Now What and When?

So since we have made the announcement of our referral we have been getting lots of questions. The two most common are.....

First What happens now? and Second When will you get her?

Here is the answer to question one.

1. We are still so happy with our referral that I don't think our feet have touched the ground. We have lots of steps to go through in order to bring sweet little Abeni home. Basically we get to play paperwork ping-pong between the US government, our US agency, the Korean Government, our Korean agency, and us. The poor paperwork ball gets bounced around a lot; it is quite confusing I will do my best to explain here.

1. First we signed official acceptance paperwork. This paperwork all had to be notarized and we sent it back to the agency of Thursday March 11th.

2. Our US Agency will compile all of the paperwork and send it off in a package to Korea. This happened Monday March 22nd. (There have been some paperwork mix-ups already)

3. Our Korean Agency will ok the match and then send "legal" paperwork to our US Agency.

4. Our US Agency will take that paperwork, send us a copy, file for an interstate compact, and file an I600 form with the US customs and imigartion (hereafter referred to as USCIS.) We will then wait for approval from USCIS. The Interstate Compact is an agreement between Utah and Colorado that gives permission for us to have Abeni in our care even though she is in the legal custody of AAC. The purpose of the paperwork with USCIS is to designate our little girl as an immediate relative and say that we will sponsor her to enter the US.

5. The USCIS will send the approval to the National Visa Center (NVC.) This step is referred to as NVC in.

6. The NVC will send all of the paperwork to The US Embassy in Seoul. This step is referred to as NVC out.

7. The US Embassy will complete a "P3" and send it to the Korean Agency.

8. The Korean Agency will submit an Exit Permit (EP) request to the Korean Government.

9. The Korean Government will approve the EP. (Steps 8&9 are taking a long time right now.)

10. Abeni will make a personal appearance at the US Embassy in Seoul.

11. Abeni will have her "Visa Interview" with the US Embassy in Seoul.

12. The Korean Agency will call our US Agency and tell them we can travel at any time. We will receive the magic "Travel Call."

13. We get to go to Korea and bring our little girl home!!!!!!

We have been in contact with our agency about how long we are expected to wait for travel call and we are being told around eight months. This timeline could change one way or the other.

To answer the "when will you get her" question.

We really don't know for sure there are some slow downs in the adoption process right now. We are hoping to have her home around her first birthday