CHINA ADOPTION PAPER CHASE
For more than a decade parents in the U.S. have been jumping through hoops of
paper work and requirements to adopt a baby girl child from China. Most of these
parents are hard working middle-class people who have a place in their hearts and in
their homes for a parentless little girl from China.
As you know parents in China can
only legally have one child if they live in a city, and all prefer a male child so that
when the parents get too old to work the male child will support them. (A Chinese Custom)
It is like their social security. So when you can only have one child, girls are not wanted
and now are sent to orphanages. It is expensive to adopt a baby girl from China.
China has many fees and it can cost you up to $20,000 for all the fees and the trip
to China and the required tour of the country. Most government offices you deal with i
n China will require fees, and all fees must be paid in "new, unfolded," U.S. 20-dollar bills.�
When my brother went to China to adopt his little girl, Morgan, he had to pack the "new,
unfolded" U.S. currency in sandwich bags and put them in carry-on luggage.
It looked like he was headed for a dope deal.
Each family must jump through hoops of paperwork from the INS and the Chinese.
The INS ( U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service) require a home study report,
fingerprints at a state office given at just one date and time no other, certified
birth certificates, criminal background checks, and other paper work plus you pay
$400 to the INS to process the documents. There has been an 18-month cut off deadline
for the INS document (1-171H Notice of Action) needed by the parents.
You must do everything in the 18-months period or start over.
The problem is the INS
is taking 6 to 8 months to process the paper work. That does not leave enough time to
file with the Chinese, go to China, tour the country as required, and get back to the US
before the 18-month deadline runs out. Parents say it sometimes takes two-years. Many
parents have done everything necessary and are ready to go to China to get their new
daughter, but the Chinese say your 18-month document may run out before you can get back
to the U.S, so the Chinese have told the parents they should get an extension to be safe.
But the INS will not issue an extension, and have told the parents they must start all over
again for another document that has an 18-month deadline. They are told they have to pay a
second time, but this time the fee has been raised to $750 from the $400. They must get new
fingerprints, a new home study report, and do all the paper work again and
then wait another 6 to 8 months for the INS to process the documents.
One parent was forced to wear cornhusker's lotion for three days to meet a
requirement. It sounds like a rip off to me!
INS UP DATE - 3/7/2002
If you were listening to my Troubleshooter Talk Show last Saturday (3/2/02) on
KRLA 870 am in Los Angeles or on the Internet about the problems with the Chinese
Adoptions I told you a representative of the INS Media Office in Washington would
be on the show to talk with adoptive parents from across the country. He was on the
show for the last :30 seconds because he called at the very end of the show. His name
is Bill Strassberger and he apologized saying he was confused by the difference in time
on the West Coast vs. Washington, DC. Mr. Strassberger told the worried parents there
was nothing to worry about and the problem was with the slowness of the Chinese in
processing the paperwork, and not with the INS. He said the Chinese Adoption Program
was working well and was a jewel of all the adoption programs around the world that INS
had connections with. He said "the INS had no plans for extensions" to the 18-Month deadline.
He said the INS had nothing to do with the increases in costs for such things as home study
programs, fingerprints and criminal background checks. Mr. Strassberger said the INS had
only increased its feel by about $60. He said no family has been stranded in China with a
newly adopted child who could not get a visa to return to the USA. Mr. Strassberger said
the parents should do their paperwork with the Chinese first because it was the Chinese who
were slow, and then start their paperwork with the INS that has the 18-month deadline. All
the parents said he did not know what he was talking about since you cannot start any
paperwork with the Chinese until you have your INS forms approved. The parents said it
was the INS that was taking 6 to 8 months to do the paperwork. Most parents told me they
do not trust the INS so they are going to have to start all over again because their INS
paperwork will run out before they get to China or when they are there. Also parents point
out that if it appears you will not meet the INS 18-month deadline the Chinese will not give
you the OK to travel to China.
Bottom Line the INS' official word out of Washington, DC is "we see no problem."����
I asked parents who are involved to e-mail me about the problems they are having.
Remember these are hard working loving parents who are just trying to adopt a Chinese
little girl who happens to be a throwaway in her country.�
Here are the letters; some of the letters have been edited for space. These e-mails
came in the Week of February 25, 2002.
I am writing to you at the request about many prospective adoptive parents' efforts
to gain an extension from the INS for the validity of the I-171H form. I sincerely hope
you can help us!
A quick overview:
The I-171H Notice of Action is issued after the approval of the I-600A
form (Application for Advanced Processing of an Orphan Petition). This
takes a few months. These INS forms ensure we will be able to get a US
visa for our daughter in China at the US Embassy so we can bring her
home. The I-171H is good for 18 months. At the moment, China is very
backlogged with dossiers, as China has become an increasingly popular
country from which to adopt. This backlog has created a lengthier wait
time for referrals--currently, the wait time is about 13 months. Once a
prospective parent receives the referral, the wait time from referral
to travel is 4 to 8 weeks. We will spend about 2 weeks in China
adopting our daughter. Many parents are facing the expiration of their
I-171H this spring.
The big problem with this is that if the I-171H expires, we have to redo all
the paperwork and repay all the fees, even if nothing has changed with our original situation.
Fees that must be repaid:
- 1. The ordering of new marriage licenses, divorce decrees (if applicable), birth certificates,
- 2. INS fee of 405.00 (fee to be increased soon--even though
the amount of workers who handle adoption paperwork has been decreased.
For example, here in IL, we used to have two INS workers handling
adoptions, now there is only one)
- 3. FBI fingerprinting--25.00 per person in household over 18
- 4. Home study update/redo--fees vary. My Social Worker is very
kind and won't charge us for this service. However, some people are
paying anywhere from 300.00 to 1300.00 to redo the home study, even if
nothing has changed since their last home study was done.�
All of this must be done before travel to China.
Along with others, I have been involved in letter writing to senators and the INS to no avail.
I have written to my two senators here in IL--received a form letter from one, and no reply
from the other. I have written every senator on the Congressional Coalition for Adoption,
including Diane Feinstein (member) and Ted Kennedy (chair). I sent my letters to their home
offices to ensure receipt (anthrax problems at D.C. offices) There have been no replies.
The INS did reply, but don't appear to be willing to extend the time frame.
If the INS will not extend the time frame, I wish they would at LEAST develop an
efficient extension process to eliminate the cumbersome and time consuming redoing-paper
chase, and to reduce/eliminate the fees that we have already paid once and should not
have to pay again. ---- Sincerely, Therese����
Dear Mr. McIlvain,
Following is the story of my experiences with the Charlotte, North Carolina
Immigration and Naturalization Office.
In obtaining a visa for an adoption from China, my husband and I federal
expressed the required I-600-A form to the Charlotte, NC INS in early May of
2000. We waited a month to hear by mail that our application had been received,
and instead a month after it's receipt, we were notified that a translation of
my husband's Austrian birth certificate was required. We immediately Fed-Exed
the translation, and waited several more weeks. Or application was finally
acknowledged as received on June 28, 2000 by the Charlotte INS. We were sent a
letter instructing us to show up for a fingerprinting on July 12, 2000 in the
City-County Bureau of Identification (CCBI) in Raleigh. In order to make that
appointment we had to jump through several hoops. According to the letter we'd
received from the INS, it was either show up on our designated day, or request
to be rescheduled by checking a box on the letter and returning the
fingerprinting letter.
There is no way for an adoptive parent to phone or otherwise contact the
Charlotte INS office in order to check on the status of, or the arrival of
their application. So you wait by the mailbox.
My husband, a tenured professor of economics at Duke University, was teaching
at a weeklong conference in Philadelphia at the time. We went through the effort
of scheduling a quick round trip flight for him to come home for the
fingerprinting, then return to his already in progress conference.
The next step with the INS is to mail in your home study. Then you just wait
again by the mailbox until the INS notifies you that your application has been
approved.
Given our projections, and the fact that it took us 5 months to
complete the INS process the first
time, my husband and I decided to send in the application for our new
I-171-H in
September. It was acknowledged as received by the INS on October 2,
2001, and we received fingerprinting dates for November 14, 2001. We
were again printed in Raleigh on November 14, 2001. A new home study
was required, so we set up the appointments to meet with our social
worker. We were also required to do the following for the home study
all over again: new criminal background checks at the county
courthouse, new complete medical examinations and letters of
recommendation for adoption from our physician, new employment
statements, and new copies of the past three years of our tax returns.
That completed for the second time.
We federal expressed our updated home study to the INS on Dec. 16,
2001. Then we waited
Our agent emailed the contact in the Charlotte INS office, and was told my
fingerprints had been unreadable, and I would need to be re-fingerprinted. It
had been 4 months since my fingerprinting, and 2 months since they'd received
our home study, and I had not been notified.
The letter arrived on Feb. 19. I am still shocked and grateful to God, the
senator's aid, and my agent that it did. I have forgotten to mention that I had
been instructed by my agent to wear Cornhuskers Lotion for 72 hours previous to
the printing. I have probably omitted it because I am blocking out the
experience--the stuff is gross and I was instructed to not wash my hands. The
Cornhuskers Lotion was recommended for re-fingerprinting to my agent during
the Charlotte INS meeting.
On Friday, Feb. 22, I walked into the Raleigh CCBI, following 72 hours of
wearing the Cornhuskers Lotion, and was printed for the third time for the same
adoption. My hands were shaking, and I felt like my feet were not even touching
the ground. I was numb. I could not believe this was required of me. I have
been saddened, angry, tired, frustrated, and desperately wanting to know why on
Earth the United States of America would willingly throw so many road blocks in
the way of truly good act. There is a little girl in China who desperately
needs a home, and I desperately want to parent, and am willing to do whatever it
takes to save that one child's life, and make her my own.
I am sorry this is so long. I don't know which facts you'll need or use, but I
want you to be well armed. Please email me if any of this is unclear or with
questions. What date are you planning to air this topic? I know many people
who will want to be listening. --- Sincerely, Stacy
Hi --
If you're looking for folks with adoption stories involving expiring INS
papers...
We're in the process of adopting. Our 171H expires Sept 16, 2002. We'll
probably go to China around the first of Sept. or so, but that's no
guarantee. So, our agency is telling us that to be precautionary and avoid
potential delays we might should apply for another at $750! How much sense
does that make? -- jan r
Hi, Boy do we have a story. But I don't want to
take the time to write it out until I know you are really requesting the
story. My husband and I reside in Durham, North Carolina, and we have
had to go through the process twice, both times with intervention from
our agency and Senator Edward's office, and are STILL awaiting
paperwork, all for ONE adoption. It is truly a nightmare. I am so glad
you may have an interest in airing this to the world. --- Stacy, Durham, North Carolina
Another letter:
For those of us getting nervous about the possibility
of our 171 H forms expiring before our adoption is
completed, I think that it is important to take
proactive action regarding the expiration. I am in
favor of writing letters to our Senators and
Congressmen (heck, write President Bush too!)
appealing to them to extend the time-line of these
important forms. It took me 6 months to receive mine
from the Memphis INS office, and I doubt it would be
any faster a second time around. Bob Crawford has an
example letter on his website
(http://www.chinaconnectiononline.com) and it has some
great points.
Just thinking out loud, but being proactive is better
than worrying and not doing anything about it. ----- Marilyn
Another Letter:
The CHINA adoptions are taking much longer than had previously expected.
The families are paying outrageous fees for everything, in order to
bring these little girls home. We spend not only money, but time to file
paperwork ONCE, much less TWICE, and the fee of over $400 is a LOT to
start with, I cannot see asking the adoptive parents to pay this fee
TWICE. Please support lengthening the time to at LEAST 24 months, if not
longer.
At the present time, referrals are coming 13 months from the time
papers fly over to China (our common name is a DTC date), but most
families take an average of 6 to 8 months to "collect" paperwork. The
INS expiration starts when the INS approves the I-600, not when the DTC
(papers fly over to China) and sit for 13 months. Please support these
adoptive families! ---- Kay
These are just a few of the dozens of e-mails I received from parents caught
up in this paper chase mess as they tried to do what is right.
Date of this report 2/28/02
An e-mail commenting on the INS official who was on the show for
the last :30-seconds because he said he was confused by the Pacific Standard
Time and Washington, DC time. Judd 3/8/2002
Subj: Re: trouble with the INS/I171-H
From:
snechyba@yahoo.com
HI
Either explanation wouldn't surprise me; the INS representative either lacked
the courage to be on the show or really lives in his own world where the rest of
the country doesn't exist. There is so much more to this issue than he was
letting on. I just picked up another email this morning by someone else who is
having trouble with the INS. I see several of these a day! I copied it below
for you.
She is referring to the procedure required if fingerprints are rejected twice.
I was also told that I would have to go through this procedure if my
fingerprints are rejected again. Makes you wonder how they catch criminals.
Stacy in North Carolina
Subject: Fingerprints Denied - Question - NY
Hi all,
Today , I got the letter that my fingerprints taken at the INS field
office in Westchester County NY were 'unclassifiable' by the FBI
and I have to go back and have them taken again. Now I am sure
I am not the first person to have to do this! Ahhh! :(
The confusing thing:
On the letter it says that if fingerprints are denied two times (this
is my first) follow 'instruction' and return this document with
clearance from local police stations from where I lived for the
past 5 years plus a notarized document of no arrests etc and
return these to the INS district office in NYC.
Does anyone know if this means I have to get this info *before*
my fingerprints are rejected a second time or only *if* they are
rejected a second time?? I really hope it is only *if* but I have no
idea why they'd be enclosing these documents and instructions
if I wasn't supposed to do it now, before I even go back to try for
number 2?
Anyone with any info? Please let me know.
Thanks,
Bummed out about this -- as well as being upset like everyone
else....
Laura BZ, *still* paperchasing in NY
I suggest you not write the INS but to Senator Diane Finestine,
and Senator Ted Kennedy. Also write to the Senator from your state.
he more mail they get the faster they will react.
Judd 3/8/2002 |
