I-600 approved. Now what?

Hello, I see this is a little old, but I am curious as to what you found out. We are just in the process of submitting our I-600, but once approved I don't know what exactly we need to do. I hear you on the vague part, my husband and I are adopting his sister from Africa and immigration is not helpful whatsoever. Let me know if you found anything out or have any advice for us!

Thanks so much for your response. It seems like a long time ago, but it really wasnt. So much has happened since then, so I will try to recall the details for you. We received notification in the mail that our I-600 was approved. It came very quickly after our submission was complete. We were informed that our case was forwarded to the National Visa Center. They in turn informed us that it was sent to the Embassy overseas and that we would hear from them. The Embassy overseas responded by mail fairly quickly giving us basic information and then a web address and link. The web information was specific instructions for applying for a visa. It instructed us to wait for the results of the medical appointment before we made an embassy appointment, but that would have taken forever. On the advice of the medical clinic we ascertained that we should make the embassy appointment right away and not wait for the medical results. The website information was also ambiguous in terms of some of the paperwork that it told us to bring with us- paperwork that had already been submitted with the I-600 application, so it was kind of confusing. All of this happened within two weeks of the I-600 approval. Be prepared. The visa application process was almost as much work as the I-600 and since we had no one to help us through, almost as frustrating. I spent weeks preparing for it. We did call the EmbassyҒs 800 number and had our credit card handy ($25 charge). We talked to a very nice individual who noted our questions and informed us that someone would get back to us in three days by email. The problem was, that although they got back to us, they didnt answer the question we asked, which was Җ could we change the city where our embassy appointment was to one which was closer to where our family lived. The website informed us that it would take approximately 5-7 days to receive the visa after the embassy appointment. In reality, our family received it at their home by noon the next day. Which was wonderful except now we had the added expense of staying in the country a lot longer than we needed to. Yes immigration was not helpful beforehand, but they were awfully nice at the Embassy. Although I question why we had to go through the process once the I-600 was approved, I hear there is a movement afoot to change that process so that I-600 approval would suffice you wouldn֒t have to apply for the visa-you would apply for the childs US passport and that would be the end of it. But unfortunately that is not the case right now. But somewhere in that USCIS machine there is efficiency and we did receive the information fairly quickly once the I-600 was approved. However, the visa application process added several more weeks of strife to an already difficult situation. It was very difficult for our family to have to make those additional visa arrangements, especially since we didnҒt really know what to expect and had no assistance. I had to prepare substantial paperwork for the visa application. I brought everything I could think of with me because since we were halfway around the world, if I forgot something, we were out of luck. The National Visa Center classified our nephews visa as an IR-4 but fortunately, the US Embassy took a closer look at our application and changed the classification to an IR-3. Needless to say, I was elated! One last thing - I would suggest that you try to get your husbandҒs sister's passport now if possible. It was such a help to have that out of the way before the visa application process. Best wishes to you.

Hi there! Thanks so much for the information about your case, and so glad that everything went well in the end! I guess I didn't even realize that the visa was going to be a whole process in itself, so I will try to be more prepared now. How did you plan your trip? This process is so confusing I don't know what to tell work or even if we should get tickets that can be changed? How long did your process take in the country? We just submitted the I-600 last week with our completed homestudy. Thanks for the info on the passport, we will try to get that right away. But, it's just hard to plan how long we will have to be there to complete everything. Now, all I-600's go to the National Benefits Center and I called and they said they try to process the I-600 in 15 days?? We'll see I guess. Also, I was going to ask, did you have any issues traveling home or at customs? What paperwork did you have to show? How old is your nephew? And, once back in the states did you have to do anything in your state to acknowledge the adoption? How is everything going now? Thanks again for the reply, it is so nice to talk to someone that has been through the process!

I'd like to private message you about this. Let me know if you don't receive it.

I have a question about "identified" adoption, which I hope I could get some input from you.

sure-can you pm me?

How long does form 1 600 take?