Children's Hope International

Texas News and Updates

NEW FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Ethiopia:

Sharon Turner has returned from Ethiopia and will be posting some of her experiences while in Ethiopia to the Ethiopia yahoo group over the coming days.

As there are close to 80 approved families adopting through the Ethiopia program, wait times for referrals are subject to change at anytime during the process. Please keep this in mind.

All 3 pioneer families will be home with their children in the next week to week and a half. The children range in age from 2 ½ months to 2 ½ years. All families received their referrals and traveled within 2 months – 2 families within 1 month. This will not be the case for all, however.

The ministries in Ethiopia worked very hard to get as many families through the adoption process as possible before the courts closed (with all agencies). Many families did not make it however, there were just too many adoption cases to be heard. We are very thankful that our families have all completed.

Just a couple of notes from Ethiopia.

The ages of the children are estimated in Ethiopia. There are no records on when a child is born, therefore a family may arrive in the country and the child not be the age that they originally thought. Our first family thought that their baby was 4 ½ months, but it was determined that he was closer to 5 ½ months. Ethiopia uses a different calendar than we do as well. They are currently in the year 1999 and on Sept 11th, they will be celebrating their Millennium and bringing in the year 2000. So many of the documents will say 1999, however, there is often the English translation of our current year noted as well.

The child’s name MAY be spelled differently on the final adoption papers then you may have seen it previously. Spellings vary depending on what region, tribe, ethnicity, etc, the child is from; so what ends up on the final adoption decree and the passport is what you should go by.

All first time parents are required to take a parent education course prior to referral. These courses can be found at your local hospital or clinic, or your public library. Please submit documentation showing the course that was taken. Generally this course would cover, baby care; i.e., feeding the baby, changing diapers, what does it mean when your baby cries, etc.

Vietnam:

We did not receive any new referrals this week but we did place one waiting child. Nguyen Minh Dao has been on our waiting child page for a very long time (he was up there then taken off then put up again) and he finally has a forever home. Congratulations to the family and to Dao!!!!

3 families are leaving this weekend for their trip to Vietnam. This week we did receive notice for one more family to travel. They will travel in early September for their G&R date. We do hope to receive more travel dates soon so they are not traveling by themselves! This family waited 4 months to travel.

The CHI quarterly newsletter is coming out soon and there is a great article in it about 2 of our Vietnam adoptive families. Please check it out!

If you have any pictures or story ideas for our E-newsletter please forward them to Pam Bischoff at Pam@childrenshopeint.org

China:

Children’s Hope is still researching our possible concurrent adoption proposal. We do not want to put forth any proposal that does not meet each country’s approval. We understand that other agencies are allowing their families to pursue a concurrent adoption, but we need to insure that we can provide our families with accurate information so as not to jeopardize their current adoption with the placing country. We thank you for your patience.

We received travel approval for the AZ - waiting child family on 8/20/07. The family will be traveling to China from 9/13 through 9/27. On 8/20/07 we also received the IL - and TN - waiting children families seeking confirmation letters. Congratulations to these waiting children families!

We will be returning 7 waiting child files that we have not placed to the CCAA on 8/31/07 and requesting a new group of waiting children. We have 1 waiting child being reviewed and 14 have been placed.

On 8/23/07, we received travel approvals for the 8/2/07 referral group and the IL- waiting child family. The Hunan group and the IL- family will travel from 9/13 through 9/28. The Anhui group will travel from 9/13 through 9/27. The Guangdong group will depart on 9/9 if they are going to Beijing or depart on 9/11 if they are going straight to Guangdong and leave China on 9/27. We are very fortunate that these families will be home before the Harvest Moon Festival holidays and the Guangzhou Trade Fair! Congratulations to these families who are now busy packing!

NUMBER OF DOSSIERS SUBMITTED – As of 8/24/07

Jan – 40 ● Feb – 38 ● Mar – 115 ● Apr – 19 ● May – 29 ● Jun – 25

Jul – 14 ● Aug – 19 ● Sep – ● Oct – ● Nov – ● Dec –

LOG IN DATES
DTC	Date to CCAA	LID	No. of Dossiers
07/13	07/25	07/27	3
07/20	08/03	08/06	4
No new log in dates to report this week.

DEPARTMENT I AND DEPARTMENT II - Department 1 is now reviewing July 2006 dossiers. We received 2 requests for additional information from the CCAA for two 7/14/06 log in date families on 8/22/07. We were able to provide the CCAA with the requested information within 24 hours and both dossiers are now OK. The CCAA began reviewing July 2006 dossiers on 7/27/07.

Department II (the matching room) currently has November 22, 2005 through June 30, 2006 dossiers. When our Beijing staff visited the CCAA throughout the week, the CCAA Department 2 was actively matching dossiers to children’s paperwork!

REFERRALS - The next group of referrals will begin with the 11/22/05 log in date.

WAIT TIME FROM LID TO REFERRAL - The current waiting time from log in date until referral is 21-22 months. We fully expect the wait time from log in date to referral to be at 24 months by the end of 2007 and grow in 2008, but unfortunately we do not know who long it will grow.

New Adoption Education

In preparing for Children's Hope's application for Hague accreditation, we have been researching adoption educational resources that will meet the Hague regulations. The Hague regulations require 10 hours of pre adoption training for all our families that can be consistently presented and verified through testing for a list of specific Hague adoption topics. Effective January 1, 2007, Children's Hope will be implementing our new Hague compliant pre adoption education program for all approved applications after January 1, 2007. We are so excited about our new educational program that we wanted to offer it to our existing families that may also be interested. This is strictly voluntary for any applicant approved prior to January 1, 2007.

Children's Hope is pleased to offer this Adoption Parent Education opportunity to all our existing families - "Heart of the Matter Seminars - Because They Waited" DVD set (10 hours of Hague Compliant Adoption Training) and on line testing instructions, as well as the EMK press book entitled Adoption Parenting Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections. The first week of the month, following the month in which you finish taking all the online tests, Heart of the Matter will provide CHI your testing results. This offer is strictly voluntary for any family that submitted an application prior to January 2007. We think that this set will provide you with informative pre and post adoption education that you can view and reference before and after your adoption journey. The cost of this set for CHI families is $100, which includes shipping and handling. The set will be mailed book rate, so please allow 2 to 3 weeks mailing time.

To order the DVD/book set, you may visit the Children's Hope web site at http://www.childrenshope.net The link for the DVD/book set can be found on the home page by scrolling down and looking in the middle of the web page for "For more information about purchasing Approved Adoptive Parent Education you may go directly to the form at http://www.childrenshopeint.org/Parent%20Education.pdf

For more information about Heart of the Matter Seminars, please visit http://www.heartofthematterseminars.com/

For more information about EMK Press, please visit http://www.emkpress.com/

EXCITING NEWS for Children's Hope International

As one of the world's leading advocates for quality services for children and families, the Council on Accreditation reaffirms Children's Hope's standards of excellence by once again honoring CHI with COL accreditation through 2010. The detailed re-accreditation process investigates, ethical practices, finances, service to families along with every aspect of organizational integrity. " Children's Hope wants to assure our families that we follow 'best practice standards' and this independent investigation validates that," said Dianna Briner, Children's Hope Finance and Compliance Director.

COA is currently in negotiations with the U.S. State Department to become the only official accrediting agency for all international adoption agencies under the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption. The Hague is a multilateral treaty that provides a framework of safeguards for protecting children and families involved in inter-country adoption.

In the final report, COA noted that Children's Hope best trait is our passion.

Our staff knows why we are here and display a passion to carry out our mission.

CHI supported children will benefit from Combined Federal Campaign

Children's Hope International Foundation has been found eligible for inclusion in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) National List, the largest employee giving campaign in the world! Nearly four million federal employees and military personnel are able to contribute to the charities of their choice during the annual charity drive, which runs from annually September 1 through December 15. Children's Hope International will appear in the listing of "National/International Organizations" which is published in each local campaign brochure.

The CFC identification number donors can use to designate their contributions to CHI is 1138

The first is for all papers that are notarized by a notary public:

* * * UPDATE * * *

Here is a link that gives the current processing dates for all the CIS centers. https://egov.immigration.gov/cris/jsps/ptimes.jsp

Dallas has joined with the OK CIS office to process your I600A

Effective Friday, December 22, 2006 the Oklahoma City Office will be processing all Dallas/Oklahoma orphan petitions. All Dallas area residents will continue to mail their petitions with the required fees to the Dallas Office, but processing will be completed by the Oklahoma City Office. Please send all general or status inquiries to the Oklahoma City Office at the email listed below effective December 22, 2006 as all cases will be forwarded to their location.

If all required documents (birth certificate, marriage certificate, proof of termination of prior marriages) have not been submitted with your application, the Oklahoma City Office will notify you by mail to submit these documents. If you have submitted original documents, they will not be returned upon completion of your application, unless you have provided copies.

If you have had your fingerprints taken, you will not be notified of their clearance. In the rare instance that the fingerprints were not readable, you will be notified and asked to have them retaken. If you have not had your fingerprints taken, you will receive notice to have them taken after your home study is received. When you receive the fingerprint notice, it will instruct you to go to the Application Support Center nearest to your home. You must have your fingerprint notice and identification at the time of fingerprinting.

If mailed separately, your home study should be forwarded to the Oklahoma City Office at:

USCIS
Attn: Orphan Officer
4400 SW 44th Street, Suite A
Oklahoma City, OK 73119.

If the Oklahoma City Office does not receive a home study from you, your agency or your home study provider, your case is considered pending. The Oklahoma City Office must receive a home study within one year of filing or your application will be terminated.

Once all requested documentation is submitted, the average processing time for the completion of your application is sixty (60) days. Upon completion of processing, if your case has been approved, you will receive Form I-171H (Notice of Favorable Determination). If you are traveling to a foreign country to file your I-600, the Oklahoma City Office will notify the overseas Embassy/Consulate or USCIS to inform them of your approval. If you are not traveling or if you will be filing your I-600 locally, your application (I-600A) will remain with USCIS awaiting receipt of the I-600.

The Oklahoma City Office has established the following email address to provide assistance to prospective adoptive parents: okcadoptions@dhs.gov In order to keep processing times to a minimum and better serve you, we ask that you wait 60 days from the submission of all required documents before submitting a general or status inquiry. This time is needed in order to complete all preliminary background checks, review and process all required documentation, adjudicate the application and notify the appropriate embassy/consulate.

The international adoptions program is a high priority and your questions and comments are important to us. However, numerous inquiries significantly increase our processing time. Please help us serve you by keeping inquiries to a minimum.

For general information concerning Inter-Country adoptions, please visit our website at www.uscis.gov. For country specific information, please visit the Department of State’s website at www.travel.state.gov.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT ALL DOSSIERS

We will look over your documents before submission to Secretary of State and the Embassy so if anything is not correct, we can correct it before you spend $$$ and have to redo the documents.

They can be faxed or sent via mail, to me here in Texas. We will call you to talk about things once a review has been done. It will save time and $$$$ in the long run!

Once they are complete, (Apostilled and Authenticated) please send originals back to THE TEXAS office for final review, then they will be sent to St. Louis before they go to country.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT DOSSIERS FROM ANY COUNTRY

ONCE YOUR DOCUMENTS HAVE BEEN AUTHENTICATED

DO NOT TAKE THEM APART TO MAKE COPIES!!!!

GREAT RESOURCE: Get involved before you child comes home....

FCC is a national nondenominational organization of families, with regional chapters, who have adopted children from China. FCC provides a network of support for families who have adopted children from China and provides information to prospective parents. FCCNW has over 300 member families throughout the Puget Sound that participate in social activities throughout the year and continuously welcomes new members.
http://www.fccnt.org/index.html

WHO DOES WHAT... and were are WE?

DEPARTMENT I AND DEPARTMENT II

Department I at the CCAA reviews all dossiers for accuracy and that the dossier meets all CCAA requirements.

Department II at the CCAA match each family's dossiers to an infants/children.

l Adoption Agencies: Greetings from the Adoption Unit, American Consulate in Guangzhou! The ACIVU respectfully requests all adoptions agencies to pass the following reminders to adoptive parents and adoption facilitators:

1. Reminder on Form I-600 and I-864 - IR4 cases only:
I-600: Please remember that the traveling parent is the petitioner and the non-traveling parent is the spouse, and sign the forms accordingly.

I-864: Please make sure that the traveling parent signs as the sponsor and the non-traveling parent signs as the household member.

2. Vaccination Affidavits:
We have noticed an increasing number of parents forgetting to bring a notarized vaccination affidavit to China. Please remind parents to fill out this form before they leave home, so they can avoid the extra trip to the Consulate. The affidavit and other required forms can be found on our web site:
http://guangzhou.usconsulate.gov/forms_and_sheets.html

3. Absence at the oath-taking ceremony - IR3 cases only:
We understand that sometimes one adoptive parent may not be able to attend the oath-taking ceremony due to a medical emergency or a special situation. In this case, we ask that the agency or family send us a request in advance, so that we can plan accordingly.

Houston Consulate IMPORTANT Information!

Houston Chinese Consulate made an announcement on October 12th, 2006
that starting with January 1st, 2007, personal checks will not be accepted.

They only accept cash or money order.

The Houston Consulate is strictly enforcing a six month aging policy on police clearances and medical/health evaluations. Any police clearance or medial document that is older than six months (calculated at 180 day from the date that the original document was signed) WILL be returned without authentication. They also will return marriage certificates that are more than 6 months old without authentication.

CCAA Links

http://www.china-ccaa.org/

http://www.mychinadocs.com/Links/couriers.htm

or http://www.asststork.com/pages/consulate.html

Location of all Chinese Consulates in the U.S. and the Washington, D.C. embassy - along with names of couriers who can assist you with your paperwork there , if you like.

TRAVEL NEWS

For families with only one parent traveling the US Consulate has changed the additional paperwork requirement as follows:

A notarized copy of the tax return, no need for certification.

The families no longer need an employment letter and three federal tax returns. They only require the most recently filed tax return.

Latest Update 5-3-07

RE-Entry Permits: Adoptive parents adopting from Russia, but do not have U.S. citizenship, need to get a re-entry permit prior to submitting their dossier...

Passports - Passports need to be valid for 6 months from the time of travel. You will not be able to get a visa to travel on a passport that is valid for less than 6 months! When you get a new passport, it will have a new number. You will then need for the home study agency to write a letter verifying the new passport number versus the old passport number and attach a copy of the new and old passport.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

US Immigrations (CIS)

If you will not complete your travel before 15 months pass, you must re-do your fingerprints before you leave to complete your adoption. Please keep a close watch on your dates!

FBI fingerprint checks are valid for fifteen (15) months.

An approved Form I-600A is valid for eighteen (18) months. During those eighteen months, a Form I-600 must be filed.

A Form I-600 may not be approved without current FBI fingerprint records for the prospective adoptive parent's and all adult members (any one 18 and over) of the prospective adoptive parents’ household. It may be necessary to provide fingerprints more than once in order to comply with Immigration regulations.

More information is available on Fingerprinting Procedures in Adoption Applications

Prospective adoptive parents filing Orphan Petitions and Advance Processing Applications on or after March 29, 1998, must comply with the following instructions:

Submit $70 for each prospective adoptive parent and for each adult member (18 years of age or older) of the household in addition to the orphan petition or advance processing application filing fee. For example, married prospective adoptive parents with two additional adult members of the household must submit $280 ($70 × 4) along with the $545 filing fee for total fees of $825. The total fees may be submitted in one check. This $70 fee covers the cost for each person to be fingerprinted by USCIS. Do not submit completed fingerprint cards with the Orphan Petition or Advance Processing Application.

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