Nothing is as simple as it first seems with the adoption process... We knew a big piece of the process was the homestudy, and we knew we can't file our I800A form (which is the last piece we need for our dossier) until the homestudy is done, so we've been anxious to get it completed. Well now it's completed! Our social worker even emailed us the draft to review. BUT she explained that the next step is that the homestudy needs to go to DCFS (the IL Dept.of Children and Family Services) for approval, and then our placing agency (CCAI) for their approval, and then back to her to attach some additional documents... and then we can send in our I800A (which by the way takes 50-60 days to get approved)... and then she mentioned the last homestudy she sent DCFS to approve was about a month ago and she hasn't heard anything back yet!
Soooo... this is what the rest of the process looks like now:
- Wait for DCFS approval [who knows how long?]
- Wait for CCAI approval, any final revisions, and file the I800A [1-2 weeks assuming no issues?]
- Wait for USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to approve our application for adoption of a child from China [about 2 months]
- Once we get our approved I800A form back, we can then notarize+certify+authenticate the I800A and homestudy, and send our whole dossier packet to CCAI [1-2 weeks]
- CCAI then carefully reviews the whole dossier, translates it, and sends it to China [about 2 weeks]
- The Chinese government agency in charge of international adoptions (CCCWA) reviews and files our dossier, and gives us an official Log-In Date (LID) [2-3 weeks?]
Once we have a LID, we can be considered for children's files that CCAI receives, and we wait for them to call us with a "match". This is the most unpredictable part of the process, since it depends on the conditions we checked off on our Medical Conditions Checklist (MCC), and the kids whose files they get. But they consider families in order of when they filed their MCC, and since we filed ours in July 2014, we expect the wait for a match won't be too long once we finally get to LID status.
Once we get a match and accept the referral, it's typically another 3-6 months until we can travel, then 2 weeks in China, then we come home with our new son or daughter!! (So probably in about 8-12 months from now..)
