The one thing I really dreaded with the other adoptions was the long drawn out process of getting the i800a approval. For those new to the adoption process, the full name of this form is Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country, the convention country being China in this case. With the Princesses, this step took a month, and with Isaac, it took nearly two months. The USCIS website says to allow up to 90 days.
So you can understand my excitement! I
just heard from our officer, and since we were approved for two children
when we applied with Isaac, we get to SKIP that i800a step with Pat, and just use the
approval we already have. This will save us one to three months off the time of
the process!
Because of things happening in our family - the expected birth of a grandchild, a son graduating from college AND getting married - if we can't travel by February, we pretty much have to wait until June. Skipping this step just made travel in the beginning of next year go from "highly unlikely" to "certainly possible!"
