For those who are awaiting I-171H approval from your local USCIS office, here’s some information on what happens with that form once it leaves the desk of the adjudicating officer. Thanks to Tom DiFilipo of JCICS for preparing this information for JCICS member agencies and for allowing us to post it online.

(If you don’t know what an I-171H is, scroll down to the bottom of this post for an explanation.)

03 September 2007

Processing of all I-171H approvals is now competed through the DOS National Visa Center. Joint Council has confirmed the following procedures regarding the processing of I-171H approvals. The change in processing is designed to allow for the tracking of approvals through one central office and contact point. Processing the approvals through the NVC brings the process for ICA [intercountry adoption] in line with the processing of all other U.S.-based immigration applications. It should also be noted that this is a DOS-based program to which USCIS must comply.

Tom also offered some helpful comments:

• For urgent cases, USCIS recommends prospective adoptive parents to request overnight delivery for Step 2 – sending the approval to the NVC.
• Prospective adoptive parents may call the NVC to verify the status of their case as it relates to the I-171H approval. The contact number is 202-663-1225. [Update on 09/04/07: The direct phone number for the NVC in New Hampshire is 603-334-0700. This number has been reported as a more effective means of communicating directly with the NVC. Be prepared to wait if you call this number. You can also send an email to nvcinquiry@state.gov.]
• The NVC issues an electronic notification to the appropriate U.S. Embassy or Consulate when shipping via DHL has occurred (Step 3).
• It is not standard practice for the local USCIS field office to forward the approval via overnight delivery. No current process exists, other than by special circumstance and specific request, to facilitate the shipping of all approvals via overnight shipment. Prospective adoptive parents can not ‘pay for overnight shipment’; however, as noted, they can request it on an as-needed basis. No criteria have been established for assessing an overnight request, which leaves it to the discretion of the local field office.

Incidentally, for those of you who are adoption-acronym savvy yet, the DOS is the U.S. Department of State (yeah, I know, you’ve always called it the State Department!). USCIS is U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (you used to call it INS, Immigration and Naturalization Services).

The I-171H is the form issued by USCIS with the long but informative title, “Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition.” So the I-171H is a notice of favorable determination — i.e., an approval. But an approval of what?

The thing they’re approving is your I-600A, an application for advance processing of orphan petition. Advance processing? Well, the I-600A form says that you want to adopt from a specific country overseas, and you want the federal government’s approval of your fitness to do so — in other words, you’re asking the U.S. government to process this part of the case (evaluating your fitness to adopt) ahead of the time that you actually petition for the adoption of a particular child.

So you submit the I-600A, along with a home study prepared by a licensed agency, and you get fingerprinted. After USCIS looks at (1) your application, (2) your adoption home study report, and (3) your fingerprint results, they issue your I-171H, which says (in essence): you’re okay with us. The I-171H does not approve you for the adoption of a particular child. There are other forms that are submitted on behalf of the child you’re trying to adopt.

So what’s this whole NVC thing (back to the main point of the post)? In essence, the Department of State is standardizing the process for what happens to your I-171H after it’s issued by your USCIS office. It used to be that the notice of your approval was sent straight from the USCIS office to the U.S. Consulate or Embassy in the country you were adopting from. Now the notice has to go to the National Visa Center first. For now, that means some delays and increased possibility of forms getting lost in the mail. But this is the government, so perhaps we’ll have to live with it.