the fingerprinting saga (or mid-August update...)

And now home in Rochester - around mid- August.

Still quite jet lagged but life is moving at full speed.  We are getting our final house projects done, I'm attending PD workshops for school, trying to return to our "normal" lives here.  So much to get ready for though.

It's August 14 and 15 now and J has been in close contact with our Immigration Officer.  She has been super!!! He explains our now short timeline to her and she is very helpful. She faxes him a copy of a form we need  - this shaved off a week for us to fill it out, mail it to her, have her set a date and mail the form to us!  We get the form and it has Aug 29 set as our appointment in Buffal0 to get our next set of fingerprint updates.  She tells us though that if we send in a letter, or visit the office in person we could ASK to be put on an "on call" list and maybe be called in earlier than 8/29 for our fingerprint updates.  Heck, ya!  We drive out to Buffal0 and are ready to beg, plead, cry if necessary to get on that "on call" list, but no need.  We are greeted by very gracious workers.  They do better than put us on a list.  They write on our form that we are to be printed that same day! Aug 15 - Hooray! So we save two weeks here and get printed early.

Then J is back in touch with our Immigration office on August 20 and 21. Our usual Immigration Officer is away on vacation (oh no!), but we are now working with another Officer, who is also super helpful - wow are we lucky!  :) She checks on our paper work and sees that J's has come in, but mine has not.  We're not surprised bc my fingerprints have been DENIED every single time I've had them done - electronically or inked locally at three different venues, and in Buffal0 several times now.  I have these very unusual vertical lines that go down the pads of all my fingers and impede the printing of the rounded parts that are essential for fingerprinting.  Doesn't it seem like my prints should then be very unique and tough to duplicate or forge?  I guess that's not the way it works. I've had a few people tell me I should be a thief... not likely. ;)

So because my papers are not in, she's thinking I'll get my "your prints have not passed" note soon.  She tells us we can go in to our local police office to get a clearance letter, to be ahead of the game for when we get our denial note.   She wants the clearance note faxed to her the same day, so we race in to the downtown office and fill out the form, pay the money, and are told it's going to take a week or two!!! What?!  Not cool.  I guess folks are on vacation, so the office work is going slower. This is our third time to make this trip in to the local office for my clearance letter (bc of so many denied fingerprint episodes) and it has never taken that long.  Bummer.  Well, we'll just have to wait.

But it seems like I won't be required to make the second appointment and trip to Buffal0 to get prints that won't pass.  I think we'll be able to use the clearance letter as soon as we get it.  Soooo, here's hoping we get that letter soon!