off to the USCIS

We finally have made it one more step forward on the checklist of what needs to happen before our girls come home. This morning a nice fat envelope (and a fat check) went off to the USCIS. Turn-around for the I800A approval is usually 1-3 months. Phew. Back when we started this process we were told by our primary agency that the turn around time was closer to the one month side of things. I have no idea how quickly things are processing now.

At this point, we really have no idea when we'll be traveling. With Krassi's adoption, we sent the paperwork to USCIS at the end of December, traveled for trip one at the end of March, and finally brought him home in mid-October. Assuming everything goes at a similar pace (is it wise to make any assumptions about time frames in international adoption??) we're not looking at having them home before Christmas anymore. But we shall see...

Here's the updated list from this post:
 

• we've submitted our commitment documents (12/31/2015), and they've been accepted (1/27/2016).
• the home study is completed (4/9/2016)

• our I800-A application has been sent to the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) (mailed 4/11/2016)

• once we get back approval on our I800-A, we can submit that along with the rest of our dossier (fancy name for all of the documents we need to collect and send) to the Bulgarian Minister of Justice
• when our dossier is approved by the MOJ, we will receive our invitation to travel for trip #1 (this is the point at which B will be informed that she has an interested family) 
•  after trip #1 we can submit our I800 to USCIS, and upon approval of that, we can send final documents to Bulgaria to allow them to finalize the adoptions
• once the adoptions are finalized, we will be given travel dates for trip #2 when we get to go pick up our girls and bring them home