Compiling the Dossier and Staying Organized

The main focus of this month has been compiling all of the documents we need to send to Mexico in our dossier. I have been collecting documents for the last six months. To keep everything in good condition, I have been storing the originals in sheet protectors in a three ring binder, shown in the photo above. Not all of the documents that are currently in the binder will end up going to Mexico though. Some of them are documents I needed for our homestudy or for our agency. But keeping them in a binder has helped me to stay organized.

The other thing keeping me organized is my 18-month weekly planner, the blue book shown on top of the binder. I have been taking notes in it the entire process. It has become a quite detailed diary, highlighting all of the highs and lows, all of the dates that every paper has reached my hands or left my hands, every time I have had contact with my agency, etc.

By the way, today I found out that our fingerprint scans worked fine! I called the CIS to make sure. The CIS has our background clearances, and we are awaiting being assigned an officer to review our file. Unfortunately, that may not happen until mid to late February.