Dossier question/waiting list

It is my understanding that your dossier can not be older than 6 months when it is logged into IAD, not when you get a referral. So even though the wait is long, your dossier should still be valid. Maybe some one else can shed some light.Cathleen

That's how our agency works as well. We completed our dossier and it was sent to Vietnam to be logged in with the IAD. We waited 6 1/2 months for referral (8 months after the dates on our dossier paperwork) and nothing has expired.

Ditto what the others said. Agencies won't just "let you on a list" with out your dossier. And frankly, that's a good thing. When you pay the dossier-fees (to get the guide to start the dossier), you are helping keep your agency in business. If they just let anyone on the list (not you, since you are wanting to adopt, but think about how many people might be on the fence and just throwing their name on the list), the wait would be outragous, and the agency wouldn't have any money to run their programs. Keep in mind also that many agencies are moving toward families not being allowed to choose gender due to increased wait times... So, the sooner you start, the more likely you are to find an agency that will still allow you to choose gender.

Actually, we didn't have any 'dossier guide'. The dossier was a piece of cake. With our agency, we had to have our homestudy, I171H, and dossier completed before we were placed on the waiting list. The agency's application process (to become an agency client) was more intense than anything we had to do for Vietnam! As for fees, we were required to pay 1/2 of our agency fee before starting the homestudy and 1/2 the agency fee when the dossier was submitted. The majority of the costs were due when we received our referral and another chunk will be due before we travel.

Same for us. Our agency wants everything to be in order before puting us on a waiting pool or handing out a referral.

Another nice thing is the dossier for Vietnam is a piece of cake compared to Guatemala.You will be pleasantly surprised!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow. I had not checked this thread, and forgot about it.... but, I will say this.. When I checked into Vietnam a year ago, all you needed was the HS, 171 approval.. and they made you wait until you were closer to getting a referral before doing the paperwork. That is where my question stemmed from!

we are with the agency that allows us (as soon as they approved our HS) to be on the waiting list without dossier. We are told to work on dossier when we accept the referral. Like you said dossier good only for six months.