G-884 - Ongoing adoption paperwork

The G-884 is in

I've had several people ask about the G-884 filing, and just yesterday, we received a certified letter with the information so I can finally fill you in!

(For a post about filing post-adoption paperwork including the COC, G-884 and G-639, click HERE.)

Well, the G-884 Request for the Return of Original Documents isn't an easy process, and it took three months to get the results. 

In our case, it didn't turn up any documents that we didn't already have. All the forms they sent we had already received from our U.S. agency during our finalization process (after our 6-month waiting period in the US).

But it was definitely worth a shot. And it satiated my deep curiosity about what was in that darned envelope!

What we got

In our case, we received what appears to be the original documents we were given in a sealed envelope, and that we carried from Korea to the US after taking custody of Little Man. We handed over the envelope during the interview with the immigration department at the airport in the U.S. 

We received the Korean and translated versions of Little Man's Korean birth certificate, the statement of release of custody from the adoption agency in Korea, and the statement of consent to adoption from the agency in Korea. 

How to do it

Filling out the form:

• under the 'information about you' heading, put info about yourself (Mom or Dad)
• in the 'data for identification on personal record' put your child's information
• under type of entry, put 'immigration'
• port of entry is the city where you went through customs at airport
• in the "specific information about desired documents..." section, we wrote this: Requesting all records, photos and available information pertaining to the adoption of {insert legal name here}, formerly {insert Korean name here}

Mailing the form:

• the form has to be notarized before you send it to USCIS 
• you'll need to send proof of ID. I included copies of my license, and Little Man's COC, adoption decree and travel passport (from Korea)

One last note on mailing it...everything I could find said we should send it to the same office which processed the COC, which is our local USCIS office where we had our biometrics done. We did that. 

But we received a letter saying it was filed in the wrong place and they had forwarded it to the National Records Center in Lee's Summit for processing. Not sure if that means it should have been sent there in the first place? So I guess that part is up to you, but at least it's good to know that they will get it where it needs to go!

Now, just two last pieces in Little Man's paper file....filing the G-639, and waiting for his revised state birth certificate (reflecting his citizenship status) to be returned. 

Almost done!