Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Our Adoption Process, and Probably Some You Didn't.

How long will it be till you go to China to pick her up? We are expecting it to be between anywhere between 6 months to 3 years before we travel. I am trying NOT to get hooked on a date.

How does the adoption process for China work? I will do my best to tell you our process. I am just learning the process for myself though. So I can't promise everything is right.

DTC- Dossier To China- When all your paperwork (including your I 171-H- US permission to adopt an orphan from China and is the paper we are currently waiting on) is done you mail it to China and wait for a log in date.

LID- Log In Date- Getting a log in date means that day is when your file is officially logged in to China. This time seems to vary a bit. I think it is usually a month or so after the DTC date. From LID we wait to be reviewed.

LOI- Letter of Intent- This is the big step. You send your letter of intent to China declaring your desire to adopt a particular child that you have been matched with through the Child of Promise Program at Bethany. The CCAA(China Center of Adoption Affairs) reviews your LOI and gives you Pre-Approval if they believe you will be a good match for the child.

PA- Pre-approval - This is the CCAA stating that as long as your dossier backs up your statements in the LOI you will be approved. This step usually takes a few weeks from LOI.

LOA - Letter Of Acceptance- This letter says that you are approved to adopt this child. You sign it and send it back to China as a final acceptance. These times frames vary because right now there are so many dossiers in China waiting for review (China is currently working on March 2007 dossiers in review) and matching through the regular program, that when they have to pull one out of order, it can take a while. So sending an LOI for a pre-identified child (waiting child) gets your file looked at and reviewed to be approved, hence the LOA. Usually you will travel about 6 weeks weeks after LOA.

TA- Travel Approval- comes maybe 2-4 weeks after LOA... Once your agency secures an appointment for you at the Consulate in China, you can buy your tickets and get on a plane to go get your baby! Of course, it's not quite that simple because there has to be arrangements made for lodging and in country travel and GOTCHA DAY. You will travel about a few weeks after TA.

How long will you be gone? When you travel, you usually fly into Bejing and meet up with a group of people who will also be meeting their children at the same time. The travel group typically stays and tours together in Beijing and then breaks up to their childs various provinces and then meet up again in Guangzhou. In the adoption community, the first meeting is called GOTCHA DAY, and is usually at a government office, hotel or Orphanage. At that point she is yours--after a day(usually) you go and finalize the adoption and wait in her province until everything is approved locally. Then after that, you go to Guangzhou (the consulate is there) to finalize everything. Total travel time is about 2 weeks. Then you go home!!!!

Feel free to comment or question.

Deb

Fingerprints

This photo was taken by Townline Lake at Ford-Lincoln Camp in August.

Today we got fingerprinted by the Unites States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). What started out with us being 40 minutes early, ironically turned into us being 5 minutes late. FYI--When heading South on Ind. Blvd at 7:30 a.m., one should remember that if, for any reason, you have to turn around and head back 5 miles North, that it will take you at least 3 times as long to get back. So, we find the place in an obscure corner of Hammond only to observe the small waiting line outside the door--they weren't even open yet. Two minutes later the desk guy opens up and starts YELLING directions in English to the 7 Mexicans in front of us. Just a little confusion for them. The whole ordeal took us about 8 minutes and we were back to business as usual. We are expecting to hear back from USCIS anywhere from 30 to 90 days from now. (Come on 30!!!) So we need this final paper to show China that we have been approved from the US to adopt abroad. Recently, with the implementing of the Hague Treaty, there have been a bunch of new procedures and the government agencies are trying to keep up with the new applications while still dealing with the old grandfathered ones. Crazy.

Deb & Dwayne