Since your wife is an 'expert', and she is liaising with other 'experts', they really should handle the whole thing. It will get done same day and the parents will be here by next Friday.
As advised, you'll petition your mom, and optimistically she should be in 2 years.
When mom arrives in the US as LPR, she'll petition her daughter (your sister) right away and that should take about two years. If mom doesn't want to leave daughter behind for too long, she can apply for reentry permit after she becomes a LPR. With the reentry permit she can go back to the Phillipines to be with daughter until daughters petition is approved, and then they both can enter the US together.
There is no path for the child to be in the US for the two years or so it will take waiting for the child’s immigrant visa/green card. The mother will have to at least come to the US to use her immigrant visa (to get her own green card) and apply for the re-entry permit, however.
Note that there may be a period of separation between her and the adopted child. After her IR-5 visa is issued she should do the following:
Enter the US with the IR-5 visa
File I-130 petition for F2A process. I recommend online filing for that: https://www.uscis.gov/i-130
File I-131 application (by mail) to request Reentry permit
Open bank account, etc. to establish her US domicile
Wait for and then attend the biometrics appointment for the Reentry permit process.
Leave the US after attending the biometrics appointment. https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/guides/B5en.pdf "you do not have to be in the United States for USCIS to approve your Form I-131 and issue a reentry permit to you if your biometrics (photo, fingerprints) have been obtained. You can indicate on your Form I-131 that you want USCIS to send your reentry permit to a U.S. Embassy, consulate or a DHS office overseas, so you can pick it up from one of those facilities." On the I-131 application she can indicate that she'll pick up her Reentry permit in Bangkok, if she wants.
No, no derivatives allowed on ir5. The mom can petition for the child once she has her own green card. For practical reasons she may want to get a re-entry permit when she gets her green card so that she can stay with the child until the child can get a green card too.
I had my interview in Chicago yesterday. Unfortunately, I got the all dreaded 'A decision cannot be made' box checked...
My report: I arrived 1 1/2 hours early, played it rather safe than sorry because of traffic. Check in was easy and then the wait began. There are two doors out of which the officers will come and call your number. The check in person will let you know which door/section is yours. Mind you though, even though you arrive early, they will not call you any earlier, they still go by your appointments (which is totally okay, just an FYI). Through this it happens that numbers that are way after yours are called before you. There was a steady flow of people coming in and out and about 5 or 6 different officers, I only paid attention to this for door 1, which was the one relevant to me. Some came out super happy and smiling, one I even overheard saying he was approved, some cam out with a 'meh' face, so not happy, but also not devastated, I was beginning to get my hopes up
Anyways, I waited a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes before my number was called (so only 15 minutes after my actual appointment time, which is not bad regarding the number of people waiting!).
The officer came and we walked through the ominous door number 1. After that is a security door, only with badge and pin code you are able to get through. Anyways, we walked through several corridors until we got to his office.
He started out with having all my identification documents in front of him, diver's license, green card, passport. Then he swore me in, took my picture and my fingerprints.
First up was the test. My six questions were:
1. The idea of self-government is in the first three words of the Constitution. What are these words?
2. If both the President and the Vice President can no longer serve, who becomes President?
3. When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
4. In what month do we vote for President?
5. What is one reason colonists came to America?
6. What is the capital of your state?
The 'read' sentence was ' Which state has the most people?'
The 'write' sentence was ' California has the most people.'
Needless to say, that piece was not an issue for me. Then we went on through the application and he made some corrections for me in the application (for example I put in that my husband was married '0' times, which obviously can't be true ). As others have said, they go through all questions again.
At the end I had to sign for the changes he made and then sign for the oath.
He looked at the supporting documents I had uploaded (I uploaded all the tax transcripts after submitting the app in the online portal, but he had them there). He didn't ask for any of the originals that I brought (husband's passport or naturalization cert or anything).
Then he took the piece of paper with the boxes and marked the test as passed, but then, to my horror, marked the 'Decision cannot be made' box and pointed to case files stacked high behind him... He said I shouldn't worry about it, he can't see that he needs anything else from me, but wants to take a second look and wants to be fair to adjudicate all the others that came first before mine. He said to expect an answer in 3 months or less.
We then small talked a little while he prepped for the next candidate.
All in all it was a really nice interview, without the small talk it only lasted about 15 minutes (30 minutes with small talk).
He was a really nice officer, made you feel at ease, but you can imagine that I was and still am disappointed about the outcome (especially when walking through the corridors and seeing other people's offices who don't have stacks of files sitting around on the desk or the floor, they probably approve on the spot 😟 ).
I hope he is faster than 3 months. He said the USCIS fiscal year ends end of September, so they normally get asked to do over time to get as many cases done as possible, but he didn't say that's a given, to not get my hopes up.
