The process of adoption is long. Very exciting though, and as I mentioned before, there are stages, so that keeps you going.
We are in the first stage: the dossier compiling/homestudy stage. This can take 4-6 months. We are at month two.
After that is: the waiting to go to Ottawa for authentication and then to Ethiopia stage. That can take 2-4 weeks.
Next comes: the referral stage, where we wait to have our girls proposed to us. That might take 6-9 months.
Following this is: the court date stage. This is where our lawyer, in Ethiopia, goes to court for us, and we become the legal parents of our little girls. This can be 3-12 weeks, depending if you are unlucky enough to hit the court closures during August and September.
Now comes: the medical and visa stage. At this time the girls are given *another* medical check over and then a permanent resident visa is issued.This has been taking up to 18 weeks!! They will later have to apply for Canadian citizenship.
This all means that after you have seen that adorable image of your hearts desire, you will have to wait up to 34 weeks to bring your precious one home!! That is worst case. It seems on average it is about 4-6 months, as long as you don't hit court closure. That is a LONG time to wait after you have seen the face of your little one!! They grow so quickly and change so much!
But this year something absolutely wonderful happened. Following is a quote from the Adoptive Families of BC site...
"On June 22, 2007, Parliament gave Royal Assent to Bill C-14, An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act. What this means is that children who are adopted overseas by Canadian citizens will soon acquire Canadian citizenship during the adoption process.
The practical impact for adoptive parents of the change to the legislation is expected to be: 1) a simplified process for citizenship, bypassing the need to gain permanent residence status and 2) an end to the medical examinations that were required to process the permant residence application.
The amended Act will be in force within six months, during which time draft regulations will be considered and tabled in both Houses of the Parliament. The AFABC intends to monitor the formulation of the Regulations and offer input where warranted."
End quote.
This means that after our referral we will wait about 4-6 weeks for a court date and then the visa and medical waits of up to 18 weeks will be eliminated!! That will bring our children home to us about 3-4 months sooner!! Ethiopia was already a very quick process (some countries are up to 3 years!), but now it is going to be extraordinarily quick!
Now just to get our dossier in and a referral....
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5 comments:
Praying for it to all go quickly for you.
Congrats! Double check your income with Immigration Canada, they do have basic income requirements.
Actually, according to our adoption agency and also when I called immigration, they said the minimum standard does not apply to adopting a child.
well that is wonderful!! We were told that although it does not necessarily have to meet the minimums the financial evaluation still has to be completed with the immigration paperwork, We were also told that if it was grossly under or if our family was excessively large we could be declined. I am crossing my fingers that your info is more accurate than the info I got talking to immigration! Thanks !!
Danielle,
Thankfully this year we slid in just above the financial level - if that level was to matter. So we are okay no matter what. Do you have a blog? You must be adopting? Where from? No fair, you know all about me. *smile*
Blessings, Justine
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