Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Incoming and Outgoing

After I made all those phone calls two weeks ago, I got an overnight packet in the mail with all the Dossier part 1 documents but the license. We were thrilled! I teach the Bible study at church on Wednesday nights and I took the Home Study just so we wouldn't be the only ones to witness this momentous occasion. I was hoping to mail a copy of the Home Study to USCIS the next day, but when I read through everything I was concerned about the wording when it came to age of our child. I tried multiple times to find out if my concerns were valid, but no one seemed to know if it was a problem and our case worker was(is) in Russia. Finally today I found out there was nothing wrong with the way they had worded the age request and the license came in the mail!! I would love to say everything will be back in the mail tomorrow on its way to being apostilled and USCIS, but Thursday would be great as well. One more step down!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Don't Call Me, I'll Call You

I have changed my approach. Instead of finishing my paperwork and waiting for some news, I now finish my paperwork and then call people in the hope that it will keep the process moving. I am still in the testing phase of this new strategy. Last week I realized that our case worker was going to Russia for two weeks. Well, she had to approve our dossier part 1 paperwork before we could get it notarized and, after persistent calling round one, I discovered that she would not be in her office at all on Friday. I took Thursday afternoon, trusted my students into the capable hands of my aides, and worked like a crazy woman to get all of our paperwork done before the end of the work day. Thanks to their fabulous help, I got all the paperwork done and faxed in time. Of course I called as soon as I faxed everything, but I got voicemail. I called as soon as the kids went home and found out that our paperwork was perfect! But (does there always have to be a but) they were missing our home study provider's license. They won't mail us the packet with their end of the dossier until they get the license. I gave them a few days to communicate and I tried my calling strategy again today. I took my sticky note full of phone numbers to the teacher's lounge and started with the home study provider. They have already sent a copy of the license to the Tulsa office. Next, I called the Tulsa office only to get voicemail. Later in the day I get a curious message from the secretary saying the license had been received. I'm still not sure where. I tried calling the Dallas office before I went home and found out that they have requested the license from Tulsa and it should be coming. JJ thinks I should call on Thursday, but I will probably hold out until Friday morning. I guess I've become the nagging widow from Jesus' parable, but if they don't forget me because I'm a little annoying it will be worth it.