5th Trip to Jamaica - October 2006

From this point Andrew & Linda understood that the process would go something like this: they would file for visas for the girls, go to Jamaica to get the girls through Immigration at the US Embassy, bring the girls back to the US, meet with their assigned social worker every 6 weeks for the first 3 months and every three months after that for two years. After two years, the adoption would be complete. Because of this process they understood that they were to apply for non-immigrant visas for the girls.


So they went back to Jamaica with the paperwork for the non-immigrant visas. Upon their first visit to the US Embassy in Kingston they were told that they couldn't complete their appointment because they didn't have the original copies of the girls' birth certificates with them. When they asked the immigration official if they could come back the following day with the copies, they were told that they'd have to go back to the US, make another appointment online and then return to Jamaica again for that appointment. They walked outside with their contact from the children's home told them to go back in and beg for an appointment the following day. After doing this, they were granted an appointment for the following day.

The next day they returned to the US Embassy in Kingston where they were told by the representative at the appointment window that they were filing for the wrong visa. They needed to file for a permanent visa, not a non-immigrant visa. They were instructed to go to Indianapolis and file for the I-600 form.

Since they had been planning on returning to the US with the girls, this was a very sad trip home.

Expenses for this trip:
2 airline tickets = $894.25
2 changes to tickets for early return = $80.00
parking/gas to Indianapolis airport = $95.00

2 non-immigrant visa fees = $200.00
van rental = $80.00
gas for van to/from Kingston = $51.00
tolls in Jamaica = $10.62
Jamaican driver = $84.62

parking at US Embassy = $3.00
hotel in Jamaica = $115.00
TOTAL = $1613.49