Tuesday, April 25, 2006

For Other Adoptive Families




A few days ago I wrote a letter to my Congressman (Henry Waxman, California) about extending the time period for the validity of the I-71H. Imagine my surprise when one of his assistants called me personally to ask 1) if there was already a bill about this subject in Congress and 2) if they could do anything personally to help us right now.

I explained the situation that we are in and underscored how helpful it would be if we didn't have to resubmit our fingerprints. If the I-71H could be good for 24 months instead of 18, that would make all the difference to us and all the other families in our position.

She is forwarding my letter to their immigration person in D.C. and hopefully we can get some movement on this issue.

If we each wrote a letter (letters carry more weight than emails, apparently), maybe collectively we could exert enough influence to get the expiration date extended.

To find your representative, go to this link: http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Nina

4 comments:

S. Meissner said...

I am so glad they got back to you! This subject is something that worries me as the wait will probably be even longer (I'm banking on referrals taking at least 18 months when we're waiting) by the time we begin the paperchase. What if we have to do them twice!

Mary said...

I'm right there with ya, I sent my letter out about a week ago!

Alyson and Ford said...

Thank you for the information!

LmCulp said...

I found your site on the Rumor Queen's site. Thank you for the information. I just sent a letter to USCIS yesterday to update our fingerprints (they expire July 4.) I will write a letter to my congressman asking for the time to be extended. Great idea!