Advertisements
Advertisements
Hello Adoption.com community. My wife and I are adopting a little boy from Korea and our adoption process has been anything but normal (in a good way). Here is a small run down of what we have done so far:
10/24/11 - Adoption Process Started
11/26/11 - Homestudy Done
12/12/11 - Surprise Referral
12/19/11 - Referral Acceptance
1/6/12 - Official Documents Signed / Big Checks Written :D
1/31/12 - Notification of I600A Fingerprinting
2/21/12 - Official Korean paperwork "releasing" our son
2/22/12 - Fingerprinting Done
Weird how quickly everything has gone right? We are very blessed but more about this later. :)
When we received notification from the US Gov. about our I600A on 1/31/12, it says that they are processing our I600A and all they needed was fingerprints. We were told from the officials at the US Gov. office that it would take days for the USCIS to get our fingerprints, all done electronically. I know that we should get notification of the I600A approval but from there, we don't really know what happens.
I've read around the net a lot this week and different people get different processes.
Once our I600A is approved, I assume that paperwork goes to the American-Korean consulate for approval? Or is it the NVC? And if that's true, then I assume that my son will get his Visa hopefully within a week or two and we will get a travel call shortly after that.
We are guesstimating that we will travel in mid-April now but we hope that it is way sooner than that.
What do you guys think? As we are getting closer to travel time, we are anxiously trying to get a better understanding on the Visa process and how long it will take.
Our SW has done a tremendous job at filing 99% of our paperwork for us, so it's been a painless process. We will definitely be adopting another Korean child in another couple of years with this agency.
Last but not least, God has really blessed us with our little guy. Everyone we know was absolutely shocked at how quickly we got word of him; we weren't expecting to have a referral until the end of this summer and travel in 2013!
Thanks in advance for the advice/answers.
Juhnkeh
Our timing will hopefully not be the normal. But here is the overall snapshot:
HSTK: 1/10/11
Referral: 4/28/11
ATK: 1st week of May
1600 Approval: 6/5/11
EP Submitted: 3/5/12
EP Approval: 3/24ish/12
VI: 3/29
TC???
It gives you an idea of timing - but the quota system has changed everything in the last 9 months.
Thanks Juhnkeh. It's really hard to find anyone with a similar timeline to us but it's always interesting to look at. Some friends of ours used AIAA/SWS last year and went through the entire process in less than 3 months. Crazy.
Now I have a new question. I'm reading about how the EPs are handed out and I see that SWS looks at things like how old the child is, whether they are "special needs", stuff like that. Is this true? Or do they just have a "line" of people?
Advertisements
Got an awesome email from our SW this morning! It basically says SWS submitted 14 cases for travel this year so far (EP). The first 7 just got approved for travel and we are in the second batch!
I hope the second batch is sent out very soon!
:happydance:
EDIT: Misunderstood the email in my excitement, has to edit. ;)
That's great news! Does that mean you are in the second batch of EPs or the second batch of Travel Call?
We are one of the 7 who got Travel Call!! We are leaving on Sunday. Sooooo excited (and slightly overwhelmed!)
Juhnkeh
That's great news! Does that mean you are in the second batch of EPs or the second batch of Travel Call?
We are one of the 7 who got Travel Call!! We are leaving on Sunday. Sooooo excited (and slightly overwhelmed!)
That's awesome, I'm so excited for you and your family!!!
:rockband:
I took the email as we will get in with the second batch of EPs. And the cool thing is that MPAK's blog comments are saying 2nd batch of EPs are going out for Eastern and SWS today.
[url=http://mpakusa.blogspot.com/2012/03/more-eps-approved.html#comment-form]Welcome to MPAK: More EPs Approved[/url]
Hope to be traveling right behind you!
Advertisements
Still pretty silent today. However, someone from last Friday stated that the 2nd batch from SWS was submitted. Keep your fingers crossed!
We got our travel call today. I emailed AIAA last week when those 7 people got their call and they told me Jin was not one of the 7 but in the batch of 14 they submitted and she saw that he was almost finished. We leave on Saturday. Hope this week flies by fast. Or not because I have a lot of crap to finish before we leave.
Jfab
We got our travel call today. I emailed AIAA last week when those 7 people got their call and they told me Jin was not one of the 7 but in the batch of 14 they submitted and she saw that he was almost finished. We leave on Saturday. Hope this week flies by fast. Or not because I have a lot of crap to finish before we leave.
Congrats on the TC! That's really awesome to hear that you were outside of the first 7 to be submitted and already traveling. I just hope our TC can come very quickly.
I still haven't heard anything about the 2nd batch submissions, all of my "sources" are silent at this point. :(
According to my sources, SWS will submit the second batch (March/April submissions) this week! Now I just hope it doesn't take a full 4 weeks to get our EP approved.
Advertisements
Juhnkeh
Teesdad - any updates on travel call for you?
Nothing yet. It's been about a week since I spoke to AIAA about an update, but they haven't heard about the 2nd batch of EP submissions yet.
I don't know if it's where SWS isn't telling AIAA about them at all and maybe our EP is in process, or if we really aren't submitted yet. Being in the dark in killing me!!! :(
We are getting another DVD in the mail any day now of our son! Can't wait to see how much he has grown!
Quick update. Just got official word that all families who had their paperwork accepted in 2011 (going through SWS) are traveling this week. There is no word for families who had their paperwork accepted for 2012 yet (my family) but we are "next in line".
I really, really hope we can get our EP submitted/approved really soon.
Advertisements
Just got an email stating that our son's EP was submitted! Even though I wish that we would've been submitted in the previous batch (almost one month ago), I'm glad that we know officially that it was submitted.
Now just more of the wait. Hope that we can travel in the next couple of weeks.