Well, folks, after a lot of thought, discussion and time, we made a decision to change agencies. It was not an easy decision. We didn't hate our agency, we didn't feel misled and there was certainly no corruption to speak of. We also spent literally months researching agencies before we signed on with them in the first place so to own up to the fact that we had made a choice that was not the best for us was not easy or fun. The bottom line, though, is that we are needy :-) We need more than our old agency could offer. We need things like current experience, consistent communication, solid answers, frequent updates, understanding of the laws and special rules in our state, etc. Fact is, most licensed agencies can't yet provide these things. It takes time to get the program up and running. We wish our old agency no ill will. We know they will do an excellent job in Vietnam after things are all smoothed out. We just couldn't be the guinea pigs. It wasn't personal.

But it's what we need and we don't want to wait. We are at a semi-critical juncture. We should get our 171H next week. At that time we will be DTV. We needed to make this decision NOW before we turn over our precious paperwork and documents that we've worked so hard to gather.

So what have we learned since signing on with our new agency? Well, we wasted a lot of time and money. That pretty well sucks. But in the grand scheme, it's ok. We have a lot of documents we never really needed. We also spent a lot of time and emotion trying to get answers to questions that seemed pretty simple and never really got the clear answers we needed. Now we have those answers so we know exactly how to proceed. The confidence we have gained since switching definitely indicates we did the right thing for us.

So what's on the horizon now? We still hope to be DTV by next week but that rests solely in the hands of the USCIS. There is a family or two ahead of us on the list at our new agency but they expect to have a new batch of referrals in the next month or two. Meanwhile, we'll file our dossier and be ready to roll. We still plan to travel this fall.