Medical Exam and Visa Interview

Yep, you're right on track. All Philippine offices/businesses/government agencies/etc. close down from mid Dec. til Jan. 3 (or 10th). So, even if they received it before mid Dec., chances are, they have just barely gotten to it. It'll take 3-4 weeks to get the medical scheduled, and then another week or two to get the embassy appearance scheduled. Congratulations!!! You'll be there in just a couple of months! Jen

Orphanagemom, Thanks for the info. We're hoping to travel next month or March at the latest. How did the embassy appearance go for your daughter? What kind of questions did they ask? Who accompanies the child to the embassy? I apologize for all these questions, but I'm just curious and anxious. Keeping our fingers crossed. Thanks, SalinCAL

You're welcome. The directress of the orphanage took our daughter for her appearance. Usually they'll be done with all paperwork within about 1-2 weeks, and then you get your invitation to come email! Ours was longer, because at the appearance, they saw that our daughters birth certificate was exactly the same as her bio mother's, except for the birthdate, so they wanted to check it out, and make sure we were coming for our daughter instead of a woman. This only happened because the mother and father aren't married, and they named our little daughter the bio mom's exact same name (I hope that made sense). So, ours took 6 weeks for them to look into all that. A good guess of when you'll go is mid March (just because of the holiday shutdown)! Have fun while you're there!!!