any news on the long wait?

No, I haven't heard that. Did you get that information from your agency or are you doing an independentl adoption?

1. I have heard nothing about a new lottery system. That isn't how Ukraine does adoptions and there have been no indications that this is the direction they are going. 2. There is always a lack of healthy children under 2yo, especially since most young children who have been institutionalized most of their lives will not be considered healthy. Anyone going to Ukraine willing to accept ONLY a healthy child under 2yo is more likely to come home empty-handed than with a child since the average age of adoption is about 3.6yo and has been for quite some time. Also, the NAC does not seem to look with favor upon those families who come to adopt and are only willing to adopt healthy young children. 3. Ukrainian children have never been available unless the ** signs a relinquishment or has her rights terminated by a court so this isn't something new. Occasionally, a family will get to Ukraine and there will be a question about relinquishment. Then the judge can require a new letter from the **, BF, or even a grandparent. Again, this is nothing new. If you are adament about adopting only a healthy child under 2yo then you should be looking at another country. Ukraine is not a good place for your family, the likelihood of coming home empty-handed is simply too high.

I think the lottery system refers to the date you are given at NAC, not the children. It seems like there has been several rumours about this, I don't know if it's because there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what date you are given.Jane

Jane, my reply above was edited by the system. There is no lottery system on the appointment date. I am part of several large, active Ukraine adoption groups and this is not an active rumor. By Ukraine's own rules (which are subject to change), appt dates are first come, first serve couples, then singles. Sometimes it does seem like the appt dates are random, but remember that 2 dossier submitted on the same day can then lead a very different path. One facilitator may be more agressively advocating than the other. One dossier may have document issues while the other may not. One family may already have an appt request letter with their facilitator while the other may wait until after the dossier has been approved to send the appt request letter. One family may have circumstances that require a small window of opportunity while the other may not. The families may be seeking different types of children. And, having adopted 4 children from Ukraine, I found that I got my later appts faster because I was a returning family. There are a dozen other circumstances that may speed or delay a particular dossier.

It has been nearly 300 days since our first dossier was sent to the Ukraine. Our agency mention to me about a lottery system which the NAC is using to make appointments for a period of about a month (not several months as I was first told). Our ageny's facilitator is sending these messages and I have no idea how accurate they are. When I press for answers for the delay, I get a lot of things (too long to mention here) and the conclusion I am getting is that there are a lot of changes going on at NAC. In the meantime, I am getting our latest dossier updated and presumably will not get an appointment until they get to UA (which will take a few more weeks). My son told me the other day he felt that the adoption has been like a bus that keeps breaking down. Indeed it is so. God willing, this process will be running again soon and our journey worthwhile. Good luck to you all.

300 days seems like it's way too long. Has your agency given you an update since you posted a couple of weeks ago? Could there be another reason that your dossier is being held up, for example are you single? I have heard that NAC will give preference to married couples over singles? I still think that there is a major problem with your dossier being almost a year in country, even with all the slow downs that have been seen everywhere in the past year. Jane

My wife and I have been married nearly 12 years with an 8 year old son. In 2000, I was treated for testcular seminoma and is probably why my wife and I could not have any more children. The medical forms on my dossier report that my cancer is cured for nearly 5 years. I have a loving family, good references from friends and collegues. We selected an agency for the support and "expertise" it provides. Over the past nine months, documents have had to be changed and have been expiring bit by bit. Our homestudy (also expired) will be completed next week. Our fingerprints for I-600A will expire on 5/17/05. I cannot get our prints/I-600 updated until the homestudy is recieved by DHS. In short, we are reprocessing this all over again. Our agency (including a new staff person), I believe, has a lot to do with our delays (see our other postings). I have asked that we be ahead of any documents expiring, but they have expired anyway, leaving our dossier in UA idle for months at a time. Had we been fortunate enough to get an appointed prior to any expirations would have been great. For whatever reason, our persistance is being severely tested. Maybe this is not the case for the vast majority of those on this forum. I relay our experience for all the other prospective parents on this forum who may find value in it. Good luck to you all.

I don't know where the lottary information came from. My husband and I submitted our dossier in late October right before the holidays. We new we would not hear anything until after the first of the year. In January we received a letter from Ukraine asking us to submit our desired dates. We replied February 14th with a time frame of March 20th Thru April 10th and received a date of September 7th, Go figure. We had to do our Dossier over again and it took two weeks. It does have to be resubmitted and the medical from has changed and the old one would have not been accepted anyway. Aother couple just returned with a daughter. It is just a process that takes patients. Good luck to everyone. Our prayers are with you. :) :o

We are still waiting to submit our dossier. It was ready on Feb.28. It has now been 8 weeks and we are told we are on the list to be submitted and getting close to the top. With next week being a holiday, I guess it will be a couple more weeks. I wish I had more patience...it's really necessary for this process!

What do you mean you are waiting to submit your dossier? :confused:

Our dossier is complete, translated and in the hands of our facilitator. He has been trying to submit it to the NAC for several weeks. Apparently they only accept a few per day, and only one day per week. I have read posts of others who are experiencing the same.

Some of you have asked if anyone has recently returned from Ukraine rather than list .I will will just refer you to another Ukraine adoption board that numerous families post their question and experences on. Friends for Russian & Ukraine adoption: [url]http://www.frua.org/chat_main.html[/url] It can answer any questions you have and maybe even some you did not think of. I was glad I found it before we traveled to adopt our child. I read every post and was well informed what to expect and not to expect. Good Luck and research and ask questions the more you know what to expect from Ukraine adoption the better off you will be.

The yahoo boards are much more active than here when it comes to Ukraine. Unfortunately there can be some fierce battles on this board, but if you're willing to sift through it all, there is some very useful information on there, plus if you post a question, there are a lot of people on the board that have traveled relatively recently. There are at least 2 boards, one is a general Ukraine adoption board, the other is more specific for if you are using an agency. For some reason, the Ukraine board on adoption.com is always very quiet Jane

With respect to having to wait to submit your dossier, I did notice something on the U S embassy website in Ukraine (in the form of an open letter, I think) about the backlog - particularly since so many people are switching from Russia.