uscis

Where do I start….

October 7, 2015 by krp1021 Leave a Comment

I don’t even know where to start… As many of you know we boarded a plane on a one way ticket on September 19th to Haiti to fight for our children and to secure there Visa. When we got here we thought we knew what was going to be needed to fix the problem and bring them home. That has now changed numerous times. We are very thankful to have found some people down here who we trust completely and they are helping us with some of the things that need done. God has clearly placed the right people in our path… I know understand why our first week was slow God was allowing us some mommy and daddy time with our kids that we hadn’t seen in over 18 months I am forever thankful for that time and it makes since now!

I am going to tell you the first week we were here was hard nothing happened with our adoption and by the end of that week I was second guessing myself as to why we had come. I was missing home and my boys and all the things we take for granted… but after that first week it has been nonstop going here going there… If you ever have been to Haiti you know that just getting a few miles can take hours and you don’t get anywhere fast…. We have been in so many different offices we have got things accomplished and we are still working on things… We are believing that when we board that plane to come home our 3 children will be on it with us.

What we weren’t prepared for was paying for this adoption a second time… It really feels like extortion but if we don’t pay this ransom I believe our children will be stuck here for a long time…. I do feel like american citizens are being taken advantage of and I believe that the USA could fix this very easily and protect its American Citizens! It has taken everything we have to make this trip and now we are faced with coming up with the additional money for all the offices and for our coordinator down here to do the work. We are walking right along side here so we know where the money is being spent but we don’t have it. If anyone has ever thought about donating to our adoption and you haven’t yet now is the time we are starting back up our you caring campaign in hopes to raise some of the additional funds that we need… The problem is we need them fast…. We are saving lives when we heard God say go we listened we knew it would be hard and we had no idea what it all meant. But he spoke the words GO to me and it was very clear that we had to be in Haiti if we wanted these children to come home!

If you can donate please click on this link and it will take you to our you caring page

My friend Michael featured our story over on his blog I posted it below and you can also click on this link to view the story please share our story it will not only help us but it will help 100’s of other families.

One thing I am passionate about is helping to tell stories and give a voice to those who have no voice. The place I most often am able to do that is Haiti. I deeply love Haiti, it’s people and it’s culture. Being an adoptive dad who has one child from Haiti, I have an especially intimate bond with that country.

Today I want to share some space and tell a story to illuminate the mess, tragedy and struggle that is currently plaguing the Haitian Adoption system. It is a story that began in March of 2010 when the Price family chose to begin the adoption process in Haiti. Now more than 4 ½ years later, they are still entrenched in the battle and fighting to get their kids home. (You can read more about them by clicking here)

When Karena and Zachary Price started their adoption they never imagined they would be separated from their kids for so long without being able to bring them home. Derline was 7 months old, and now is 5 years old. Juvens, then 4, is now 8 years old. And, Sophia who was 1 is now 5 years old. The Prices have missed precious time, developmental stages and life events with their kids.

Why? Simply put, the system is broken. Between fraud, stolen monies and misrepresentation by officials the journey has lasted for nearly 5 years. And now there is more trouble plaguing their adoptions.

Just in the last few weeks the US Government, at the prodding of The Hague Convention and others, has changed requirements and laws once more. This time the change affected one small statement in a complex adoption process. Just 90 days ago our government was allowing kids to come home through adoption when their decree stated a simple adoption. Now, the requirement is a change of the word simple to the word plenary; which is a legal term for final.

What does this mean? It means lots more time, waiting, money and trouble. It means that kids whose adoptions have been finalized for months are no longer able to come home. It means that families essentially will have to pay for their adoption all over again, and begin waiting again. It means that children that should be in stable and loving homes will remain institutionalized for as much as another year. It means that those children and their families will face tougher transitions and less developmental victories.

It means that the needs of children have once again been placed behind the priority of nice paperwork and bureaucratic process. And, it means that the lives of children are the collateral damage of a broken and ineffective process!

Here are the Prices’ own words in this matter:

“I just wanted to update you all on the process so far as to what I have personally witnessed being here in Haiti for the past 3 weeks to change our children over to plenary cases….. we have been to numerous offices and it seems no one really knows what they are doing or understands what is going on.

There is no sense of urgency! My children have been waiting 4.5 years…. all offices are requiring appointments and they are not taking but a few each day. Most people are being turned away. American citizens have paid tens of thousands of dollars for their completed adoptions only to have them consider invalid.

Personally I am looking at an easy $15,000 or more to fix this problem for my 3 children.

I find that American citizens are being taken advantage of by the local offices and officials. If this isn’t extortion I don’t know what its I am very concerned for the roughly 100 or more families that are now stuck in this mess. Worse yet, there is no good timeline as to how long this is going to take to resolve.

American families are basically paying for another adoption because the US didn’t like the way a document was worded. Yet, less then 90 days ago American families with that wording were allowed to come home! how does this make any sense to anyone involved?

Children’s lives have to matter. American citizens should matter! Our children should not be held for this ransom in a broken system. It is time NOW for the US to step up and fight for American citizens and our legally adopted children.”

Here is what I am asking. We cannot on our own fix this. But together we can make a HUGE impact! We can make a difference.

Let’s not focus on the problems, but focus on the possibilities. There are hundreds of children who are going to be able to come home when this is resolved. There are hundreds of families who will finally be complete. This is something to join together and fight for! This is something we should hope to celebrate as an adoptive community.

Will you help us spread this story? Will you share this post? Will you load your newsfeed with the information we have here.

Let’s make it hard for the US State Department, The Embassy, USCIS, US Officials and Haitian Diplomats to ignore. Let’s join together as a team and demand that Haitian Adoptions be fixed.

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Dear US Federal Senators

September 26, 2015 by krp1021 Leave a Comment

Dear US Senators we need you to join the fight and help precious children come home from Haiti! You can fix this your office could lead this movement so OUR three children can come home and many others who are currently stuck because of something so small and silly! Even a humanitarian parole would be welcome, but as it stands today, there are at least 50 (??) American families currently paralyzed in their Haitian adoption processes, at the END – the all-important Visa-granting stage, all of whom have completed legal adoptions of our children in Haiti. Most families have been in their adoption processes for 4+ long years while our precious children have languished in orphanages all over Haiti, waiting for parents and homes of their own. Now, American citizens who have LEGALLY COMPLETED ADOPTIONS are being forced to wait because of a paperwork glitch with the U.S. Department of State. At this moment, if the official, stamped, adjudicated adoption decree does not contain the perfect wording of “full and final”, the Department of State is refusing to grant a visa to the lawful children of American citizens. Most Children have already been declared immediate relatives by USCIS in our case that took 26 weeks! For more than 20 years, thousands of Haitian children have legally been adopted by U.S. citizens and brought to the United States lawfully, and have done so without this clerical necessity. Currently, our relinquishment paperwork states “unconditional and irrevocable relinquishment of parental rights” but our legal children are being held from us, because the U.S. Department of State has now decided to demand a change in verbiage.

We need YOUR help TODAY!! We need congress to pressure the US for an immediate solution to this acute crisis which involves law-abiding American citizens and our legal children. We have been getting the run around for over 8 weeks! We are demanding that Congress – our elected representatives- fix this NOW!
Children should not be caught in government red tape – they have waited far too long.Thank you for fighting to bring our children home where they legally and rightfully belong – in a home where they will be safe and loved.Currently my husband and I are in Haiti and we plan to stay until this is resolved we will not leave our legally adopted children behind again in such an unstable and unsafe country!Sincerely
Zach and Karena Price

Laying Low is hard to do…..

August 20, 2015 by krp1021 Leave a Comment

Laying low is what we have been doing…. Those of you who know me know that I am hands on and when something needs done I do it. I make it happen I find a way…. I get the job done…. Well…..We haven’t done anything this week we haven’t tried to contact the embassy we have been letting our immigration lawyer Kelly and the people that she knows in Washington do the talking this week for us. We have also had some Senator / Congressman help with them also contacting to see what is going on and why in the world DOS is trying to do the job over that USCIS has already done. These are the 2 communications we got from the Embassy last week…. We have no idea which was is up or what they want at this point…. Its all up to all these different agencies and peoples opinions…. I just have to stop and wonder when do Kids lives matter when does whats best for the children who has been living in an orphanage for there entire life begin to matter??

But first my rant about Rokita’s office….. I will tell you this I am not happy with Congressman Rokita’s office…. The lady from his field office called me yesterday and told me that since we have Senator Donnelly’s office checking into this for us they will just close our case. Because you know they all have the same contacts!! I really wanted to yell at the lady but I was like ok. I wanted to say don’t you know that the more people checking on the status of my kid’s Visa maybe just maybe it will matter and maybe those people in Haiti will finally just Issue the darn thing…. but I did I am so worn out from fighting this battle for the past 5 years…. I want them home so badly but I am tired I am just plain tired…. So if any of you good people reading this want to email Rokita’s Chief of Staff here is her email address its public knowledge I found it by going to data.washingtonexaminer.com so anywho here it is….. Tell her how the squeaky wheel gets the oil and how these kids matter renee.hudson@mail.house.gov I honestly believe that we only got out of USCIS in 25 weeks was because I was emailing twice sometimes 3x a week to check on the status of the file…. Thats sad but I believe its true!

On August 12th We were told the following…….

Dear Mrs. Price,

Thank you for your email and for your understanding. We know it has already been a very long wait for you and your family. Here is what needs to be completed.

Sophia: We are still waiting for her medical report.

Juvens: You have submitted a simple adoption issued in 2014 that does not comply with Haitian or US law. All international adoptions from haiti to the US have to be full and final or “pleniere”. Adoption processes in Haiti changed in 2012 and the law changed in 2013.

Derline: This is also a simple adoption that needs to be converted to a full and final “pleniere” adoption. In this case there is reference to the legal guardian of Derline stating that consent is only given for a simple adoption. This is a bit more complicated that Juvens as someone obviously wanted only a simple adoption and expressly stated it. Any proposed legal fix would need to address that as well.

We are also still seeking contact information from Derline’s birth father. Our understanding is that the crèche may have additional ways to reach him. Please forward any phone numbers or address you are able to obtain

Regards

The Adoptions Unit.

Then we ask them to please confirm this was all they needed so our attorney could get started on the corrections. We didn’t want him to have to keep going back to court because this would take more time and cost us more money. We emailed them twice a day until finally we get this telling us to wait and they don’t know what needs fixed yet….

August 14th we were told this…….

Hello Mrs. Price,

Thank you for your email.

We have requested your patience in finding out exactly what will be required to convert your simple adoptions to full and final ones in Haiti so we can issue the visas.

We know how long you have waited and are doing our best to complete our process. Haiti has both simple and pleniere adoptions. Since 2013 the law in Haiti has changed to say that all international adoptions must be full and final or “pleniere”. Simple adoptions have always existed in Haiti but in 2013 the law changed to specifically add “pleniere” adoptions for international cases. Unfortunately you do not have any legal document on file that shows a full and final adoption. We do not want to cause additional obstacles but we are unable to ignore the fact that there is a different law in Haiti and you have simple adoptions for two children.

Derline’s case is more complicated for the reasons we have stated to you several times regarding your nonappearance in court but submission of documents indicating you were present with her biological father and no designation of someone to act on your behalf.

Please give us some more time to get specific guidance from both our agency and IBESR on how to fix these two simple adoptions. We do not doubt your commitment to your children or how difficult this process has been. However we have an obligations under US law before issuance of a visa. We will know something next week after a series of meetings on the issue. Your lawyers both in Haiti or the US are welcome to contact us if you send express permission to this email address authorizing us to speak about your cases to them.

Thank you so much in advance.

The Adoptions Unit

So that’s where we are Laying low and having no idea what they are going to require for our children who have approved I600’s and have been declared immediate relatives to finally get home. But we will figure it out and we will get there because they are coming home. I told Zach I know what I want to happen but I don’t know if that is what God wants to happen…. Matthew 7:7 tells us “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” I want for us to get an email and it to say our children’s Visa’s are ready…. I want for us to not have to go and correct something that has already been approved… But is this what God wants?? I don’t know but this is what I am asking for I am asking for this to all be resolved and us not have to do anything extra! Will you please pray with us I know our God is bigger and I know our God can do this!!

Fighting For Juvens

July 18, 2015 by krp1021 Leave a Comment

So let me introduce you to our son Juvens Sterley Price! He is 8 years old. He has been living at His Home For Children in Port Au Prince Haiti for the past 7 years…. He has never known a family a mother a father. He has never had his own room or had his own toys and clothes. Everything he has is shared with 50 or more children. Juvens has never had anyone check in on him his mother hasn’t come back and he has no father.

We meet Juvens in August of 2011 when we were in Haiti to meet our daughter Derline. We instantly feel in love with his infectious smile. We came home and talked to our boys about adopting him and they instantly said YES!! We have been back to Haiti 5 times since that trip in august to see Juvens and his 2 sisters. They love us they think of us as their mother and father. Juvens wants so badly to come home and start his life with all of us! This little boy has such a wonderful smile he has a brilliant since of humor and he is always happy!!

After 4 long years of trying to bring our 3 children home we found out that Juvens was not approved by USCIS to come home but our girls were. So now we will be bringing our 2 girls home and leaving our sweet Juvens behind. USCIS wants more proof that Juvens is an orphan before he can come home. Our adoption is legal in Haiti he is our Son he has our last name. But the United Stats Government isn’t allowing him to come home! Yes the United States Government isn’t allowing our son who has spent 7 of his 8 years of life in an orphanage to come home to his family! How do you tell an 8 year old that he can’t come home but his sisters can?? How is this putting his best interest first??

So now its time to fight for Juvens! We have contacted a brilliant lawyer who knows she can win our case and who has said it’s when will Juvens come home not if Juvens comes home. This lawyer has helped many STUCK cases like ours and she knows what she is doing! We now have a plan of action and know what we need to do. Unfortunately this comes with a cost and we currently don’t have the money needed to pay the lawyer pay people in Haiti to do ground work and then pay for another flight to go and get Juvens when he is ready to come home. Our lawyer thinks this will take around 6 weeks to gather the evidence and submit it to USCIS. But the time it takes depends on multiple people and This is Haiti we are dealing with!

The plan is to Run a newspaper ad, Run a radio broadcast, Check at National Archives to see if his mother has been declared dead and interview several people who may have seen her at some point or who may have never seen her come back to the orphanage and check on him. We are trying to establish that the mother is gone and Juvens is an orphan. By doing these things we should get an approval because we have tried everything possible to find his mom. US law does not require a child’s birth parent to be interviewed for an approval of I600 but the people in charge currently at Haiti USCIS seem to be interpreting the law differently. As we have already sent someone out to search for the mother we have already done a radio broadcast we have turned in all this information to USCIS but they aren’t accepting it. So we will do it again and our lawyer will then remind them of the law!

So this is why we have started a Youcaring page to raise the money that we need to bring Juvens home! This was such a struggle for us to ask for help like this but we also know that the Lord will make a way and we will get the needed funds to bring Juvens home. If you would like to donate towards bring home our son please check out our you caring page by clicking on this link.

Thank you everyone for your prayers your kind words your donations…. It truly takes a village and we are grateful for all of you!

Looking back over all of these pictures some that we have taken and some that others have taken. The first pictures I have of Juvens date back to October 2008!! Can you imagine your 8 year old son or daughter only ever living in an orphanage?? These pictures make me smile our boy always has a smile on his face and he is so carefree!! Sweet boy we are fighting for you and you WILL come home!

We love you Mom, Dad, Kaden and Wesley

2 out of 3

July 16, 2015 by krp1021 Leave a Comment

Where do I even start……. This morning has kind of been like getting an ice cream cone then dropping it on the floor…… Getting that new bike and then wrecking it into a tree…… The rush of emotions we have felt this morning have been all over the board… Extreme high to Extreme low….. I didn’t scream I didn’t jump up and down like I had hoped I would….. Instead I just sat there reading and rereading the email over and over again…. The email that said Derline and Sophia have been approved and they can come home and then the next email that said Juvens has not been approved and he can not come home and they intend to deny him unless we can come up with evidence as to why they should approve him…… There is a problem with the bio-mother she was unable to be located and this has caused the problem. …Then I felt numb and then I cried…. Then I laid back down in bed covered my head and ugly cried! Yeah I did that for about 5 minutes then I talked myself out of bed…. I told myself that we are going to fight and that he is my son and you will fight for him just like you have been fighting for the past 4 years… I told myself that he needs us and we can do this… So I got up and got myself ready and here I sit fighting for my son and trying to get my girls visa appointment scheduled so they can come home….

My heart is so so heavy I want to be Happy but I just can’t I am sad for an 8 year old boy 2,000 miles away who just wants him mom and dad, who just wants to be part of a family, who understands what all this means, who will be devastated when he see’s his sisters leave and he has to stay behind, who just wants to start school with his brother, who wants to have his own room, who wants to feel the love of a family….

How does a parent travel 2,000 miles and bring home only 2 of her 3 children?? How is this right in any possible way? Its not its not right at all…..

But let me tell you something my heavenly father He already knows all about this…. This was no surprise to him! Not even the smallest detail in life happens unless God’s will is behind it. He loves Juvens He loves all of us and we have to rest in the fact that his way is greater and justice will prevail! Love wins and our boy will come home!!

So what happens next??? I have emailed the Embassy to get the girls Visa appointment scheduled and medical papers so we can get them finished up and home. With Juvens I am not 100% sure we have an excellent lawyer that we have talked to here int he US she is an immigration lawyer and has worked with the documentary stuck we just have to come up with the money so she can start the case . We also are trying a few other things and I have emailed USCIS Adjudication Officer that was overseeing the case.

My biggest complaint at this point is that I am wondering why we found out about the NOID on April 15th from our Representative Todd Rokita’s office the email they received from USCIS on April 15th stated the following but we were not given an official NOID until months later? I requested USCIS go ahead and issue the NOID so we could work on it and we got nothing. If we would have received the NOID back in March we would have had time to submit evidence in rebuttal so that our son could of possibly finished with his sisters. Now we have to explain to an 8 year old why we ware leaving him behind and abandoning him and taking his sisters home and not him. I just feel this situation could of been handled better in the best interest of the child. This is our good ol United States of America Government that is to blame for this not Haiti… Yes Haiti Adoptions are messed up but this was wrong for them to know for 4 months Since March 23rd that they were going to issue a NOID! I emailed several different times asking for the NOID but they would not send it to me.

This is the email information we got from Representative Rokita’s office

STERLEY:

· 03/23/2015: Reviewed the documents. Form I-600 is not approvable because the documents were signed by the birth mother who disappeared later per orphanage. The Form I-604 orphan determination cannot be made without an interview. Please note that on the week of March 23, 2015, USCIS Haiti stated that a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) will be served

So for now this Dynamic Duo gets to come home and Mr. Juvens has to wait a little bit longer. I don’t know what the answer is to getting him home but I know that God will provide us with the funds and people to make it happen. We are putting our trust in Him and giving him all the Glory today for the approval on the Girls!!!