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Hi everyone,We're in a bit of a pickle here, and I wonder if anyone else has heard or experienced this. We're a pre-Hague adoption case, working with a currently-Hague foreign country, so we're grandfathered in with the I-600a. We're up-to-date on our I-171H, our fingerprints are good for another year, etc. Everything seemed fine.But now, we're told that our I-600 can't be approved unless we have a homestudy that's less than 6 months old. Our homestudy was in good order when we filed the I-600a, and we updated it when we filed for our extension for the I-600a, as is required, and yet here we are. Since we're currently staying in a hotel in the foreign country with our foreign-adopted child, hoping to come home in a few days, it's a bit inconvenient to have to update our homestudy (to say the least).So, is this a requirement for the I-800 (Hague) that's mistakenly being applied to our pre-Hague case? Our agency is as mystified as we are. I've certainly never heard that we needed to keep our homestudy updated every six months. Have you?Thanks.
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i have not heard that one before. who is telling you this? is your placement agency the same as your homestudy agency? if not...have you asked your homestudy agency if they have run into this at all? you may also want to post this on the forum of the country you are in.i'm sorry...this sounds like a mess. i hope we can find you some people to help you figure out a plan of action!
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i just went and read some info on uscis.gov. even when i read about the i 800...the only thing i see about "6 months" is that your homestudy must be less than 6 months old when it is submitted to uscis for the i 800 a.the only thing i can think of other than what i have already said is to contact uscis and see what they say, or perhaps [url=http://www.jcics.org/Contact_Us.htm]Contact JCICS[/url] would also be able to point you in the right direction.please be sure to post back when everything works out so we can hear about your happy ending. :)
socialkat78
What you are hearing is correct. I spoke with the USCIS Hauge person who has my file and was told that my homestudy had to be updated and less than 6 months old when filing for an extension.
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What karla-k said, above. To be precise, we were in-country with our child with our valid fingerprints, I-171H, etc., and were being held up at the US embassy, which would not give us a visa because one of the clearances on our homestudy was a bit out-of-date.We're now back in the US with our child, so all's well that ends well, but [URL="http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=474fb881905b3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=474fb881905b3210VgnVCM100000b92ca60aRCRD"]here's the relevant link[/URL] for pre-Hague cases like ours from the USCIS website stating that once you've got the I-600a, you don't need to have a fully up-to-date homestudy with your I-600.And here's the quote: Now, a bit of warning. I'm not an adoption expert, so don't quote me on this. You also do need to have updated fingerprints, and that requires an updated homestudy. In our case, we simply showed them that the clearance on one of our reports was still valid after X years in our home state, so the official decided to accept it.Anyways, we didn't actually need to pull in that quote above from the USCIS web site, but it was nice to have it, just in case.
"Advance ProcessingYou may also begin the orphan process before you identify a particular child for adoption. You do so by filing Form I-600A, Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. Submit the home study with the Form I-600A. If USCIS approves your Form I-600A, the finding that you are suitable as an adoptive parent will make it unnecessary to address this issue again, when you file a Form I-600 for a particular child. Once a particular child has been identified, you would then file a Form I-600 for that child. "
mommytoEli
YEAH TEXAS PETE! :)
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Samrawit:
To answer your specific question, the minimum income for USCIS purposes is 125% of the poverty level income, as defined by HHS, for a family of your family's size. This means that you'd have to earn $18,212 per year, according to the 2009 guidelines, if you are one person adopting one child.
HOWEVER, do be aware that some US states and homestudy agencies have higher requirements, and that some foreign countries and placement agencies also have higher requirements.
In addition, remember that, because of travel costs, document fees from states and the U.S. government, agency fees, foreign country fees, and so on, most adoptions cost a minimum of $25,000. An agency will want to see that the costs will not "wipe you out" financially.
Further, with singles, many agencies do want to be very sure that a person has enough savings that he/she can sustain a job loss that drags on for longer than expected, an illness or injury that makes him/her unable to work for a while, etc.
Your situation sounds a bit precarious so, unless you have a good bit in savings, you might want to consider waiting till you are doing a little better financially. In addition, be aware that your homestudy will want to be sure that you have adjusted to being a single person, after having been divorced, and that you have a good family/social support system. Single parenting has its challenges, and having close family and friends around can help to make it a bit more manageable.
Sharon