USCIS Fingerprint Appointment Day

Today's the day for our first and hopefully only visit to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Indianapolis office on our "Journey to Taiwan for Hannah Claire." In typical Sarah fashion, I was very nervous about getting to the building on time, finding a place to park, what if we have problems because they spelled our last name wrong, etc. In typical Kevin fashion, we got there just fine. At least half of us didn't obsess about it.

For other adopting parents using the Indianapolis office, there's metered parking on Illinois street to the west of the building. We were there about 40 minutes early and got some drinks in the cafeteria on the main floor to wait until our appointment time. The appointment letters tell you not to come more than 15 minutes early. We took the elevator up to the 4th floor 15 minutes before our appointment and were met by guards that wanded us and searched my purse. I had my camera with me and was sternly instructed not to take any pictures while in the building. Yes sir. We started to stand in line with others, but an employee came out and greeted us... knowing who we were. She brought us some forms to fill out and asked us to have a seat. Just a few minutes later we were brought back into the biometric fingerprinting room with another couple. They cleaned our fingers with a special cloth and took our fingerprints on the scanning pad. I was fascinated by the machine as it scored the quality of the fingerprints as they were taken. Very cool. We were in and out in maybe 10 minutes. No problems with the name spelling problem, and it was fixed very easily. Whew!

Kevin and I did a little shopping at Circle Center Mall, ate dinner at a brewery, and visited my alma matter before heading home. Not much has changed since graduation, except I feel oh so much older when looking at these college kids, and we both have a lot more gray hairs!

Kevin took a funny cheesy grin picture of me at Circle Center mall. Yay, shopping!