CIS

On October 26, we shipped off our “Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition,” better known as the I-600A, to the United States Department of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Service, commonly known as “CIS.” Filing the I-600A hopefully results in the “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition”, officially numbered the I-171H, commonly known as the Favorable Determination Letter or “FDL.” Gotta love the government.

CIS, remarkably, sent us a notice within a week that we had an appointment on November 21 in Portland to have our fingerprints taken (for what would now be the third time). November 21 was the day before Thanksgiving, and we were not too thrilled about having to travel to Portland in all of the holiday traffic. However, rescheduling would push back our FDL, so we saddled up the boys, left early and braved the traffic, which turned out to not be bad at all.

We made it Portland an hour and half early, and, after finding the CIS “Application Support Center,” had cinnamon rolls at Elephant’s Delicatessen. The CIS office was straight out a movie, or maybe an episode of “Seinfeld.” It was very governmental - pale blue walls, cheesey photos on the walls, hard plastic chairs, and a very gruff person-in-charge who seemed to feel that if she raised her voice with the people who didn’t speak English they would understand her better. The people who actually took our prints, however, were very nice, and they let the boys put their fingers on the glass so that they could see their fingerprints on the screen.

The next day was Thanksgiving. Molly told me later that this was the first Thanksgiving where she felt that our family wasn't complete. Somebody was missing.