Advertisements
Advertisements
Hi all,
My father died in January of this year. He had 10 kids with 7 different women :cowboy: Two of them are still minors. The minor boy is doing well with his mom. The minor girl is with her octogenarian grandpa in a rural town, and her mom can't take care of her at all, and never really has . Anyhow, when my dad realized he didn't have very much time left I promised him that I would at least submit a sibling immigrant visa request for my kid sister, since he really wanted to bring her over here (his U.S. citizenship ceremony letter arrived a few weeks after he died). Well, I traveled to the DR to bury my dad and got to spend time with my sister, and man, I just couldn't keep my heart from feeling for her. This is my SISTER going through a pretty rough time over there. Requesting a visa for a sibling takes like 10 years at least. This just would not cut it.
Sooo, I decided to pursue adopting her. Her mom approves wholeheartedly. My sister herself approves (she's 13, so her opinion counts :p ). My wife and I meet all of the requirements for the US, DR and Hague. We're more than 15 years her seniors, have been married for 10, and have no physical, financial, criminal history issues.
Well, my homestudy was completed, sent off my i800a and am scheduled for fingerprints on the 31st.
We have a good attorney in the DR waiting for the i800a approval to have the completed dossier.
I am a certified court interpreter and have translated everything to send.
Since my wife and I are Dominican and were mostly raised over there, and since this is my sister we're trying to adopt, I'm hoping they cut the residency requirement down from the 30 days (since she's over 12) to at most a week or so. Missing that much work would be brutal for me. I'm guessing the point of the stay is to become acquainted with the country and child, both of which are non-issues for us.
Does anyone here know what else I can do to stay ahead of the ball? The minute I get my i800a approved can I mail out the i800 with my sister's info?
:thanks:
J
Advertisements
jesster
Hi all,
My father died in January of this year. He had 10 kids with 7 different women :cowboy: Two of them are still minors. The minor boy is doing well with his mom. The minor girl is with her octogenarian grandpa in a rural town, and her mom can't take care of her at all, and never really has . Anyhow, when my dad realized he didn't have very much time left I promised him that I would at least submit a sibling immigrant visa request for my kid sister, since he really wanted to bring her over here (his U.S. citizenship ceremony letter arrived a few weeks after he died). Well, I traveled to the DR to bury my dad and got to spend time with my sister, and man, I just couldn't keep my heart from feeling for her. This is my SISTER going through a pretty rough time over there. Requesting a visa for a sibling takes like 10 years at least. This just would not cut it.
Sooo, I decided to pursue adopting her. Her mom approves wholeheartedly. My sister herself approves (she's 13, so her opinion counts :p ). My wife and I meet all of the requirements for the US, DR and Hague. We're more than 15 years her seniors, have been married for 10, and have no physical, financial, criminal history issues.
Well, my homestudy was completed, sent off my i800a and am scheduled for fingerprints on the 31st.
We have a good attorney in the DR waiting for the i800a approval to have the completed dossier.
I am a certified court interpreter and have translated everything to send.
Since my wife and I are Dominican and were mostly raised over there, and since this is my sister we're trying to adopt, I'm hoping they cut the residency requirement down from the 30 days (since she's over 12) to at most a week or so. Missing that much work would be brutal for me. I'm guessing the point of the stay is to become acquainted with the country and child, both of which are non-issues for us.
Does anyone here know what else I can do to stay ahead of the ball? The minute I get my i800a approved can I mail out the i800 with my sister's info?
:thanks:
J
First of all, I'm sorry sorry about the death of your father.
In terms of your sister, that is a very interesting route to take. Yeah, minor siblings of US citizens are low priority, and given the wait times I've seen from the DR, the 10-year wait that you describe sounds right to me. At which point she won't be a minor...
I have no words of wisdom, other than to say it looks like you've been given good advice. Please keep us updated.