Our state representative's office called today. They procured the last two pieces of paperwork that we needed, and they were finally done right. It's a great way to start off the Feast of the Nativity (aka Christmas). Now we're set for court, except for the apostilling which will have to wait until after New Year's.
Thanks to the staff at Representative Sabatini's office, and to everyone for their prayers.
Now, we're waiting on Kazakhstan, but having everything done that we could do is a great relief. We have to buy gifts for the in country staff, and still haven't figured out what to get.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
The Process
We were at our Inquirer's Class at church last night, and the subject of our adoption came up. I realized that a lot of people we know aren't acquainted with the adoption process in general, never mind the specifics of the many different countries from which Americans adopt. So here's a rundown of the process for Kazakhstan, which I used to believe was one of the more difficult countries from which to adopt in terms of regulations and expectations. However, after completing a dossier for Guatemala, seriously considering and researching India, and taking into considerations the recent change in regulations for China adoptions, I've come to the conclusion that Kazakhstan isn't more difficult, just different.
Some of the requirements for a Kazakhstan adoption seemed particularly onerous to me as an American, but when I took into account the differences in politics and cultures of government bureaucracies between the US and former Soviet/non Western/developing countries, it all made sense. The paperwork load for Kazakhstan is noticeably heavier than it is for China, and slightly heavier than Guatemala. In addition to an income statement, homestudy, medical reports, employment letters (all required by China and Guatemala) there's also FBI fingerprint clearance, a notarized statement agreeing to register the child with the embassy in your home country, a notarized statement agreeing to do post placement reports until the child is eighteen, a notarized letter from any and all banking institutions certifying you hold the accounts you claim, notarized copy of your physician's licence, and a notarized letter from your mortgage company assuring that you own your home. The paperwork has to be done in a specific way. The dates on every letter and form much match the notary seal. This can be a huge problem in dealing with state agencies, as can be seen in an earlier post. When everything is done, and done right (and our coordinator is a stickler for detail, something we appreciate), and the US CIS (formerly INS or immigration) approves you to adopt internationally, then this phase-- referred to in China adopt circles as the paper chase is finished, for now.
Now, your huge stack of papers, all properly notarized, goes off to the state capitol, to be apostilled, and then copied twice before they can be sent to Kazakhstan for translation. After translation, they come back here, go to the Kazakh consulate or embassy, get certified, then go off to "the Ministries" in Kazakhstan-- Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Education. The rule goes more or less: if you make it through the consulate/embassy you'll make it through the ministries. But still, the dossier is checked over in Astana, then gets sent to the region from which you'll be adopting. There's it's reviewed again, and you're invited by the regional officials, your invitiation is approved in Astana, and you're ready to go.
Of course, once your paperwork goes to the region, you have another whole set of documents to get together for court. These include: new FBI fingerprints and clearance, new medical reports, AIDs test, another copy of your physician's licence (and your doctor must be an MD, a DO doesn't cut it over there), a psychological evaluation, the evaluator's license/degree, and the dreaded state police criminal clearance. All must be properly notarized and apostilled. In addition, you need spousal power of attorneys in case something happens to your spouse. All of these things must be less than six months old when the judge gets them.
So that's where we are. We're waiting on our Letter of Invitation, and on our state representative's office to get things cleared up with the state police. Once the LOI comes, we apply for visas, make flight arrangements, and go to Kazakhstan.
The stay in Kazakhstan is at least three weeks, closer to four for the first trip. Two weeks of the time is spent visiting the orphanage daily, at least two hours a day, but it can be as much as four. After the visitation, you then go to court, usually within ten days. Of course nothing is certain until the judge grants the adoption petition, which is what the hearing is about. After the hearing, there's a fifteen day waiting period before you can take custody of the child. Some people go home at this point, and return after the fifteen days. We're undecided on what we'll do at this time. After the fifteen days, you sign your child out of the orphanage and travel to Almaty for a medical exam (including HIV test for the child), and to fill out the immigration paperwork for the soon-to-be new American citizen. After about a week, you're free to go home, and citizenship is granted as soon as you take your child through immigration.
So that's the process in a nutshell. It sounds so much easier than it it. We haven't run into many problems, outside of the thing with the state police. In fact, in the space of two months, we were able to gather up all the necessary documents for a dossier for Kazakhstan and Guatemala because the second set of paper work and the stay in country both for length of time and cost, seemed overwhelmed. But after a lot of prayer we decided that Kazakhstan was where we were meant to go.
Of course, four days in Guatemala in February, in a nice hotel with a pool, sounds a lot easier than three to eight weeks in Kazakhstan when temperatures average -18 C. But if there's an easy road to travel, we certainly won't be on it.
Some of the requirements for a Kazakhstan adoption seemed particularly onerous to me as an American, but when I took into account the differences in politics and cultures of government bureaucracies between the US and former Soviet/non Western/developing countries, it all made sense. The paperwork load for Kazakhstan is noticeably heavier than it is for China, and slightly heavier than Guatemala. In addition to an income statement, homestudy, medical reports, employment letters (all required by China and Guatemala) there's also FBI fingerprint clearance, a notarized statement agreeing to register the child with the embassy in your home country, a notarized statement agreeing to do post placement reports until the child is eighteen, a notarized letter from any and all banking institutions certifying you hold the accounts you claim, notarized copy of your physician's licence, and a notarized letter from your mortgage company assuring that you own your home. The paperwork has to be done in a specific way. The dates on every letter and form much match the notary seal. This can be a huge problem in dealing with state agencies, as can be seen in an earlier post. When everything is done, and done right (and our coordinator is a stickler for detail, something we appreciate), and the US CIS (formerly INS or immigration) approves you to adopt internationally, then this phase-- referred to in China adopt circles as the paper chase is finished, for now.
Now, your huge stack of papers, all properly notarized, goes off to the state capitol, to be apostilled, and then copied twice before they can be sent to Kazakhstan for translation. After translation, they come back here, go to the Kazakh consulate or embassy, get certified, then go off to "the Ministries" in Kazakhstan-- Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Education. The rule goes more or less: if you make it through the consulate/embassy you'll make it through the ministries. But still, the dossier is checked over in Astana, then gets sent to the region from which you'll be adopting. There's it's reviewed again, and you're invited by the regional officials, your invitiation is approved in Astana, and you're ready to go.
Of course, once your paperwork goes to the region, you have another whole set of documents to get together for court. These include: new FBI fingerprints and clearance, new medical reports, AIDs test, another copy of your physician's licence (and your doctor must be an MD, a DO doesn't cut it over there), a psychological evaluation, the evaluator's license/degree, and the dreaded state police criminal clearance. All must be properly notarized and apostilled. In addition, you need spousal power of attorneys in case something happens to your spouse. All of these things must be less than six months old when the judge gets them.
So that's where we are. We're waiting on our Letter of Invitation, and on our state representative's office to get things cleared up with the state police. Once the LOI comes, we apply for visas, make flight arrangements, and go to Kazakhstan.
The stay in Kazakhstan is at least three weeks, closer to four for the first trip. Two weeks of the time is spent visiting the orphanage daily, at least two hours a day, but it can be as much as four. After the visitation, you then go to court, usually within ten days. Of course nothing is certain until the judge grants the adoption petition, which is what the hearing is about. After the hearing, there's a fifteen day waiting period before you can take custody of the child. Some people go home at this point, and return after the fifteen days. We're undecided on what we'll do at this time. After the fifteen days, you sign your child out of the orphanage and travel to Almaty for a medical exam (including HIV test for the child), and to fill out the immigration paperwork for the soon-to-be new American citizen. After about a week, you're free to go home, and citizenship is granted as soon as you take your child through immigration.
So that's the process in a nutshell. It sounds so much easier than it it. We haven't run into many problems, outside of the thing with the state police. In fact, in the space of two months, we were able to gather up all the necessary documents for a dossier for Kazakhstan and Guatemala because the second set of paper work and the stay in country both for length of time and cost, seemed overwhelmed. But after a lot of prayer we decided that Kazakhstan was where we were meant to go.
Of course, four days in Guatemala in February, in a nice hotel with a pool, sounds a lot easier than three to eight weeks in Kazakhstan when temperatures average -18 C. But if there's an easy road to travel, we certainly won't be on it.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Lead Time
Still waiting on part two of the criminal clearance (mine). Hopefully that one will be done correctly.
A little more intimidating, yet encouraging, we found out that the lead time people have been getting to travel is approximately five days for this region. While this will be a problem if things aren't ready when the letter of invitation comes, we can't wait to travel.
So we're trying to pick up our study of Cyrillic letters, and some basic (and I mean basic as in "where is the bathroom", "hello", "please", "thank you", "excuse me") Kazakh and Russian. My latest task is trying to find a clear, easy to understand chart of IPA transcriptions. I need to see exactly how a few of the specific Kazakh letters sound in English- like the g with the little thing under it. And then there's that ng sound.
And of course there's the issue of presents. I don't mind buying presents, and I appreciate the fact that Kazakh culture is a gift giving culture. But it's very hard to buy gifts for strangers. Of course everyone has suggestions, but how many day planners, silk scarves, "better" fragrances and make up, "good" pen sets can one person use in a lifetime? And what does "better" mean? Better than L'oreal? Does that mean Lancome? Estee Lauder? And what is a "good" pen set? With limits on what you're supposed to spend (no more than 20 on the more expensive gifts) can you get anything "good" or "better" for that?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
A little more intimidating, yet encouraging, we found out that the lead time people have been getting to travel is approximately five days for this region. While this will be a problem if things aren't ready when the letter of invitation comes, we can't wait to travel.
So we're trying to pick up our study of Cyrillic letters, and some basic (and I mean basic as in "where is the bathroom", "hello", "please", "thank you", "excuse me") Kazakh and Russian. My latest task is trying to find a clear, easy to understand chart of IPA transcriptions. I need to see exactly how a few of the specific Kazakh letters sound in English- like the g with the little thing under it. And then there's that ng sound.
And of course there's the issue of presents. I don't mind buying presents, and I appreciate the fact that Kazakh culture is a gift giving culture. But it's very hard to buy gifts for strangers. Of course everyone has suggestions, but how many day planners, silk scarves, "better" fragrances and make up, "good" pen sets can one person use in a lifetime? And what does "better" mean? Better than L'oreal? Does that mean Lancome? Estee Lauder? And what is a "good" pen set? With limits on what you're supposed to spend (no more than 20 on the more expensive gifts) can you get anything "good" or "better" for that?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Friday, December 08, 2006
Bump in the Road
So we hit a bump in the road with the paperwork for court. It seems we live in a state that goes from engaging in illegality to engaging in incompentency. What we needed was relatively simple: a letter on state police letterhead stating this person has no known criminal record. It had to be signed and notarized. Failing this, the form you send in for the criminal check could have been hand signed and notarized instead. Well, this was our third attempt, and again, it was wrong.
The second attempt at this was the one that may well be criminal. The state police official did indeed sign and date the form. Unfortunately, the signature was notarized several days later on my husband's form, and nearly a week later on mine. Problem: the signature is supposed to be notarized as it's done. Bigger problem: there were two obviously different signatures with the same notary seal, meaning one was a forgery. When we called the office back in July (when this originally happened) we were told it was a take it or leave it. This is what they did. We couldn't come out there and get it done while we waited. We couldn't bring our own notary. They couldn't write a letter.
Well, we tried again, using a template of a letter someone had used with success. Husband's came back today. Not only was there no letter (we wrote out a copy of what we needed), but there was no notary, or even no live signature. Just a stamped signature. We even sent a very clear, explicit letter explaining what had to be done. But nothing close to what we requested was performed.
I contacted both our state senator and state representative about this. The senator was emailed back in October. No reply. The representative was emailed shortly after his reelection. No reply.
This has to be completed shortly, because we can't go to court in country without it.
We never expected to have problems on the US side of the paperwork, but then again, we do live in a state where the governor wants to sell our state turnpike to the highest bidder.
The second attempt at this was the one that may well be criminal. The state police official did indeed sign and date the form. Unfortunately, the signature was notarized several days later on my husband's form, and nearly a week later on mine. Problem: the signature is supposed to be notarized as it's done. Bigger problem: there were two obviously different signatures with the same notary seal, meaning one was a forgery. When we called the office back in July (when this originally happened) we were told it was a take it or leave it. This is what they did. We couldn't come out there and get it done while we waited. We couldn't bring our own notary. They couldn't write a letter.
Well, we tried again, using a template of a letter someone had used with success. Husband's came back today. Not only was there no letter (we wrote out a copy of what we needed), but there was no notary, or even no live signature. Just a stamped signature. We even sent a very clear, explicit letter explaining what had to be done. But nothing close to what we requested was performed.
I contacted both our state senator and state representative about this. The senator was emailed back in October. No reply. The representative was emailed shortly after his reelection. No reply.
This has to be completed shortly, because we can't go to court in country without it.
We never expected to have problems on the US side of the paperwork, but then again, we do live in a state where the governor wants to sell our state turnpike to the highest bidder.
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