Fingerprints Approved! Woo hoo!

We received a reply today from our contact at CIS regarding our Fingerprints Status. She approved our case today and we'll get the approval in the mail.

I suspect we will receive it on Saturday because when we got the fingerprint appointment email, it was 2 days later that we received the official notification in the mail.

If we receive it on Saturday, I'll get it copied and notarized on Monday and go to Lincoln on Tuesday.

Yippee!

CHI & Hague Update

We heard today from CHI in 2 emails. The first one was a fairly detailed explanation of why they were denied and what they know NOW about the action they are going to take to resolve it. I'll spare you the details because they would just confuse you anyway, but ... long story short: it has to do with a very minor detail that doesn't even apply to them as an international agency.

The 2nd email was from our program director and she gave various paths to take based on where we are in the process. We are still waiting for the fingerprints to come back and the I-171H form to be issued so our dossier is not yet in China. This gives us 2 options: 1) find another Hague Accredited agency to work with or 2) remain with Children's Hope--they are working on a plan to work with/through Holt International to get dossiers submitted. They don't have the details worked out yet but hope to by the end of this week.

How does this affect us? It doesn't -- YET. Again, because our dossier is not ready to be sent to China yet we are so far not affected.

Obviously, the ABSOLUTE BEST thing that could happen is that they get another review soon (rather than having to wait a year to re-apply but that is up to the review board) and they get approved and then our dossier is ready to send and all is good. Plan B for us is option 2 above. Once they have details worked out with Holt, that will PROBABLY be our best option and path of least resistance. It sounds like we would still contact CHI as we have been doing but they would be working with Holt on other things like getting dossiers submitted, etc.

So, that's the latest. Our contact at CIS has been out the last week but will be back in the office tomorrow so maybe I'll get an answer soon to my email about fingerprints status.

Stay tuned......

CHI & Hague Accreditation

We received an email from CHI today letting us (and all CHI families) know that they were reviewed on July 9 and received word on July 17 that their accreditation was denied due to a problem in one state where they are licensed. Groan.....

They will let us know how it affects us in a later email from our program.

Still waiting on word of the fingerprints.....

China Program Update - 7/11/08

Today we received an email from CHI saying they recently received 3 referrals: 2 girls and 1 boy ages 11 months, 14 months and 20 months. They also received 13 seeking confirmations for waiting children. So far this year, CHI has placed 82 children from China: 30 healthy and 52 waiting children.

They also said that the wait time is currently 30 months, 18 months for Chinese expedited.

Wow!

CCAA, CHI and Hague

Ah, today was an interesting day for emails. This morning we received an email from CHI that they were notified yesterday that as of July 15, 2008, the CCAA would no longer accept dossiers from non-Hague accredited agencies. At this moment, CHI is not yet Hague accredited. Families whose dossiers are in China are not affected. They were advised in June that their review for accreditation would in July or August. What is means to us right now is basically nothing. Our dossier is not ready to be submitted yet. But, if our dossier were to get ready to be submitted and they were not yet accredited, we would have to wait. CHI would continue to accept dossiers and review and send them to their office in Beijing so that they would be ready when they do become accredited.

Then, this afternoon we received another email from CHI that they have now been scheduled for their review for Hague Accreditation on July 9, 2008. They think it will be at least a couple days after that before they hear the outcome of the review.

So, maybe we won't have to worry about that part of it at all!

FINGERPRINTS!

Well, today we FINALLY had our fingerprints taken by CIS. It went very smoothly and everyone at CIS was very nice. They take the fingerprints electronically so it was fun to watch the screen while they took the prints.

I asked if they knew how long it would be till we get our approval form (I-171H form). They didn't know but said I could email our contact. So, to get an idea I asked about emailing in about 3 weeks. They said, "No, with the holiday, I could email in about 5 business DAYS." Oh! OK! I like days rather than weeks! So I suppose I will wait about a week and a half before I email to find out how things are coming.

The I-171H form is the LAST form we need before I can have control over when things happen again.