Are You Thinking Of Adopting A Child From China?Overview of the ProcessDictionary of Adoption TermsCurrently, the adoption process through the China Special Needs program takes approximately 9-14 months. China is a Hague Convention Country, and adoptive families must meet the Hague adoption guidelines. PLEASE NOTE: At this time, I would not advise ANYONE to enter China's regular adoption program (non-special needs, or NSN). Currently, the wait for the referral of a healthy baby girl/boy is at least five years, and expected to go higher (7-10) years. China is currently matching families who have waited since the May of 2006 for their referral. I would strongly caution any prospective adoptive parent against entering the NSN program.
1) Select your
adoption agency.
3)Apply for I800A approval. Make sure to finish up authenticating your dossier! 4) Certify and authenticate your USCIS approval, then send your dossier to your agency. You are now DTC (Dossier to China!) If you work quickly, you can compile your dossier and send it to China in 3-4 months.
5) A few weeks after your dossier arrives in China, it will be logged into the CCAA. The day your paperwork is logged into the system is known as your LID. 6) Sometime during this process you will be matched with a child. This could be before you are LID or afterwards depending on what kind of child you wish to adopt and how long the child has been on the shared list. When you and your agency have identified the child you wish to adopt, you will submit a LOI (Letter of Intent) to the CCAA stating your intention to adopt this child. 7) Once China has reviewed your LOI, they will issue you a Pre-Approval (PA) to adopt that particular child within 1-4 weeks. 8) You will then begin waiting for your LOA (Letter of Acceptance). This can take anywhere from 1-5 months, with 52 days being the average. Once your agency receives this document, you will sign it, copy it, and return it to your agency. 9) You must now file Form I-800 with USCIS (different than the I-800A you filed earlier). It will take approximately 3 weeks to receive I-800 approval. 10) Once you have I-800 approval, your officer will forward your approval to the NVC (National Visa Center). NVC will upload your approval into their system and cable (send) your approval the US consulate. Then the NVC will issue a letter stating they have done this. It takes about one week to be cabled, and another week to receive the letter. 11) Once you receive the NVC letter , send it to your agency immediately! They will deliver this letter to the US consulate in China. 12) Once the consulate has your NVC letter, they will issue your Article 5 in 2-3 weeks. The Article 5 is the consulate pre-approving your child for an immigrant visa. Your agency will have a courier pick up the Article 5 and take it to the CCAA. 13) Once the CCAA receives the
Article 5,
the Travel Approval will then be issued. This takes around 2-4 weeks. At this point, your agency will make travel arrangements for you to go to China and adopt your child!
You Might Also Be Interested In:Understanding The Shared ListCopyright 2010-2011
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Breaking It Down
Getting everything straight in the crazy process of adoption is tough! The adoption process can be broken down into three distinct steps: the home study, dossier, and the post LOA/referral paperwork.
Home Study
A home study is basically an in-depth review of you, your family, your finances, and your home environment. Before United States Citizenship and Immigration Services can approve you to adopt from another country, they need to know something about you - do you meet the requirements, do you have a history of criminal activity or child abuse, are you financially stable, are you prepared for the issues that come with adopting internationally, how do your children feel about the adoption, etc. This is the first step in your adoption process.
Dossier
What is a dossier? The official definition is "a collection of papers containing detailed information about a particular person or subject (usually a person's record). In this case, the record is being compiled on the adoptive parents. In order to adopt a child from China, you will be required to collect a series of documents that tell the CCAA about you, your family, your health, and your finances. Although the dossier and home study are two separate steps in the adoption process, you should be working on them at the same time in order to make the fastest progress. Also, some of the documents needed for your dossier can also be used for your home study, cutting down on paperwork time for you. The medical health for you need for your dossier can be copied and given to your social worker for the home study so you don't have to go to the doctor twice. The same can be done for employment letters and financial information.
Post Referral/LOA Process
Once your dossier and home study have been completed and sent to China, and you have received the referral of your child, you begin the third and last phase of the process. You will begin completing all the paperwork that will classify your child as your immediately relative and approve him/her for an immigrant visa to the United States. This process culminates when you receive your Travel Approval and are able to go to China!