Legals!

HJ's "legals" arrived from Korea today! Legals include his birth certificate, evidence that he is an orphan and other forms. We need this information to file Form I-600 - "Petition to Classify an Orphan as an Immediate Relative" with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. We filled out the I-600 and sent it to our adoption agency when we sent in our acceptance paperwork. Now, they will send the I-600, along with our home study, copies of our birth certificates, a copy of our marriage license, and HJ's legals to a main lockbox in Texas. From that point, the paperwork will be forwarded to the National Benefits Center in Missouri. It will be processed and then sent to our local USCIS office, who will contact us with a date to come in to get fingerprints taken. After our fingerprints clear and everything is complete and approved, our approval to adopt HJ into our family will be sent to the National Visa Center, and then it will be forwarded to the US Embassy in Seoul. Sounds like a lot of steps and a lot of room for paperwork to get lost! Once the Korean government issues permission for HJ to leave Korea and issues his passport, then the US Embassy can issue his Visa to enter the US. All of those steps have to happen before we can travel. Please pray that the I-600 processing goes smoothly. Next step...fingerprints!