When our agency said the process from start to finalized adoption was 10-12 months, that seemed a little off-the-wall-crazy optimistic to us, but we decided just to hustle as fast as we could with our tasks, and as we get closer to our time to travel, it turns out they really knew what they were talking about   are a well oiled-machine  are really excellent and experienced, which has been shown time and again as they’ve walked us through a bajillion steps with incredible efficiency. We thank God for each of the people at our agency and in our daughter’s care team who are preparing the way for this transition whatever His timing is!

So, barring any unusual circumstances, which obviously can happen any time people and technology are involved, the next steps tend to be fairly predictable. There is room for variation, of course, but this is what we received from our agency yesterday:

Your I-800 is on its way to USCIS today! After we receive your I-800 approval, which is currently taking three to four weeks from submission, we wait up to another week for you to receive an email from the National Visa Center (NVC – an agency of the US State Department, which is the central authority for adoptions in the US, like CCCWA is in China). The steps (and approximate timeframes) from there are: Article 5 Approval process (3 weeks) Travel Invitation by CCCWA (3-6 weeks) Travel arrangements (2-3 weeks) All added together, we are looking at going to China by mid-September!