We finally received word today that our agency has received our court judgment and is now sending our documents for translation.

Wait.

Didn’t that happen in October?

Apparently, our agency was verbally informed that we passed court on October 11th, but the judge didn’t actually finalize the judgment until January 6th. We are now in the beginning of the 30-day appeal period, which we thought began on October 11th.

Sigh.

So the good news is that there’s finally paperwork coming through. The bad news is that we are literally 3 months behind where we thought we were. But at least something is happening!

So, what does it look like from here?

• After the non-appeal period is over (February 6th) it will take 1-30 days to receive the Certificate of Non Appeal. We also need several other documents to be processed during this time too, but I don’t want to bore you any more than you already are. 😉
• Once all of the documents are received, we prepare another monstronsitron pile of paperwork for US Citizenship and Immigration Services for final approval. (We’ve already received pre-approval.) It takes an average of 6 weeks for this approval, although right now, things are being processed a little faster — depending on who our immigration officer is.
• Once immigration approval is received, an embassy appointment is scheduled for our kids. Right now, they are scheduling appointments about 6 weeks out from the date one is requested.
• It takes 2-4 weeks for the embassy to issue our kids’ visas, and then we can schedule travel.
• Somewhere in there we get our own visa to travel, but I’m a little fuzzy on when that happens. We can’t apply for a visa without travel dates, but we can’t schedule travel without a visa.

I’m resisting the temptation to do things like add up the minimum times and add up the maximum times and project a window for travel.  We have already significantly exceeded the time it would take to get the court judgment. Every step could take longer, or things could speed up. I don’t want to drive myself crazy trying to calculate a timeline I have no real control over. More than governments, or immigration officers, or judges, there is One who already has our travel date set. And I’m resting in the fact that it will come on the exact day He has planned.