Adoption Outline: Post-Referral Timeline
A soon-to-be dad in our Barker program just posted a detailed timeline for what happens with a Barker China group once the Referral finally arrives. This is highly relevant and informative for us, and most helpful:
My wife and I received our referral in June and our group expects to travel in Late August/early September. Our referrels arrived at Barker several business days after the CCAA update the placement line in the documents processing box on it's website mentioned a date after our login date. Barker faxed our referrals back to China for overnite translation. We had our referral meetings w Colleen the next day. Once all the referrals in our group were accepted Barker
returned the acceptance letters to CCAA and the wait is on for travel invitations. At that point Barker scheduled a travel meeting at a date after their best estimate for travel invitations to arrive. Once the travel invitations arrive Barker will submit our VISA applications to the Chinese embassy in DC and they will also apply for exit VIAS appointments at the US consulate in Guangzhou. Once Barker receives the date of the exit VISA appointment (this can be 7-10 days before travel) the minimum required stay is defined we can then finalize our travel arrangements. We recently attended our travel meeting at Barker and got a lot of details (in our case, because of a delay, the travel meeting happened before the travel invitations). My recollection of the itinerary is as follows. Note that the itinerary may vary with province but basically we each make our own arrangement to fly to Beijing. We will be met by Anli at the airport. Barker makes all the hotel and domestic flight arrangements in China (including Guangzhou to Hong Kong if you opt to return that way) The group meets and spends a couple of days acclimatizing and sightseeing (Barker arranges this -Great Wall etc.). The group then flys to the capital of the province where the child's orphanage is located. This is where you will first meet your child (In some cases the children are at the hotel when the parents arrive from Beijing) and finalize the adoption. In most cases parents do not visit their child's orphanage. The adoption process takes about 5 Business days to complete. Your part will essentially be done the day after you arrive in province. There is then an opportunity to sightsee and aquaint oneself with the local culture while the Chinese Government processes the adoption paperwork. Once the adoption is final the group flys to Guangzhou. Once in Guangzhou Anli will help you fill out the forms you received from USCIS. You will need to be in Guangzhou for two business days. The first day Anli can drop off your forms, provided you have brought a signed form stating your intent to vaccinate your child within 30 days of getting back to the States. The second day you go to the consulate to pick up your child's VISA. The following day you are free to return home. Because of its proximity to Guangzhou many find it convenient to return home vis Hong Kong. Haven't had the experience yet but I hope my recollection of the travel meeting details helps.
My wife and I received our referral in June and our group expects to travel in Late August/early September. Our referrels arrived at Barker several business days after the CCAA update the placement line in the documents processing box on it's website mentioned a date after our login date. Barker faxed our referrals back to China for overnite translation. We had our referral meetings w Colleen the next day. Once all the referrals in our group were accepted Barker
returned the acceptance letters to CCAA and the wait is on for travel invitations. At that point Barker scheduled a travel meeting at a date after their best estimate for travel invitations to arrive. Once the travel invitations arrive Barker will submit our VISA applications to the Chinese embassy in DC and they will also apply for exit VIAS appointments at the US consulate in Guangzhou. Once Barker receives the date of the exit VISA appointment (this can be 7-10 days before travel) the minimum required stay is defined we can then finalize our travel arrangements. We recently attended our travel meeting at Barker and got a lot of details (in our case, because of a delay, the travel meeting happened before the travel invitations). My recollection of the itinerary is as follows. Note that the itinerary may vary with province but basically we each make our own arrangement to fly to Beijing. We will be met by Anli at the airport. Barker makes all the hotel and domestic flight arrangements in China (including Guangzhou to Hong Kong if you opt to return that way) The group meets and spends a couple of days acclimatizing and sightseeing (Barker arranges this -Great Wall etc.). The group then flys to the capital of the province where the child's orphanage is located. This is where you will first meet your child (In some cases the children are at the hotel when the parents arrive from Beijing) and finalize the adoption. In most cases parents do not visit their child's orphanage. The adoption process takes about 5 Business days to complete. Your part will essentially be done the day after you arrive in province. There is then an opportunity to sightsee and aquaint oneself with the local culture while the Chinese Government processes the adoption paperwork. Once the adoption is final the group flys to Guangzhou. Once in Guangzhou Anli will help you fill out the forms you received from USCIS. You will need to be in Guangzhou for two business days. The first day Anli can drop off your forms, provided you have brought a signed form stating your intent to vaccinate your child within 30 days of getting back to the States. The second day you go to the consulate to pick up your child's VISA. The following day you are free to return home. Because of its proximity to Guangzhou many find it convenient to return home vis Hong Kong. Haven't had the experience yet but I hope my recollection of the travel meeting details helps.
posted by S and C @ 8:06 AM
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