- You work with an international adoption agency who will guide you through collecting lots of documents from various "authorities" (Doctors, Sheriff's office, employer...) as well as some documents we had to work on ourselves. I always envisioned this process to be much more daunting than it turned out to be, honestly!
- You find a Social worker how will conduct a so called homestudy: She will have several meetings with your family to determine whether she can recommend you or not to become an adoptive parent.
- You apply with USCIS, which is part of the Dept of homeland security, to get permission to bring a foreign-born child into the US.
Once you have all these needed documents (called the "paperchase"), you have to have them notarized, certified by the State they originated from, certified by the Department of State in D.C., and finally authenticated by the Chinese embassy.
Once your dossier is complete, your agency will review it, translate it and send it to China. This is the magic DTC date (Dossier to China). Once the CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) has received your dossier, they will log you into their system. You will be notified about this even more important LID (Log in Date).
This process is the same for all adoptive parents.
What is different is the program you choose to be in. In the Non-special-needs program (healthy infants and young toddlers with no known medical conditions) the CCAA will send you a referral of a child based on your LID. The approximate wait in this program is 24 - 36 months. In the Waiting Child program the agencies receive profiles of infants, toddlers and older children who have a special medical need, like a clubfoot, cleft lip or palate, birthmarks, Hepatitis, missing/extra fingers or toes, spina bifida, scars etc. They agency will refer you a child who matches your "request" (general age range, gender and special need you are open to). Once you accept your referral, you send a LOI (Letter of intent) to the CCAA, asking for permission to adopt that particular child. Once approved, you submit your dossier (if not done so already), and then the CCAA will invite you to travel to China and adopt your child a few months later. The process from match to travel is anywhere from 7 - 9 months.
In both programs you travel to China for 14 - 16 days to complete the adoption process and apply for a visa for your child, so he or she will become a US citizen upon your return to the US.
Deutsch:www.chinagirlswitzerland.blogspot.com/2007/02/china-adoption.html
