wait time?

We submitted our dossier in November of 2006 and traveled the next summer in May. We stayed the whole 8 weeks and came home with our son in July of 2007. Hope this helps. from what I have seen the wait varies between agencies.

I agree with the last post that the wait can vary by agency, and I would add by region-- the region I traveled to had a shutdown/slowdown while I was waiting. I signed with my agency the first week in March 2007, my dossier went to Kaz the last week in June 2007, and I traveled the last week in November 2007. The wait was longer than I was told to expect, but still not too bad-- I have read of people waiting much longer, as well as families traveling much more quickly. I don't know if you will be able to figure the rhyme or reason as to how it all plays out-- I certainly haven't! Good luck!

Hi We just returned from Kaz 3 weeks ago. We submitted our Dossier in July of 07 and travelled to Kaz in April of 08. We did one trip and it took 10 1/2 weeks. Two trips may take even longer. This timing was, for the most part, consistent across other families that were there when we were (and with different agencies).

My wife and I signed a contract with our agency back in May 07, but our homestudy took a while. It was originally a domestic homestudy and we firmly believe our original domestic agency dragged their feet getting it revised because of our decision to switch to international adoption. Ultimately our dossier was translated and sent to the Kaz consulate in November 07. We thought we were going to travel this May, but we are still here. We are waiting for a girl - which seems to be the problem. The wait time obviously depends on availability of children, but also whether parents/relatives release them from the "registry" that they must be kept on until at least the age of 6 months. Since baby-houses (BH) are also used as a state sponsored foster-care system for parents who can't afford to raise their children, some of them never come off the registry. I guess its sometimes difficult for the adoption agencies to predict whether a child being brought into a BH is going to eventually be released from the registry or not. In our case, our agency thought we were going to travel in May and then June so the girl(s) they thought were going to become available were not released from the registry. Kazakhstan will also throw some curve-balls at you too - changes in laws vary per region and usually result in time extensions and even an added trip. I've seen plenty of other timelines that are one year or less, but be aware that time estimates are just that...estimates which your agency can rarely control.

I adopted my son in Petropavlovsk last year. He was special needs and I went specifically to adopt him, but I talked to a lot of families staying at my hotel. The wait times for their kids were about 6 months to a year. For older kids [2 and up] it's a lot less time to wait. If you decide to go to Kaz, I urge you to find an agency that works in Petropavlovsk, with the babyhouse there. All the many parents I've known who adopted from there rave about how fantastic it is and how well the kids are treated. Good luck! Dee