USCIS is My Friend

I bet you never thought you'd hear me say THAT. Well, it's true. In the past couple of days, I have been quite impressed with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.

As many of you know, we had run into a bit of a roadblock when we found out that Isabel's new Certificate of Citizenship was going to take forever to be processed. We cannot apply for her US passport until we have it, so a couple of weeks ago, we wrote to USCIS requesting them to expedite Ibby's CoC. They turned us down! Well, I got on the phone pronto with someone from customer service and explained our situation. I spent a half an hour on the phone with an incredibly nice, concerned, and intelligent woman...YES, she was a USCIS employee...and she rewrote the request, submitted it, and five days later, we had Isabel's new CoC in hand! Whew. I will forever be grateful to that woman who took the time to write a very persuasive request that demonstrated our dire need.

Secondly, we know that our I800A application for Maddie has been assigned to a case worker. She has read our application and our home study, and although she did issue an RFE (request for evidence), it's a very minor issue. Our addendum should be sent to her within the next day or two, and we should be well on our way to a fingerprint appointment and then APPROVAL!

USCIS has NOT been my friend in the past especially when they lost some of Isabel's paperwork. It was an icky mess, and we had to get our State Senator involved. Now, I am quite pleased to see this agency working in a compassionate and efficient manner.