Travel outline

From the info the agency has provided us I've made a travel outline, which is below. ~Rachel

· 9/20 – arrive in Hanoi, Vietnam. A representative from our agency (Ninh, pronounced Ning) will meet us at the airport as long as we arrive by 6:30 pm. We will stay in Hanoi for 1-2 days.

· We will then take an in-country flight to Tam Ky, Vietnam. Ninh will travel with us. When we first arrive we’ll go to the orphanage to meet Quinn, his caretaker(s) and other orphanage staff. We’ll stay in Tam Ky for 1-3 nights. During this time Quinn’s documents are being translated and we wait for his passport to be issued. Once finished we return to Hanoi....including Quinn.

· Once back in Hanoi an appointment will be made to apply for Quinn’s passport at the Immigration Police. It takes 1 week to issue his passport. Based on this timeframe the agency will make the appointment for Quinn’s Embassy medical exam. The exam won’t take place until the passport is issued. (I don’t really understand this as the docs state his passport will be issued in Tam Ky…so maybe there is just another step once we return to Hanoi. Maybe this step is regarding his visa?).

· Ninh will submit all the visa documents to the Embassy 2 days prior to our visa interview.

· We will have an interview with a Consular Officer to make the final determination on the I600 petition and to approve Quinn’s visa. The visa process can take 4 or more days.

· We will receive a 2nd appointment to pick up the visa.

· Once we have Quinn’s visa we can make arrangements to fly home.

Approval to travel!!!

I received a huge surprise this morning when I checked my email at about 10 am...we received our approval to travel!!! I forwarded this to our agency & they advised we are to arrive in VN on/around 9/20/08. We were not expecting to receive the approval quite so soon. The prior info we received said most determinations are made in 60 working days. Today is only working day 28! So, this is much sooner than expected. We have more paperwork to fill out & we have to book flights this weekend. There is a lot to do around the house before Quinn comes home. Good thing it's a 3 day weekend. I'll update again once I have more info.

Rachel

No updates this week

Well, I emailed our agency this morning after waiting for an update & not yet receiving one. I found out that our agency's facilitator in VN has not & will not be going to Quang Nam this week. Even though we really want updated pictures & medical info, this is completely understanding. The current adoption agreement between the US & VN expires on 9/1. So, due to this, the facilitator has not been able to make it to Quang Nam this week as expected. He's been dealing with more pressing matters due to the expiration. I can't imagine what other families are going through as they now realize they will have to start over with another country, and possibly another agency, due to this expiration. The last time this happened between the US & VN it was 3 years before a new agreement was in place. Hopefully there will be a new agreement in place very soon.

Since we received our official referral last month we are "safe". Hopefully we'll receive updated info next week. I'll post once received.

Rachel

Email from agency

I received an email today from the adoption agency stating the agency's facilitator in VN will be going to Quang Nam next week & we should receive updated pictures & medical info. Quinn is in an orphanage located in Quang Nam province. We'll post the updated pictures once we receive them. Hopefully we'll receive the update at the beginning of the week!

~Rachel

Quinn's referral picture

Quinn Michael Makuley - Vietnam adoption timeline

05/28/08 = we were "matched" with a baby boy from Vietnam.
07/04/08 = we received our official referral/offering letter.
07/22/08 = we received an email from CIS (Citizenship & Immigration) acknowledging the receipt of our I-600.

We are now waiting for approval to travel to travel to VN & bring Quinn home. The CIS letter/email stated most determinations are made in 60 working days.