We received an email from our agency today encouraging us to write Congress in support of extending the I-171H timeline. This legislation would extend the validity of the I-171H "Notice of Favorable Determination Concerning Application for Advanced Processing of Orphan Petition" form to at least two years. The I-171H form is issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. The form is currently valid for 18 months, although the time needed to complete the adoption process has significantly increased over the last few years. This is because of delays in the travel approval, visas for orphans, and additional processing time to gain approval of orphan adoption by foreign governments.

The I-171H form has an application fee of $545, plus $70 per person for fingerprints. Several other forms are needed before receiving approval, including a home study to ensure the home is safe and stable, birth and marriage certificates, health and financial records, criminal background checks, and other information. The entire cost of international adoption can be thousands of dollars. If the I-171H form expires before the adoption is complete, a family must reapply and re-submit all applicable forms, fees and evaluations. This can be prohibitively costly for many hopeful parents.

After reading this information, that's when it dawned on us that ours will be expiring in May 2006 and we will have to pay another $685 to get it renewed again.

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