So, on last week's episode...

We were in the midst of figuring out what we would do about getting that FBI background clearance apostilled in a timely matter.  Well, as I posted before, we figured out where it had to go (USDOS, not South Carolina); but we didn't know how we would get it there and back in a timely manner.  Well, enter a Washington DC courier service.  Yep, we decided to send the documents through a service and they will go to the actual Authentications Office, walk-up, and wait for it to be done.  We talked to Ted, who was super knowledgeable and he knew exactly what we were talking about because basically this is all he does for their office- that's how many documents like this they handle in DC!  It does cost a bit more, but we decided it was well worth it to get it back in 2 days rather 15+ business days (maybe, and not counting mail time).  So we giving Ted a go and hopefully, problem solved.

As for today- we went and had our federal biometric fingerprints done in Atlanta and finished yet another step of the journey to dossier completion.  The people there were totally nice and professional, we were in and out in under 30 min, and the biometric process itself was UBER-COOL!!  I don't know why but I just thought it was awesome.  Of course, that's probably because no red flags came up for me- lol lol!  I was so fascinated watching that the guy told me I was one of the most relaxed people he did all week, lol.  My husband, on the other hand, was getting constantly scolded (in a nice way) about trying to help the lady with it and not holding his hand right etc.  She and I just laughed because since he is over 6'3" and she was kinda short, he couldn't get low enough to make it easy.  Still, we got it done and overall, the whole process was pain-free.  The other cool thing was talking to a few of the different foreign people there getting their prints done while we were in line.   Countries represented in our small time frame were Germany, Thailand, Pakistan, another Middle Eastern nation (a very elderly couple who didn't speak English, but were sooo cute!), Mexico, and Korea.  Pretty cool, right?  Anyway, kudos to the Dept of Homeland Security for their efficiency, professionalism, and friendliness.

Lastly, today was also great because we received our homestudy (2 copies) apostilled from the State of NC!   I was happily surprised that NC did it so quickly- we had it in about a 4 day turnaround, which includes sending and receiving.  Not too shabby, eh?  Outside of the I-171H (and the aforementioned FBI clearance), we're pretty well done with the paper chase- can I get a "Woohoo!"? 

Until next time........