The Been-There-Done-That families are no doubt happily forgetting about all the paperwork that goes into the wacky process of adopting from China -- especially the paperwork you have to wait for from the US government. (That's assuming some of the people reading this are Americans and not our noble friends to the north or those... Europeans, who have arcane bureaucracies of their own.) Some have suggested renaming this the WOO! BABY!" form, which would be easier to remember, if nothing else.

The I-171H is the form you get from the Department of Homeland Security - specifically the CIS, or Citizenship and Immigration Services - after filling out the I600-A, the petition to adopt a foreign orphan. Would-be parents fill that petition in, then submit it to CIS with their fingerprints and home study, and the helpful government agents issue the I-171H back to the would-be parents. Then, and only then, does the real fun begin, when you send your completed dossier off to China.


When wait times in China stretched out in the past, these things started expiring before the adoptions took place, which was a problem. They're good for 18 months. (Your fingerprints expire after 15 months, but are easily updated.)

Quite often, things have to be changed on these forms after the fact. If you move to a new address, you need to submit a home study addendum and get an updated I-17H back. If you apply for a child between 0 and 12 months on that I600-A and wind up getting referred a 2-year-old, you need to update your I-171H.

But most of the time, this form is really the last thing you're waiting for before becoming DTC (Dossier to China). And waiting for this can be sublime (in the Kantian sense of half hysterically funny and half terrifying).

So here's something that should help: the CIS page for checking on your case. It's all automated now.

I imagine most of you will already have been told this by your agencies, but you never know.