NO, neither of us were arrested!!!
We have both been fingerprinted a lot during our adult life and none of it was for legal issues. You see, we are both Canadians living in the United States. Our first fingerprinting was in Florida for our Green Card,which was pink in color, in 1994. We then managed to not get fingerprinted again until 12 years later when our "Green Card" was up for renewal. No problem, took care of that! It was actually really easy cause now it is all electronic digital prints so no more ink,yeah!!
Along comes the need, longing and desire to adopt, along with, apparently, the need to be fingerprinted more times than I can keep track of. I will try though just to help out the story.
When we decided that a domestic adoption wasn't going to work for us ( long story, earlier post, not going through it again :) ), we decided to adopt internationally. Well, turns out we needed to be US citizens to do that. Our daughter was born here, we have no intention of living somewhere else so it seemed like a good idea. Fingerprinting #3....along with the citizenship test which we both aced and beat everyone at work on the quizzes!!! Ok we are all set now...NO!! Minnesota requires that all potential adoptive parents undergo an Adam Walsh Background search....you guessed it, another set of fingerprints, but, these ones were the old fashioned kind with the ink again. Didn't matter that we had just been fingerprinted by the FBI. Ok so that is #4. Moving on to USCIS I 600 application to adopt an orphan from a non Hague country. You guessed it right again, fingerprinting #5. No the USCIS and the FBI do not share fingerprints!!!!!! Ok so we are done now with the fingerprints, right? Why would anyone need another copy of our fingerprints. NOT QUITE!
2010, need to do another Adam Walsh background check, no fingerprints, just money this time.
2011, we moved onto the China adoption program and yes, you got it right, fingerprints again for the I 800-A USCIS immigration stuff. Same as the I 600 just for a Hague country. OK, so I lost count, I think we are at fingerprinting #6.
In December 2011, we received the referral of our precious little Sofie Lu Jing jing. The thought that we would have to be fingerprinted again never even crossed my mind. I was wrong. This week I received paperwork from our agency that we needed to have another Adam Walsh background check done, but, they changed the rules last August. Not only do we pay another fee, you guessed it, FINGERPRINTS AGAIN!! Wow you guys are smart!!! So that would be #7, unless my math is off.
I can never have a career as a criminal as, I think, by now, I must be in every fingerprint data base that exists. Oh yeah, the upcoming fingerprints are the old fashioned ones again with all the messy ink......I can hardly wait :)
I feel your pain! I didn't have to do the fingerprinting for citizenship but I did have to have fingerprints done for my medical license in several other states. I've often wondered if China (or USCIS, or Adam Walsh, or some other yet unidentified entity) will eventually required a notarized statement as to why I've had so many fingerprints done! That wouldn't suprise me at all.
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