What does this road look like? The dossier

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mannaz/6993752921/

Now that the home study is complete, what is next?  The dossier.  The dossier is the official packet that gets sent to the Philippine government.  It will consist of about 16 documents once it is done.  Many of these things we already have but a few are new or we need official copies of them.  For instance, we have birth certificates and marriage certificates but since we need to send originals with the dossier we had to order more.  Other things like the I-800a, (official immigration approval from the US government,) need to be applied for.  This one takes the most work but not the most thought.

With the dossier it does sometimes feel like "we've done this before."  For the home study we had to submit copies of birth certificates, marriage certificates and had to be fingerprinted for an FBI background check. Well, all of that needs to be done again for the dossier.  Luckily, if you plan well, you already have most of it done except for the fingerprints.  For this set of fingerprints you have to go to an official USCIS office to get it done again.

Then there is the form that asks about acceptable conditions.  This is probably the hardest form we have had to fill out so far.  It is very hard to not feel selfish as you decide what conditions and background history you are willing to accept.  Some examples are: skin pigmentation issues, just about any birth defect, and motor skill delays that are likely related to their care environment.

It is on to more paper gathering.  We hope that this time things will go a little more quickly than for the Home Study.  At this point we are waiting on the US government to take our fingerprints and finish processing our I-800a.