I’ve been asked a few times about how long it takes to complete an International Adoption. The answer varies drastically depending on what Country and what Agency you choose as well as the parameters you have set for the *proposal. China for example is around three years while Russia can be completed in around a year and a half.
Here is a summary of my adoption time line.
*Proposal or Referral is the document that contains the photo(s) and medical information on a child that is available for adoption
January 2010-
Home study started and PRIDE course taken. Agency and Country chosen
March 2010-
Home study Ministry approved for Kazakhastan
April 2010-
Paperwork prepared and Dossier ready for translation and signature
by Kaz Embassy.
May 2010-
Kazakhastan announced suspension of international adoption to new
applicants. Informed by Agency that my paperwork did not meet the
deadline… fading to black and starting over
Summer 2010-
New agency (Adoption Horizons) and Country (Russia) chosen. All
paperwork expired and must be redone.
October 29, 2010-
Home study updated, paperwork updated submitted to Ministry
December 2010-
Home study update approved by Ministry. Region Assigned- Volgograd
Russia
Dec 24th 2010-
Papers submitted to Russian Embassy
January 2011
Papers signed by Russian Embassy and off to Volgograd for
translation.
End of January 2011-
Paperwork is officially registered in Region
Ministry.
May 31, 2011-
Proposal Received!!!!!!! Almost exactly 4 months from
registration
June 12- June 24th, 2011-
sister Cat. Fell in love, signed a lot of papers, saw a bunch of
doctors, oowed and awed, laughed and cried.
August 26- Sept 10th, 2011
Sept 2nd, 2011
Gotcha Day- (the day I got to bust Roman outta the orphanage)
Moscow- Embassy paperwork. Passports received, ready for home
Saturday Sept 10th, 2011
Final flight to Toronto
Home Sweet Home
15 months of labour and no stretch marks. i guess that’s some sort of tradeoff! 😉
that was less than i thought it would be but still longer than i think it should be…friends of mine were over 2 years adopting from africa and it pretty much did them in. i’m sorry it took so long! i can’t imagine the anxiety you must have felt.