THE DOSSIER

We completed our dossier on June 18, 2009 and sent it UPS. We did expedite some of the apostilles, and although this cost a bit extra, it did get done a lot quicker. On the same day we completed our dossier and sent it off to Frank to be put on "the list" we also completed our immigration forms, or commonly referred to in the adoption world as I600A on the USCIS website. We sent these out the same day along with all of the required documents for immigration, including birth certificates, mnarriage licenses, original home study etc.
We found that sending all of the required doc together made life a lot easier for us in the long run. We also did not file the I600A until after our home study was done and our dossier was complete. This way our fingerprints would not expire too quickly in the future.
We received our docs and were fingerprinted about a month later and about a month after that we received our I171H- our Request was Approved and we were ready to adopt !!


Once we submitteds the dossier, pics, etc. I made a physical file copy of everything and also an electronic file entitled "ADOPTION" in my documents on the computer. At any time that I needed to find a doc, I could look either electronically or in my book. I also scanned ALL of my docs and put them into this file electronically this way I can put them on a flash drive and take an electronic copy with me as well as a physical copy.

Scanners are relatively inexpensive today and desktop color printers / copiers are easy to come by, so I would suggest investing in both early on.