Sigh

Not so happy happy joy joy.

What I have been working off is info I have that says documents can't be more than 9 months old when they go to China. Of course, when I ordered new birth/marriage certificates back in April, I had no idea our home study would take longer than usual to get and I had no idea I'd have to wait four long months for the I-171-H. Instead of waiting and getting everything to the Chinese consulate together, I should have piecemealed it. But until I looked up the info for mailing to the consulates, I had no idea they have a six month rule. I've been sitting on these papers because I thought it was easier and more efficient to do these steps all at once and not have everything going every which way.

So my birth certificate has an issue stamp of it of April 19th and was certified by the Secretary of Stae on October 16th which is exactly 180 days. But it is also more than 6 months old right now. My dossier consultant at Great Wall says the consulate may refuse to authenticate it. She said it depends on who does it, what mood they are in, etc. Great. She recommended going ahead and sending it to see if they will do it. I'm sending to the courier today which means my docs will probably be walked into the consulates on Friday and with the expected four day turnaround, I'll know next week if it got rejected. The marriage license doesn't have an issue date that I can find on it.

So I guess I'll send it and hope for the best and in the mean time, I am going to drive downtown today and get another one and send it off to get certified by the Secretary of State so that if I do have to submit again to the consulate, I have one ready. I can pay (a lot) extra for one day turnaround if I need to. I am hoping to be DTC by Christmas...at the very least,I want my dossier in my agency's hands by then.

Sigh.