The wait seems as if it will never end. Each month, when I get the Places Everyone email from Great Wall, I compare it with the prior months. I am sad to say that I have seen no movement on that list since January, and only minimal movement since August.
We were told that things would start to speed up in the beginning of 2009, but I don't see any evidence of that. It looks like the 5 year prediction is going to come true. If things keep crawling the way they are, I can see it going longer.
Of course, our I-171H expires in May, so we have to go through the process of getting re-fingerprinted (which makes absolutely no sense to me) and have a home study update ($150) done. The first renewal of the I-171H is free (if we get everything done by the expiration date - a HUGE feat when you have a CPA husband that's been working 7 days a week). The I-171H expires every 15 months, so the next several will cost $960 each. Then there's the home study update fee each time.
We got reprinted (at the local level) a couple of weeks ago and sent that paperwork up to get the state check redone. We have to wait for that to come back and then send the results and the updated home study to USCIS (Immigration) for our reprint appointment at the federal level. You may ask why they can't both use the same prints. I asked the same question. I honestly think it comes down to each bureaucracy wanting to have control over its own little kingdom.
So, now of course, people are telling me to go to another country. Easy for them to say. We've already invested a lot of money toward this adoption. We have also started picturing our daughter, and she's Chinese.
