Adopting from Vietnam

Welcome, I am also new to this process and also adopted from Guatemala (a little boy who is now 3 this January- we have been home over 2 years). I am sure more expericed people have better info but one website that has been helpful to me is adoptvietnam.org.We just signed up with our agency and sent off our CIS package (sans Homestudy) today. We have medicals and livescan appointments this week. Hoping to have Home Study done in about 3 weeks. From there I am told a good 6 -8 weeks for approval from CIS and then we are officially sending our dossier to Vietnam to get on the list with the DIA (Department of International Adoptions).You will hear varying timeframes from for a referral, and often girl referreals are longer than little boys. It is then anywhere from 1 - 4 months to travel to pickup (again this is what I am being told).Good luck and we have to learn some new lingo other than family court, PGN ect!Kind regardsMiranda

Ops forgot to say that referral times I have heard anywhere from 4 - 12 months, so wide spectrum.

Yeah! Yet another American/Guatemalan/Vietnamese family in the works coming over here...there's getting to be a lot of us! :flowergift: I think researching for Vietnam has been harder. There's not as much info out there...which is quite possibly a good thing. I have been learning a lot from a yahoo group, but in general don't expect the Vietnam listserves to be as active as the Guatemala listserves. I will be optimistic and say that's because people are having a smoother experience in general.

There are two groups on Yahoo with good information - adoption agency research and a vietnam adoption group. In addition, the adoption.com Vietnam adoption blog has excellent information, as does a site regarding vietnam adoption integrity. I don't think I can post the web site here, but if you search using those words, you'll find it. Each agency does things differently in regards to the types of referrals (hard vs soft), amount of paperwork done before referral, and time til travel. These sites will help you sort out the differences and identify what might be an unethical practice. There are opportunities for corruption, since the process isn't standardized across agencies, but there are also ethical agencies out there doing great work and helping families to bring home beautiful children. Good luck!

Welcome to a new Guat Viet Family to be!!!!!! There are so many of us. I think that's so cool.

:camo: Welcome to a new Guat Viet Family to be!!!!!! There are so many of us. I think that's so cool.