Biometrics

Big day on Wednesday - our Fingerprinting Biometrics appointment at USCIS.  Here's a snapshot of the building's sign.  That's about as much as we could get because there are NO phones/camera/electronics allowed in the building.

You walk through security like the airport and and instructed to turn off anything (before you walk through), so here is the picture we got before we walked in the doors.

Our appointment was at 9am, and we got there at 8:40 or so.  We were given a form and a buzzer and were told to head upstairs to wait for the buzzer to buzz. There were about 20 or so people upstairs waiting, and the conversations in different languages were so neat to listen to. 

There is a security guard sitting at a desk in the corner watching everyone.  Framed pictures of the flag and Obama on the walls.  In walks the woman who starts knocking on a door on one side of the room and the security guard starts asking her (loudly) to stop and come seem him.  She lost it!  She started yelling at him explaining "she had a job to do" and was being held back from that.  He slowly walked towards her, but their conversation was loud and caught everyone.

I think she was a translator or something and she was looking for her client, but he didn't see the clients name on any record for the day.  She was RUDE and he said, "You don't need to interrupt everyone else with your antics" and then told her to SIT.DOWN. ha! She did! And was still grumbling.  She got up and walked over to the suggestion/comment box and Dave was so tempted to go too, writing, "Whatever that crazy lady said is just not true." ;) 

Our buzzers went off at exactly 9am.  We walked downstairs and I was sent to one machine and Dave to another.  They scanned my four fingers at once and then my thumb.  Then they did rolling prints of all of the fingers.  I have to say, it was really neat to see your prints so close!  Dave's technician was a talker...mine, not a word.  Not a word.  There's me, chatting, "So neat! Wow...check those out...yada yada" and he just went to work and ignored me. haha! 

After one print was denied, we redid it and off we went, done!  I saw this sign on the door when we left and thought it was pretty cool.

So not exiting, except for the yelling lady.  In and out!  Now we wait to hear that they passed and we're offically I600a approved.  That means that our country has approved us an a pre-adoptive family.  Lots of hoops to jump through to get that approval, so it's a celebration when it happens!

Then, we wait for our referral and start the next phase...I600, which approves the CHILD for adoption.