Foreign Affairs - Check!

Our dossier has been received back at CAFAC. Foreign Affairs is all done. Next stop ... Embassy in Ottawa. It's so refreshing to see things move again. I have now created a timeline, as we did in the first adoption.

	Individual Time Frames	Actual Time
Gathering of Documentation
Home study completion	*3 – 7 months	questionable
Collection of Dossier documents	*4 – 7 months	5 weeks, 4 days
Provincial letter of approval	1 – 2 months	unknown
SUB-TOTAL TIME	5 – 9 months	4 months, 1 week, 3 days
Dossier Preparation
Notarization	2 weeks	no additional time
Legalization by Foreign Affairs	3 weeks	2 weeks, 1 day
Authentication by Embassy	3 weeks	1 week, 6 days
SUB-TOTAL TIME	2 months	1 month
TOTAL TIME	7 – 11 months	5 months, 1 week, 3 days
Processing of file in Ethiopia
Translation, legalization, and authentication	4 weeks	unknown
Adoption Committee Approval	4 – 8 weeks	unknown
Child Proposal	1 – 9 months	unknown
SUB-TOTAL TIME	2 – 9 months
TOTAL TIME	9 – 20 months
Post referral finalization
Immigration paperwork	*3 – 7 months	* done simultaneously
Adoption Finalization	*2 – 8 weeks	* done simultaneously
Travel to country	4 – 7 months after child acceptance
SUB-TOTAL TIME	4 – 7 months
FINAL TOTAL TIME	13 – 27 months

November 23, 2007 - signed application papers / sent to Sunrise

December 19, 2007 - first social worker meeting - homestudy begins

January 25, 2008 - final homestudy meeting

March 28, 2008 - provincial approval

April 2, 2008 – file sent to CAFAC

April 17, 2008 – file sent to Foreign Affairs

May 1, 2008 – file returned to CAFAC

May 2, 2008 – file sent to Embassy in Ottawa

May 15, 2008 - file returned to CAFAC

May 20, 2008 – file sent to Ethiopia