To Panama we go

Roger, We also decided to move forward with WPA and Panama. We've been with them for 2 plus years and have been very pleased. Who is your coordinator? We have worked with just about everyone at WPA including Jim and Cindy the directors. We actually completed a dossier for Bulgaria, so we are hoping that many of the documents are the same, and can be switched to a Panama dossier. I have a list from WPA with all the dossier requirements if you are interested. Congratulations on your decision! Kirsten p.s.- we live in Savannah

We are right behind you! We finished up our home study today, but don't have fingerprints yet. We live in Knoxville, Tennessee. I think we're going with WPA also. I spoke with Jim today, and he's working on getting some photos of available older kids (toddlers and up) from Panama on their website. He said it will probably take about four weeks, but that works for us. How exciting! You go right ahead and show us how it's done and we'll follow in your footsteps! Joan

Hey, folks. I have a fingerprint question: We had ours done in Indianapolis, IN (Federal building) last October, and they were electronic, meaning no inked cards. They were sent to some database to check us out, and we received the INS approval not long after. BUT we never received these fingerprint cards. Does anyone know if we have to have those actual fingerprint cards with us when we travel to Panama (either for the Panamanian courts or for the INS who will review our case before they let us leave Panama with our children)??? Thanks, all! Rebecca

We turned in our application today! Our contact at World Partners is Josh. He appears to be very interested in getting answers to our questions and helping us achive our goal. For Rebecca..... We did not get our fingerprint card either. I'm not sure that anybody gets them. I'm going to ask around and find out but I don't have a solid answer. We are curious about what paperwork we still need to obtain. We are curious about a lot of things like everybody else I suppose. Let the games begin!

We also did not get fingerprint cards, and it turned out to be extremely difficult to get one. For our Bulgarian dossier it was required, and apparently some state's INS offices still give them out. After researching, I found out that Georgia phased them out. So, WPA gave me a contact to order the fingerprint cards from, and it turns out it was a forensics supply house. Unfortunately, they only sold the darn things in packages of 2500!! So, back to WPA I went. Eventually, they gave me another contact in Atlanta and she sent me 4 of the cards from her personal stash. We submitted our dossier to Bulgaria without them, and were prepared to explain Georgia didn't offer fingerprint cards automatically if questioned. If they were adamant about their inclusion, we were going to take the cards I tracked down and have fingerprints done through the FBI or state law enforcement. Our hopes were that they just wanted to "see" the fingerprints on something looking official. The fingerprint cards I obtained had the official government stock number on them, so we were crossing our fingers. Well, Bulgaria didn't work out for us, so we never got to that point. But- if Panama requires them, I'll have the cards anyway. WPA was going to research the issue in greater depth for us, so hopefully they have a a better idea now. I'm wondering about the Pysch. eval. Has anyone received specific details on it? Is it just a statement from a mental health professional or does it have to include tests etc? My husband is deployed and we need to figure out what exactly is required, so he can line-up a military source to conduct the eval. Thanks! Kirsten

Hi Kirsten, When I spoke with Jim from WPA yesterday, we discussed the psych evaluation. He said he asked about that when he was in Panama, but so far there is no format to go by or form to be filled out. So, he suggested just finding a psychologist who is willing to do a general exam concluding that you are mentally fit to be parents. Since we've got a few more weeks to wait on our INS approval, we're going to wait on the psych eval to see if any new details appear from Panama on what exactly they want. Joan:rolleyes:

That will make it easier on us, because we have a close friend who is a pyschologist. Since she knows my husband, she can simply write the paragraph and he won't have to involve the military. Here's my second question of the day..sorry... Your fingerprints with the INS expire in 15 months. Which means ours will expire in September. My husband is possibly being sent to Atlanta next week for meetings (I just found out today), before being sent back to Iraq. It's a perfect opportunity for us to get re-fingerprinted. Any ideas on how to set up re-fingerprinting? Can we just show back up at the Atlanta INS office? He will be in Atlanta for such a short amount of time, we really need to get this figured out asap. We are also going to renew his police clearance, and get him a physical for the med form during this week. If we can pull this off, our dossier would be complete. I'm just not sure we can do all of it on such short notice. Thanks, Kirsten

Hi everyone! My husband and I have just decided to adopt from Panama. We're just finishing our homestudy, and had chosen Guatemala, but decided to change countries for obvious reasons. We really wanted to adopt from a south/central american country, and Panama looks super promising. We, too, are nervous about the new program, but my contact at World Partners seems to be very confident in it. It's nice to see a lot of people at the beginning of the process, like us -- in the Guatemala forums, everyone was already waiting for referrals or picking up their child already, and it felt quite lonely! Anyway, we live in Northern California...

Hey, I have an INS question also:) Now we sent in our INS paperwork and got fingerprinted in May, our homestudy has not been submitted to INS yet so should we expect to get our INS I17H or whatever it is before our homestudy is sent in or do we get that form after our homestudy is sent to the INS????? Thanks this paperwork is really confusing:) Tanya

My husband and I have officially decided to adopt from Panama through World Partners. Our amended homestudy was supposed to be mailed to INS today. We've got an appointment for our psych eval lined up for next week and then we're pretty much ready to go. (And wait, I guess.....). It's exciting to be among the first to go. Hopefully, everyone will be motivated to make the process a success and things will work well. I choose to be optimistic. We're working with Traci DeBra and we're in the Chicago area. Good luck to everyone! Renn

Renn, Did you get any color on the psych eval? Seems to be confusion on what is required. Thanks, Julie

Your homestudy has to be received by INS before you can get your 171H. Our home study is done and on its way to INS, but we're still waiting to hear from them about getting fingerprinted. Joan

World Partners received our application and sent an email saying they would get us the information packet. That will contain a lot of answers as to what paperwork we have and what we still need to acquire. Also I spoke with our homestudy agency today and she hopes to have the new one done for Panama by Monday or Tuesday. That will go to the INS and then we have to wait it out. Things continue......

WPA has said we need a brief letter or report from a licensed psychologist stating that we are fit to be parents. There doesn't seem to be any additional specific information available. Sorry if that's not much help! Renn