International Families Adoptions Limited: Guatemala, Photolistings

5715 Will Clayton Parkway Suite 2708
HUMBLE, TEXAS 77338 USA
voice: 1-800-969-6901 •• fax: 1-866-969-6902 •• e-mail: intlfam@comcast.net

Important Warning for
Readers of this Web Page--

If you are a client of International Families, we take complete responsibility for what we have written on this page. If what we have written here is wrong, stupid, negligent, inaccurate or misleading, and if you rely on our bad advice to your detriment, then we will be responsible to you for the bad consequences that befall you.

But, if you are not a client of International Families, we take ABSOLUTELY NO responsibility vis-à-vis you, for what we have written on this page. In fact, please go away now ! Stop reading ! Get your advice from someone else ! Call you adoption agency or adoption facilitator, or call a good adoption and/or immigration attorney ! But please don't pay one bit of attention to what we have written. Our advice is worth exactly what you paid for it--nothing ! Not a plug nickel. And please don't contact us, because we are in no position to give you any kind of advice--not legal advice, not practical advice, not immigration advice nor adoption advice.

If you are adopting from Guatemala, be careful that you will not lose months, or even worse, years, of work on your case, and just as much time suffering and worrying over the fate of your child, by allowing your I-600A approval lapse. Here is the situation--

The United States became a full member of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, a/k/a the "Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption" a/k/a the "Hague," on April 1, 2008. However, if your Guatemalan adoption case began before that date, in the sense that you properly filed a form I-600A with the USCIS before April 1, 2008, then you are "grandfathered in," from the point of view of the USCIS (although not necessarily from the point of view of the Guatemalan Government, which instead requires that your case, for a specific child, was properly started in Guatemala, before January 1, 2008, for you to be "grandfathered in" under Guatemalan law and procedures--but this web page is not dedicated to that issue).

"Grandfathered in," means, with respect to the processing of your case by the US Government, that your case will be handled by the US Embassy in Guatemala City, and will be handled by all USCIS offices, everywhere, as if the Hague rules don't exist. This is very good.

But, the alternative is worse than awful, because it means that the US Government will require that your case start anew in Guatemala under rules and procedures that still don't exist--and moreover, your case cannot start there until you are pre-qualified by the USCIS under new procedures, with a new form I-800A, based on a new homestudy, etc. In practical terms, it probably means that you will not complete your adoption for more than a year, if ever.

An I-600A approval is good for 18 months. Your approval notice is on a form I-171H or I-797C. It should be very obvious from the face of the form when the approval was issued, and is should clear, as well, as to when to approval is going to expire. If you are a client of International Families, please feel free to consult with us on these very important dates ! (In fact, from inspection of your form I-171H or I-797C, you should also be able to determine when your 15-month fingerprint approval will expire.)

If your approval is going to expire soon, you must act immediately to prevent the approval from lapsing. To "lapse" means that there is, or will be, some period of time (even as little as one day) between the expiration date of your current approval and the date of your filing *** for a new I-600A approval. ( *** And what does filing mean--it means that you have submitted to the appropriate USCIS office a new and complete I-600A package, signed, with proper fee [which is now $670], along with all of the necessary supporting documents, including proof of citizenship, proof of marital status, and a current ["current" means that the homestudy document has been signed not earlier than 6 months before the date of filing] homestudy, homestudy addendum or homestudy update [and if one of the latter two, then also a copy of your previous homestudy].)

Now, here's a little good news----you might be entitled to file for a new I-600A approval without paying a new filing fee ! Specifically, if you have a current I-600A approval that will expire within 90 days, then you can request during this window of opportunity that your local USCIS office accept your filing without fee. Your request should include the I-600A package delineated above, plus a cover letter (see sample immediately below, which you are welcome to modify, plus a link to a USCIS notice that you can download and print out, which you should then include within your mailing. ):

feel free to use "cut-and-paste" to move the text of this letter into MS Word
or any other word processing program,
and remember that in your final version to remove
all of the colored highlighting that appears in the model only to guide you

Your Name(s)
Your Street Address
Your City, State and Zip Code
Your Phone Number

[date of your letter]

[insert here, if you know it, the name of the person], USCIS I-600A Adjudications Officer
[street address of the USCIS office that already approved your case]
[city, state and zip code of that USCIS office]

Re: Request for fee waiver on I-600A re-submission

Dear USCIS Adjudications Officer:

We have a current I-600A approval from your office (copy enclosed), but this approval expires soon, namely on [insert here, if can find it from the form I-171H or I-171C, the expiration date of the approval].

We respectfully request that we be allowed to submit a new I-600A application without having to pay any additional filings fees (see attached notice from USCIS), in light of the fact that our [son / daughter] is not yet ready to come home from Guatemala.

Therefore, along with this cover letter, a copy of our current approval notice and the USCIS notice referenced above, please also find enclosed a current [choose any one of the following three: homestudy homestudy addendum with a copy of our original homestudy homestudy update with a copy of our original homestudy] approved and signed within the last 6 months, plus proofs of our citizenship and marital status.

Thank you very much for your kind attention to this matter.

Very truly yours,

[type your name(s) here, and sign your name(s) right above]

On the other hand, if your 15-month fingerprint approval (which was/is part of your 18-month I-600A approval) is going to expire within 90 days, you should be careful not to let it lapse either, although the consequences will probably not be as draconian as what will happen if your I-600A approval itself lapses. Specifically, if you don't have a current fingerprint approval, then your case cannot be finished at the US Embassy in Guatemala City, in the sense that your adopted child's immigrant visa cannot be issued until you are back "in status" with regard to a new fingerprint approval. Moreover, if you don't file for a new fingerprint approval within the 90-day grace period, the new fingerprinting will not be free.

So, here is a sample cover letter that you are welcome to modify, plus a USCIS notice that you can download and print out, which you should then attach to your mailing to USCIS in which you request a waiver of the fee for a new fingerprint approval in conjunction with your I-600A approval:

Your Name(s)
Your Street Address
Your City, State and Zip Code
Your Phone Number

[date of your letter]

Re: Request for I-600A re-fingerprinting without charge

Dear USCIS Adjudications Officer:

We have a current I-600A approval from your office (copy enclosed), but the fingerprints expire soon, namely on [insert here, if can find it from the form I-171H or I-171C, the expiration date of the fingerprints].

We respectfully request re-fingerprinting without charge (see attached notice from USCIS), in light of the fact that our [son / daughter] is not yet ready to come home from Guatemala.

Thank you very much for your kind attention to this matter.

Very truly yours,

[type your name(s) here, and sign your name(s) right above]