I have mentioned USCIS in my posts quite a bit lately, and I thought I would do a series of posts on just what USCIS is, what its role is in adoption and some tips on getting your applications handled as smoothly as possible. These posts will only be relevant to families who are citizens of the US, so I apologize to anyone reading who this doesn’t apply to.

USCIS stands for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. In recent years it has also gone by the acronyms INS, BCIS and possibly another one I am not remembering at the moment. Their website is www.uscis.gov.

If you are adopting domestically (a private adoption in the US or a US foster adoption) consider yourself lucky, because you will not have to deal with USCIS. When we adopted Marcus and the girls domestically after two international adoptions, I could not believe how NICE it was, not to have to do all the extra USCIS paperwork.

If you are adopting internationally, USCIS is something you’re going to have to deal with. Immigration is complicated, but I will give you some tips and info on the basic and most typical processes. Please do double check any of this info with your agency or social worker and remember that this info is from my own personal research and experiences.

Probably THE single most frustrating thing about dealing with the USCIS is that every office does things in their own way. Depending on where you live, there is an USCIS district office that you must use. There are also “application support centers” where fingerprinting can be done in more locations. You can find office locations, addresses, etc. here. Your homestudy social worker is often your best resource in getting specific info regarding how your USCIS office handles things and wants things done. Adoptive parents (only ones who have used your same USCIS office) can also be a good resource.

Now you would think that all of these offices would follow the same procedures, guidelines, timeframes, etc. but that is not the case. Some offices process applications quickly, some are notorious for being slow. Some offices have a phone number for adoptive parents to call and speak to someone, other offices will not allow any phone calls and your only means of contact is via mail or showing up in person. There are quite a few other “differences” between offices as far as procedures go, and I will mention some throughout this post.

There is also a 1-800 number for USCIS information, but be warned…I have called this number three times in the same day and asked the same question to three different people and gotten three different answers. I then went to our nearest application support center and got a fourth answer. The phone number for the national support center is 1-800-375-5283. Taken any info you get with a grain of salt.

To be continued...