nd. Get confirmation they have received on July 5, 2012) And now we wait......
Next step is that it will be assigned a case number and forwarded to one of the 4 processing centers to handle. Of course i do my homework again and find out that out of the processing centers that California is processing the quickest at 5 months. Some of the other centers are taking 9 months or longer. So now i am praying for California!
July 9, 2012 We receive notice in the mail that our application has been accepted and that it has been forwarded to California for processing. We will receive notice if we need to do anything else. I go online and register my email with them so they will send me text notifications when our status changes from Initial Review. So again we wait..........(but yay for California)
At this point I'm thinking well we have 5 months to wait to get either an approval, a RFE (request for evidence) or something saying they are denying our request. This is the tricky part because even though Martin is listed on the birth certificate as the father he was never married to biological mother so we have to prove a bona fide parent child relationship exists. How do you do that when she is only 2 and we have never met her? Time to do more homework.....so i find out that we have to show he has supported her financially and that he has shown interest in her well being. So at this point i have contacted Western Union and requested copies of all money transfers from us to her. (which i am still waiting on) I also contacted AT&T and they sent me copies of the last 16 mos of our phone bills which i have gone through and highlighted every phone call or text message. She is 2 1/2 years old now so Martin talks to her on a regular basis now and we have had web cam chats so we can see her and vice versa. We also have to keep record of all of these calls. In doing my research i came across some really great forums that people have started that are all going through or have already gone through this same process. This information has been so helpful! In doing so I found out that some people had been waiting for almost a year to get an approval. All of this consumes my thoughts so i can't imagine waiting for a year. I pray really hard for patience (obviously I'm going to need it) guidance (so i can figure all of this out) faith (so that i don't go crazy with the what ifs) and money (to help us through this long and expensive journey). Then i find where someone has posted that they sent application in on June 30th it was being processed in California and two months later they received an RFE asking for DNA results to prove paternity. GREAT! California is processing really quick but DNA results....what? Again i do homework and find out that they can request that a DNA test be done at your expense but each case is handled differently so we just have to wait to see if it will be requested. Hoping not because that would be anywhere from $500-$700 and delay our case up to 2-3 months.
Sept. 11, 2012 i wake up to a text message saying to check the status of your case (as if i hadn't been checking online everyday hoping for news) Anyway, i call Martin as I'm logging onto the computer with shaking hands. I'm so nervous. PLEASE lord let this be an approval. I log on and it says your case has been approved. We have forwarded your case to the National Visa Center for processing.
YAY!!!!!! One step closer.
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