I have just spent the last two days trying to get ahold of someone from the San Francisco Philippine Consulate to get a form that Jason needs for his background check from the Philippines. I found out from a Philippine adoption yahoo group I am part of that Jason needs to get an NBI(National Bureau of Investigation) clearance check done for his child abuse clearance. In order to get this done we need a form from our nearest consulate which we found out is San Francisco. I found out yesterday that there is one in Vancouver, Canada. I told Jason we should just drive the 2 hours there and get the forms on Monday. After hours of trying to get ahold of someone there, I found out that I have to get the form from the consulate in San Francisco because we are under their jurisdiction. I really don’t understand this, because I am almost positive it is the same form and there is nothing else they have to do for us except to give us this form. We have to then get fingerprints done from our local police and then send the form on to the NBI in Manila along with more money and passport photos of Jason.
It would have been so easy to just drive there, get the form, drive home, get fingerprints done, and send the form to Manila all in one day. Now we have to wait, who knows how long, to get in contact with someone who can send us the form. Then we have to wait, who knows how long, for them to actually send it and for us to actually receive it. With our luck, considering how many things have been lost in the mail, this will take a long, long time.
I started making calls at about 9am and have tried every half hour since then with no luck. There are about a hundred different extensions to choose from and I have tried all the ones that even come close to relating to what I need, but no luck. I have even tried the secretary and the operator. This is the same thing I went through yesterday. I have left several messages with different extensions with no response. I have even sent out emails and nothing still. I did check to make sure it wasn’t a holiday for them or something. June 12th is their independence day, but they celebrate it on the closest Monday which is this coming Monday. Maybe there aren’t very many people in the office because of it. Maybe because it is Friday the 13th, and Filipinos are very superstitious, that nobody came in to work today. Who knows. All I know is that I am very, very frustrated right now.
This is the last thing holding us up and it is what is going to take the longest to complete because it has to go to the Philippines and then back to us. Our social worker is the one who should be doing all this paper chasing for us, but I am taking it into my own hands because I am tired of waiting around for things to be done. This is a new process for her with all of the new USCIS policy changes. I think a lot of people and agencies are pretty clueless and frustrated right now. Jason is working a ton of overtime this month, so I am left alone to deal with all of this for him. Here’s to hoping I have better luck on Tuesday. Here’s to hoping also that all of our other background checks make it to where they’re going and then back to us quickly and with no problems.
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